By Stan Chetin
On the 25th of August we will be playing our first official game. Our ladies will start season with the game in the Czech Cup against TJ Hradiště at 1:30 pm at home.
The history of this club traces back to the 1958. They have experienced lots of up and downs
during their history. At one point they reached the regional level and played there for couple of years. Their lady’s team is currently playing in the Division D so it should be a fair contest.
Another important game for our club will happen the next day. Our boys will start their battle for the Czech League with the first game, away, against the TJ Sokol Lysolaje. Kick is 5PM.
This club was founded in 1936. The name of the club changed several times - Red Star, AFK and today TJ Sokol. The biggest success of the club was participation in the 1st division of Prague. The last ten years have played either 2nd or 3rd division. The club does not have it's own pitch, which has come to restitution and plays its game on the ČZU course.
Here is what our coaches have to say before the official start of the season:
Head Ladies Coach, Luis Pereira:
"Our Preseason was a big challenge due to injured players, and players on holidays so most of our preseason we were dealing with these step backs.
Happily we have an amazing Team Captain (Anna Osterthun) who is helping us a lot, her well known German organization and, more important, her Leadership skills allowed me and Coach Simone to focus on all the improvements, that we need to do inside the pitch, without her it would be impossible.
But I think all these bumps on the road made us stronger and better in so many aspects, I am pleased and proud to say that we now have a Football Team and a Family.
We still have a long way to go and for sure we will always have step backs during this journey, but we are excited and happy that we can get on the pitch and show everyone, how much we improved and how much we love the beautiful game."
Head Men's Coach, Jon Davies:
"So, finally the season is upon us!
Preseason has seemed to drag on for so long that many of us never thought that this day would come. Nerves are to be expected but for this momentous occasion, I am very excited.
We are all raring to go after working incredibly hard to get everyone on the same page in terms of their tactical understanding and our expectations as a coaching team.
Monday's draw with Cechie Smichov showed the progress that we have made as a team and as individuals over the past few months. The hours and hours of practice and hard work appears to be finally paying off as we put in our best performance so far.
We were unlucky not to win after dominating for the majority of the game but our general
performance was pleasing. The most pleasing aspect was the attitude and determination showed by the players. We were united and we were supportive of each other. The atmosphere amongst the team has never been so healthy and I am proud of that!
Only lapses in concentration for their three goals and poor finishing from our players prevented a deserved victory but we know now that we are capable of earning positive results in this league.
We also know our weaknesses and hopefully we can be mindful of them in order to be successful on Sunday. It would be great for us to get off to a winning start and I am confident that we will do just that. I can't wait to show everyone what we can do!
Up the Raptors!"
In the end, from all our management team we want to thank all players, who participated in our preseason and also our incredible fans, who attended games! We really appreciate your dedication.
Follow live updates of both matches on our Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/PragueRaptors
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