By Stan Chetin
Today we will have another friendly game. This time we are playing against FK 1999 Praha. They will start next season in the “I.A třída skupina B – Praha”. We expect some tough competition, but we have a home pitch, and we will welcome every fan who wants to support us today!
Here is a brief history of FK 1999 Praha. The Club itself was established in 1999 by two brothers Michal and Martin. It all started as a student football team and nowadays students from various universities around Prague compose the core of this club. The first trainings were more about drinking beer and watching Sparta Prague playing...but then it all began to change, as stronger players were joining the team.
They got a new head coach, who started to build new culture, which helped them to advance in higher divisions. Their greatest success happened in season 2010/2011, when they finally moved to their current division.
Head Coach Jon Davies had this to say in our pre-match press conference:
“This might just be a friendly match on paper but at this stage of pre-season it takes on much more significance for us as a club.
Our performance on Sunday, in a 3-1 friendly defeat to Predni Kopanina, was well below what we are capable of and well below the standards that we have set for ourselves on the pitch.
The important thing is that we are all aware of that and determined to put it right. Time is running out before the season starts on 26th August and with every friendly match that passes, we must improve to ensure that we do ourselves justice when our league campaign begins.
The players now understand that anything less than 100% commitment and complete concentration won’t be enough to win games of football at this level. It’s great that they realise this now and not when the season begins!
Encouragingly, we dominated the ball for large periods on Sunday but our movement off the ball and decision-making must improve in order to make our possession count in attacking areas.
Lessons were learned and hopefully we can get back to playing the football that we are capable of. The boys are itching to put things right! Up the Raptors!”
Let’s make our coach proud of us guys! Leave all you have in the tank on the pitch, we really believe in you!
Keep an eye on our Twitter feed for updates before, during and after the match tonight. https://twitter.com/PragueRaptors