Bohemians over the winter break
DareiosIIINew players, Tipsport Winter League and winter camp in Turkey
The preparation period started on 3rd of January. First practices and joggings have shown there is more than a hope for staying in a first league. Condition tests proved that footballers are in a good shape.
The sports department, especially the sports director, had a busy winter break with a hard task to do. He had to find players for transfer who could help us with the current situation. And his effort paid out. Ivan Lietava, a tall striker, was the first to join a team. Pavol Orolin was called back from a loan to help out the team as well.
The first real test came on 11th of January when Bohemians faced their first opponent of the year 2014. It was Loko Vltavin, team from a second division. The Kangaroos won 3:0 after 2 goals by well-playing Daniel Krch and also one goal by the new acquisition Ivan Lietava.
Radek Šírl got injured during an autumn part of the season and his recovery will take a long time. This raised another task for the sports director. He had to find a good replacement for the position of defender. And he has done so as well. Lukáš Pauschek was the next to join the team.
A great part of the winter break consists of Tipsport Winter League matches. Bohemians had to face three opponents in the group stages. Those teams were Slovan Liberec, Dynamo Ceske Budejovice and also Football Club Pardubice.
The match against Liberec gave a chance to try Pauschek game-wise and also gave a chance to a youth player Artemuk to participate in a First team match. And Artemuk had a great impact for the final result. The match ended 2:2. Hora scored the first goal, which was also his first goal in green-white shirt, and second goal was scored by Lietava after a pass from above-mentioned Artemuk.
Next, according to the winter break schedule, was a match against Ceske Budejovice (Czech Budweiss). Lietava scored 10 second after a kick off and Bohemians got another important point with an equalizer by Klavik in 90th minute. The final score was 2:2. Lietava proved to be the player Bohemians were so desperately looking for. 3 goals in 3 matches, the average to be maintained!
Bohemians will face their third opponent this Wednesday and they will advance into the final stages of the tournament only with a win. The final four will take place in Beroun during Friday and Saturday this week.
The latest news came all the way from Lithuania. Bohemians, together with their fans, decided to contact other green and white teams, including Celtic Glasgow. And the best and most valuable reply came from Žalgiris Vilnius. They have gone through similar financial problems as Bohemians but a great investment helped them and they achieved everything they possibly could since then. They have offered a helping hand for Bohemians and sent two players, Mantas Kuklys and Egidijus Vaitkunas, straight away for tests to Prague.
Bohemians will fly away for a winter camp in Belek, Turkey. They will participate in three friendly matches with teams across the Europe. First match will take place in Belek on 4th of February and will be against a first division Romanian team CS Gaz Metan Medias. The second match will be on 7th of February against a Russian team Kuban Krasnodar. The third match is still to be announced (written on 21st January). 10-day-long winter camp should prepare the footballers for the upcoming spring part of the Gambrinus Liga and to check whether this camp was useful, the last run-up match will be played in Nymburk against Viktoria Zizkov.