You're listening to the Footglish Podcast.
Love football, learn English.
How did Slavia Prague play in the Champions League third-round qualifier against Royal Union?
Will Slavia Prague fans accept Tomáš Chorý now that he scored two fantastic goals?
What is the personality of the Slavia Prague manager Jindřich Tropyšovský?
And what does the word chemistry mean in the context of football?
Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Footglish Podcast.
My name is Zdenek Lukas and this podcast is for everyone who is learning English
and wants to do it in a fun way through football.
And today I'm talking to Tomáš Dynybyl again. Welcome back Tomáš.
Hi, good afternoon to everybody and to all your listeners.
Hi, it's great to have you back. Just to remind everyone, the first time I spoke to you on this podcast
was after the Georgia-Czech Republic game. Do you still remember that, Tomáš?
Kind of. It's a little bit in the mist nowadays, but yeah.
I think we had a couple of beers, so maybe that's also the reason why I didn't remember it very clearly.
But the discussion was good and it was a nice afternoon and a good evening.
Yeah, maybe it wasn't the most memorable match from the Czech viewpoint as well.
We didn't exactly win it and you know what happened with Turkey after that.
So not the most memorable tournament, but it is what it is.
Yeah, but I mean the discussion we had was good. It was very emotional just after the match.
And insightful, of course. Very insightful. That's true.
I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Tomáš. I know you are a football expert.
But today we have a different topic and the topic is Slavia Prague.
Wow!
Because of course you are my classmate from high school and to be honest, you always supported this club.
I could never change your mind on that. I never really wanted to do that anyway.
But you were a staunch supporter of this team. So why Slavia Prague?
Simply, I don't know. I do not have any clear reasonable answer for you on this topic.
But as you just said, I've been a Slavia Prague fan since I remember maybe 35 years
when I started to follow football matches and football in general.
So it's a very, very long time and it doesn't have any rational behind.
I mean there are more significant clubs in Prague. Slavia Prague is not the only one.
You have Sparta, you have Dukla, you have Bohemian, you have Victoria Zizkov.
So quite a lot of them and I don't know why I picked this one.
I've never attended any football match with my father because sometimes this is the situation
that you kind of take over feelings for the club from your parents.
This was not my case. I also don't have any specific football player
which made me to love or to have these supportive feelings for Slavia.
Of course, I liked Vladimir Schmitzer, Patrik Berger, Karol Poborsky who all played for Slavia.
But at the same time, I liked Tomáš Rosický, Peter Cech, Pavel Nedvěd
and they played for the biggest rival for Sparta Prague.
So also this is not the reason. I don't know why. I cannot simply tell you the reason.
It's just emotions that attracted me to this club.
It's in your heart. But I can see you are a reasonable fan because you also mentioned some legends of Sparta Prague.
So I think first of all, you are a football fan and that's the kind of person we want here.
So you're not one of those mad hooligans that go to matches that have nothing in their brain,
just blindly supporting their team without looking at anything else.
So I'm glad that you have some level of objectivity in you as well. That's nice.
So of course, the first thing we can talk about is your game yesterday
because you played in the third round qualifier, the Champions League qualifier
and you managed to beat the team from Belgium called Union. It's not the Union Berlin.
No, it's a... what's the full name? I had it written somewhere. I cannot find it.
Sounds very French. Sounds very French.
Royal Union is the name of this club. It's not a traditional club from Belgium.
Actually, they are kind of new. But for the past three years, they have been doing extremely well in the Belgian League.
They either won it or once I think they lost just on the goal difference, the league.
So they are the best Belgian club as we speak at the moment.
So you won the game against this team. It was a home game. Did you see the game or were you at the stadium so much?
Unfortunately, I was not present to the stadium and I didn't watch the game either.
But I watched highlights and I was super surprised because after the first three matches in the season,
I was very skeptical, very skeptical because Slavia didn't play very well.
I haven't seen any strong individuals that would push the team forward.
I haven't seen anyone like that. They didn't score too many goals except one game against Jessica Budjovice.
And they were not really dominant. So I kind of lacked chemistry in the team and motivation also.
Before the match, I also texted you this opinion. So I shared it with you and I said that I would love to see Slavia going forward
and beating this Belgian club, this union. But I was skeptical.
So they made me really happy that they won and especially the way they won.
Can I ask you a quick question before you tell us more about this? When you watched the highlights,
did you already know the score? Is it one of those that you don't see the score beforehand? Did you see it in the title?
I knew it before because I read the results and then I watched the highlights.
Fair enough. Not a big surprise. The final score. But actually the game was surprising and how we scored was even more surprising.
Because there's one more thing I have to admit and I have to apologize to one of the Slavia Prague players, to Kori.
I was really underestimating him. So this is a big story. He is your new signing at Slavia Prague.
He came from Plzeň, another big club in the Czech Republic, a rival club.
And the fans didn't exactly want him at your team because in the past he supported Sparta Prague.
There was also a video of him, somebody found a video of him celebrating and saying some very bad things about Slavia Prague.
So honestly, almost every single Slavia Prague fan was very uncertain about this player, including you, it looks like.
I was not that much involved in those behind the scene rumors, but I was mainly focused on the way how he plays.
And I simply didn't see the logic. I didn't see why he should become the member of the team because he's very similar.
In the past, we bought a player called, his name was Kremensik, also from Pilsen.
And he is a very, very similar topology player. So he's this brainless kind of geek.
That's almost unfair on Kori. Kori, I think he's smarter than that.
Apparently in private life, he's a nice guy. But what we have to say is that his height.
So I know, for example, you, you are very tall as well. You were always the tallest guy in our class.
And the only taller guy than you, I know, is my cousin. But I think you.
How tall are you, Tomas? I have one meter and 92 centimeters.
Right now it explains why you won that badminton match we played last Saturday. Was it was it Friday?
I can't remember anymore. Yeah. Tomas, unfortunately, guys, I know it's irrelevant for this podcast, but I should say it at this point.
Tomas beat me in a game of badminton. So I think it's the height because every centimeter counts in this sport.
I think so. I would agree. Yeah. The same for Kori, for someone like Kori.
Basically, the goals he scored were both headers. So and he's very strong, you know, well built.
And Tomas here was skeptical about his ability. But did he win you over, Tomas?
Yeah, he was. I think he scored very, very difficult header goals. It was not easy at all.
The first one, the pass from Lukas Provod was an excellent pass. I have to say it was an excellent pass to the to the perfect area.
And Kori, he was just very strong, as you said, he was stronger than the defender.
He just jumped in front of him, ahead of him. And he scored a very important goal.
It was a nice finish as well. It was a powerful header, well placed as well, no chance for the keeper whatsoever.
And it was a brilliant goal, honestly. And that moment, actually, I thought the first 10 minutes, Union were the better team.
It seemed like Slavia were playing it safe and not exactly, you know, you know, sometimes when you are playing in front of the home crowd,
what happens is that you just sort of go for it. Yeah. But it didn't seem like that in this game.
And until that first goal that this player that we are talking about scored, you were not the better team.
But since then or from that moment, everything changed, in my opinion.
Absolutely. You're right. And also, we should mention that usually Slavia product used to have problems at the very beginning of the season.
So maybe maybe the timing of the training or something like that. But the first matches were very difficult.
And that's the reason why Slavia was usually not very, very, very successful at the beginning, especially those European matches.
But this one, I think the first goal was extremely important because of that. It gave them more confidence.
Exactly. And another goal followed soon after that from Corner. I think it was right before the halftime break,
which is always, always a big moment because it's often what we call a sucker punch.
It's like it's not a good moment for the opposite team when they concede a goal like that, because obviously that lowers your confidence.
You are preparing to take a little break and then this happens. So that was that was another big, big goal, I thought.
And again, it was Tomas Chori. And so he scored a brace in this game, two goals, two well-worked goals.
And again, he was strong in the air at this time, maybe even more difficult moment.
I think he was like he was kind of sandwiched between two defenders, I thought, almost. And it was this one was from from a corner kick.
Yeah, it was definitely more difficult than the first one. And it was.
Yeah, for me, I was really surprised because I thought that he will be struggling at Slavia,
that Slavia is not playing that kind of football that he would fit. But he showed me that I was wrong.
I have to admit it. I have to apologize to him and to all of the supporters who were saying that he is a good is a good income
and that he will he will help Slavia in Europe. So here I am. I was wrong.
It only took him two. It was his second game in starting eleven.
Right. So it didn't take him very long to get on the score sheet. And he did it in a really important game as well.
He always says he always hears these cliches from these. I don't know, better food, we could say better,
like from these stars of Czech League, you always hear these cliches. Yeah, I will.
I will show it in those big games. Right. But it doesn't always happen like that. But he did it.
And now the Slavia Prague supporters from the what do you call it?
Well, in Czech we say Tribuna Sever, but in English, I guess it would be the North Stand or something like that.
From the North Stand, the biggest fans with the fans that always cheer the most, right.
The most vocal fans, they stopped singing that famous cheer Skurvená plzeň, which is translated as something like fucking plzeň.
Right. So suddenly, suddenly they started clapping hands and cheering for him.
And he's now the hero, the Slavia Prague hero.
Do you think it was this simple or is there still something more he has to do to convince the fans?
Not that he has already convinced you, but he didn't convince me fully.
There's still some room for a swing.
It will take time. And I still think that he doesn't fit very well to the football, to the football which Slavia wants to play.
So I don't see he's the right 11. But I personally don't like his personality at all.
But wow, I think Tomas is a conflicted Slavia Prague fan from what I can hear.
I thought you came here with an apology and all that. And suddenly you're turning around again.
Wow. OK. I have to apologize because he actually, he's the reason why we have this important win.
We now, we are in a very good position. That's right.
And we have a lot of hope for entering the Champions League.
And that's mainly because of him, because he really scored difficult goals and the positions were not easy at all.
But I think we shouldn't also forget about Oskar because he's one of my favorite players.
He's a very, very good player. He's from Liberia.
And I think he has become somewhat a Slavia Prague legend now, I think, because was he part of that hat-trick, that Slavia hat-trick when he won the titles?
I think he was at least, how many titles did he win? At least one for sure, but maybe more.
He is becoming a very important player for you.
Yeah. At the beginning, he was not that important. He didn't have this role of the leader, but now he is taking it over.
And yeah, he is extremely important for both for defense, for fans.
So I think he's also the personality on the pitch.
Yeah, he's a very smart player. You know, you can see on his technical ability, he is above the Czech League standard.
So that's why also I heard some rumors that some clubs, some big clubs in Europe, including Galatasaray Istanbul and also Sevilla, are interested in him.
And there were some rumors that he might actually leave.
So do you think it hinges on the actual fact that Slavia Prague reaches the Champions League because you're still in the third round,
and even if you beat Union in this two-legged tie, you still have to beat one more opponent to get there,
which could be either Fenerbahçe Istanbul or Olympic Lille. So that's another tough opponent.
Is it about that, that if you manage to get there to the Champions League group stages, he stays and if you don't, he goes?
Because let's be honest, the money he's being offered is probably bigger than what he gets at Slavia.
It's a difficult question. I think it's not only about the money, it's also about the environment.
And he seems to be very happy at Slavia.
So even if money-wise or salary-wise, it would be better if he changes his address to more prominent European teams.
I can imagine that he will stay even if Slavia will not pass to Champions League,
because it seems to me from the distance that they have a very good relationship with Jędrzej Trapiszewski,
who is the manager of Slavia, and whenever he is talking about him, he is always very proud of him.
That's true, he's one of his main men.
Exactly.
Which is important, if you are a player, you always want this trust from your manager.
If you don't get it, it can be pretty frustrating for you and then no wonder you want to leave.
But he is in a different position, he has a great role and it looks like he's one of the first names on the team sheet.
Absolutely.
And I don't know about his personal life, but maybe he has a Czech wife.
If he doesn't, he has to get one soon.
Yeah, that's another anchor which would hold him in Prague.
That's true.
Okay, well, what do you see will happen this year in the Czech League then?
Do you think Slavia Prague can win the title?
Because let's be honest, there is a profit drought the last three years, you won nothing.
Am I right or did you win at least the cup?
I think it was Sparta or Krozen who won the cups as well.
I think you're right.
I think now there is a certain element of dissatisfaction, maybe that's not a word that is not strong enough here.
Maybe we should say frustration and almost anger from Slavia Prague fans.
And even your manager Jindřich Tropyšovský, who I learned when we went after our badminton match, we went to have beer with Tomáš to a pub.
I learned from him that Tomáš himself had an encounter with Tropyšovský.
Do you want to tell us about that, Tomáš? I think it's a brilliant story.
Yeah, I think I was lucky at that time.
I was 16 or 17 years old and I was playing for Klánovice, which you remember.
You're playing for whom?
Klánovice.
Of course, who wouldn't know.
Yeah, who wouldn't know exactly because you played a couple of matches with us as well.
Illegally.
Illegally, yeah.
I have the registration of Klánovice.
I just wanted to play with you guys because how many classmates did we, how many classmates?
Maybe five, six.
Half of the team.
Half of the team, the core, the hardcore of the team.
Yeah, went to the same school.
And so it was just such a cool opportunity for me to just at least play that one or two games.
And I remember you had a manager that was a manager, like a famous manager that you guys always made fun of.
You should respect your manager, but this manager had some really interesting basically instructions.
He always told, apparently, this is from what I remember, and this is 20 years later.
I still remember it.
So it must have been a really important thing for you, for your team.
The instructions in half time were, guys, play better.
And that was it.
Yeah, it's simple.
Keep it simple, clear and simple.
What else do you need?
Goal or more goals than the opponent.
Play better.
Exactly.
But back to the story with Trebyshevsky.
And we played one, so at that season we were really, really good, I think.
We ended second or third, a league.
And after one match when we won two or three nil, don't remember, this guy came to me in front of the pub
because there is always the pub.
When you have a Czech village stadium, there is always a pub, which is very important.
And then this guy came to me and he said, hey, how was the game?
It was not bad.
Yeah, we won, so it must have been very good.
And he asked me whether I would like to try to play with a different team.
At that time it was called Xaverov, and he was the manager there.
That team was in the second Czech league as well, right?
Yeah, it was the second junior league at that time.
I think Xaverov used to be in the, when we were talking about the adults, what do you say, the A team, we call it here, the men.
So that team is quite famous as well.
I had a football registration there as well.
I went to one training there, I think.
I didn't have too many more trainings than you then, because it took me like two months to make sure that I'm not good enough.
I mean to realize.
To realize, yeah, exactly, to realize.
And the story is that I started to attend the trainings there, and every single training was a big suffer for me
because all the teammates were way better technically, physically.
And Tomáš, this was with Trepichovsky, the coach of the current coach of Slavia Prague.
Yes, and after the first month, I remember this, I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop, and he was driving by, he was passing me,
and he stopped, he got off the car, and he started chatting with me.
He said, yeah, so how are you enjoying it?
What are your feelings?
And I said, I'm so frustrated, everyone is way better than me, I'm so tired, and I'm not enjoying it.
And then he was very, he's a very nice character.
He is like, you have the feeling that he's a very strong personality.
He cares.
He cared.
He cared a lot, and he has a strong charisma.
Charismatic manager.
He's very charismatic.
And then he told me, I remember he told me, do you know why I picked you as a team member?
I said, I have no idea, I have no idea, because I'm 100% I'm not good enough.
And he said, it's not only because of the football skills, it's because of the personality.
Wow, really?
Yeah, and he said that I was able to manage the team.
At that time, I was the captain, Klanovice.
Oh, yeah.
I was the oldest one, so maybe that's why.
I remember that time I used to be a captain, too.
So yeah, okay.
So I want to know, did it actually hurt you the way he said it?
Because it almost sounded like, oh, Tomas, you're only good because you are a leader.
No, I was so proud at the time.
I was so proud.
And then I said, okay, now I will try.
I will try harder.
I will train more.
I will do some individual exercise.
But it lasts like three more trainings or four more trainings.
And then I just gave up.
Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
It didn't make sense.
But what I wanted to highlight here is that he really cares.
And even at that time, when I was 16, 17, so he was the manager of the team of teenagers.
He really cared for the structure of the team.
So he was not only interested in the way how you play football, but also the way of the impact on the pitch on the team.
And I think that's something what you can see even nowadays.
That he is not just picking the players based on their performance on the pitch, but also the approach to the training and the character.
Yeah, I think to be honest, I think this is a trend in the world anyway.
But of course, in a lot of aspects, the Czech League and Czech football is behind, still behind.
We don't have time to go into the details and why that is the case.
But let's be honest, it's nice to see some progressive managers in the Czech League.
And he is definitely one of them.
And now the question is, what if you don't win anything again?
Not that I wish it on you, not at all, but there is a real possibility because let's be honest,
Sparta, Prague, Plozenj and other teams, Liberec, Ostrava, they look really strong this season as well.
So anything could happen.
So there is a voice at Slavia Prague from the fans.
A lot of fans are getting tired of Terpichovsky, even though he has a strong position.
But if the whole, the entire fan base turn against him, then it could be quite tough for him.
So what would you do?
Would you keep him at the club or do you think there might be time for him to go as a Slavia Prague fan?
Yeah, it depends.
It depends, I think, what goals they want to achieve, whether they want to get the title in Czech League
or if they want to get some points in the European matches in Champions League or different European matches.
And it very much depends.
I think if you are successful in Europe, then it means that you do not have to win the title
and still the season is very well evaluated by the fans.
So it depends and it seems to me that the management of Slavia Prague is willing to give him some time
and to focus on the Europe, on the matches in Europe.
I'm glad to hear that.
I hope so.
I don't know.
We don't know into his head.
We don't know what his motivation is.
Yeah, I can't see into his head either, but maybe you can because you used to be one of his players.
So, I mean, if anyone is close to him, it's you Tomáš.
But I have to say thank you very much for telling us about Slavia Prague in this episode of the Footbush podcast.
It was a pleasure to talk to you again.
Hopefully next time I see you, we play another racket sport because we wanted to play tennis last time.
But since it rained, we had to resort to playing badminton, which was nice as well.
Don't get me wrong, but I was a bit rusty.
So I look forward to playing a game of tennis against you and all the best to Slavia,
especially in the Europe in European games, because I really follow it closely and always cheer for you.
Thank you.
And thank you for having me here.
It was a pleasure as last time.
Yeah, likewise, Tomáš.
Take care and all the best.
Bye bye.
Take care. Bye bye.
Welcome back to the Language Corner.
In this part of the show, as always, I will do my job, which is the English teacher.
And I'm going to talk today about something really interesting.
And that is the word chemistry.
First of all, the most important thing you should all know is that chemistry used to be my least favorite subject at high school.
That's right.
I used to hate this subject.
And that is actually the first meaning of this word.
It is a subject that you study.
You can study right.
Chemistry is all about all those elements.
So you have like oxygen and nitrogen and you have different solutions and acids and all kinds of things.
I'm not talking about this sort of chemistry, though.
I would like to talk about the phrase that Tomáš used in this episode of the Footgris podcast, because he said I lacked chemistry in the team.
He was talking about Slavia Prague and I think he was referring to the first few games of the season.
He said I lacked chemistry chemistry in the team.
If you lack something, it means you kind of don't have enough of something or you miss something.
So he he kind of wanted to see chemistry in the Slavia Prague team, but he didn't see it.
Now, what does the word chemistry actually mean here?
Are we talking about the school subject?
No, not really.
Here it really means good relationship or partnership of the players on the pitch.
The word that the players kind of gel the the cohesion of the team, the way they sort of work together as a unit.
And that is the sort of chemistry we talk about here.
Of course, we can also use it to talk about relationships.
For example, if you go on a date with someone and this date maybe isn't going really well,
but perhaps it's because there is no chemistry between you and your partner.
Yeah, if there's no chemistry, it means maybe there's not enough attractiveness or maybe you are unable to talk to each other or something like that.
So as you can see, this word has more meanings.
And that is all for today's episode of the Footgrish podcast.
And what I would like to ask you for is, as always, to support this podcast.
It's still quite new, so people need to hear that this podcast exists.
That's why I would like to ask you to spread the word.
If you have any friends, a husband, a wife, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a lover, your dog, your hamster, a guinea pig,
whoever you want to tell about the Footgrish podcast, it will make a huge difference.
So please share this podcast with them.
Thank you very much for listening and I'll speak to you soon again. Bye bye.