Slavia defeated by České Budějovice in a pre-season opening

Dynamo České Budějovice gained promotion to the first Czech league last season and were the first team to test double champions Slavia in their pre-season training process this summer.

New signing David Hovorka was included into the starting XI and have put first 90 minutes under his belt for the new club.

The match between champions of the first two top Czech divisions started off to a great weather and fans in Čelákovice, where the match took place, didn’t have to wait too long for the chances to come. In the 10th minute, Mick van Buren used his physical advantage against the opponent to gain some space in the box. However, his shot didn’t find the way through and České Budějovice were given the opportunity of a dangerous counter-attack. The opposition eventually managed to pull the shot away but it was denied by David Hovorka with a brilliant interception.

Unfortunately, České Budějovice were the first to score after our two consecutive mistakes in the build-up. Ledecký didn’t waste the given opportunity – 0:1.

Jaromír Zmrhal could have answered almost immediately with his thunderbolt volley from the edge of the box. His side-footed shot flew only few inches higher than needed!

By the end of the first half it looked like Slavia finally got into the game. But instead of equalising, České Budějovice doubled their lead after Kladrubský calmly converted the penalty-kick awarded after David Hovorka’s foul – 2:0.

There were 10 changes in the line-up for the 2nd half with another 2 debutants – Júsuf Hilál and Tomáš Holeš.

The Red-Whites out-played České Budějovice after the break.

However, they failed to score a single goal. Alexandru Baluta was twice close to opening Slavia score-sheet. In the 50th minute, the Romanian forced the opposition keeper to make a brilliant save with his inch-perfect curved free-kick and in the 74th minute he was again denied by the keeper after Júsuf’s clever interception of the ball.

Thus, the Red-Whites lost their first match of the pre-season by 0:2 to České Budějovice.