I only took a few snaps from the cup tie, & include them first, without any captions, attempts at action shots of the match,mainly. After that I am publishing a much larger set from the Sunday game, which are not just of the ground, but some of the fans & different things I spotted that morning, some I describe, some not.
Below that are my orginal two postings from earlier visits here.
So here are the ones from the Cup tie:
So that completes the midweek game, now onto the sunday morning match. Not all will have captions, & they are not taken in a strict circuit, but as I moved round the ground. I am showing you them of the ground & assorted snaps first, then finishing with the ones from the match itself.
I think there should be a law that NO man of a certain ageshould be allowed to wear back to front baseball caps! ;-)
From the open side, some of the home fans behind the goal.
Look carefully at the white bust, between the red awning & the balcony.
Here it is.
I love the banners they have.
Moving down the open side, the dugouts opposite, in front of the main stand.
Visiting Slovan Liberec fans, at the open far end.
Home fans along the side, Zizkov 'Ultras' only, really, behind the goal.
Note the horse 'on the roof'. It's actually a national monument up on nearby Vitkov Hill.
Back down the other end of the ground, the away fans.
Now back along the home fans, near the home end, note the cuddly toy in the crowd!
The open concourse, behind the home end, bar area.
From behind the goal, banners along the side.
Ah, there's that cuddly toy again!
To those who know me, don't worry, it wasn't my beer! ;-)
Food queues in the old eastern Europe? Only at football nowadays! ;-)
I'm hungry just looking at this one...one of the great delights of Czech football!
The large home banner once more.
He's just won something in the half time competition on the pitch.
Welsh groundhoppers! I first met him, small world, at a match in Scotland, at Partick Thistle!
Toilet facilities at the away end!
The sponsors name of the stadium. Presumably some sort of betting company?
In the background is the famous Prague Television Tower.
Two English groundhoppers,from a group of ten, who happened to be over here as well, the same time as myself.
Some old Ultra-style stickers,not sure which club(s) they are from!
And again the big banner!
Not what I'd wear to a game, if I'm honest..
Home & away together, at the front of the main stand. From this snap, they don't seem to be on speaking terms...
The home hardcore.
Snapping the snappers.
On sale behind the home end...on a previous visit he bought my Dulwich Hamlet badge off of me!
And now onto the actual match itself...
Excuse me officer, which was to my next game?
And that coach concludes my 2011 visits to Viktoria Zizkov. My older photos now follow...
At the bottom of this post you will find a limited number of pictures from Viktoria Zizkov, which I took in 2007. I saw a game here in 27th October 2010, against Slavia Praha, in a Czech Cup tie, so have added a lot more for you to enjoy.
The main entrance, by the turnstiles.
To the left, commercial 'street art' by Adidas.
Just inside the turnstiles.
Ahead of us, behind the goal, is the open home end.
At the back is a Zizkov fans banner based on Pacman eating up their rivals!
At the back, down, below, is the half time refreshment stands.
To our right is the main stand, we will get there later, as that is where my ticket is for. The red building has the club shop on the ground floor.
Presumably the upper sections are offices & pre-match hospitality.
Moving along we turn left, to look at the more open seats, along the side.
From behind the goal we look across the pitch, the main group of Slavia fans at the far end. I used my notebook as a 'sunscreen' against the setting sun in this snap!
Behind us in the corner is one of the pylons, overlooked by the TV Tower on the hill behind.
It really is a focal point over the stadium.
As you can see in this picture, with some of the open seats in it, with the main hard core of home supporters.
Waving their flags.
And without them.
Behind those fans is the main clubhouse.
There are toilets at ground level. Ever heard that phrase 'this lager tastes like piss..?'
Still down below, here is one of the food stalls.
Back behind the goal, at the front of this stand, looking through the bars.
Across the pitch, main stand over the other side.
Similar angle, stepping up a little, back onto the rows of seats.
Now we're about to head along the open side.
Behind us in this corner is the scoreboard.
Now we're about to move along the side.
A billboard from the local council.
The club name is in the seats.
From the street above some people get a free view of the game.
A local beer company says 'drink to Zizkov'
Over the halfwayline, opposite the main stand.
From over there this is a full length view of the open side.
Almost at the far end noe, looking back along the seats, from the front.
Some of the seats were covered in fan stickers like this one.
We are now looking at the open away end.
With fans in it...
The middle section has no seating on it.
Another shot of the away fans, during the game.
We can't get into the away section, so we re-trace our steps. going back round to the other corner, where we started, by the main stand.
This is the club shop.
Club colours flying above the stand.
There is this comemoration stone outside the shop building.
UnfortunatelyI have no idea what it says.
There are some banners hanging over the side of the stand, the cotner near the home end is the more popular.
A couple more.
Up in the stand now, there are some press seats at the back.
At work during the game.
From the back of the stand, telly gantry in up on the left.
Right behind the gantry.
Toward the away end.
Getting closer to it, across the penalty area.
From this end we see along the stand, back to the larger open home end.
Directly over the halfway line.
Throughout the game beer was sold in the stand.
Now to the game itself, quite a few snaps, a few more than usual, but why not, seeing as a few of them have come out quite nice in the autumn Prague sunshine?
Game over, time to acknowledge the fans.
And off they come.
I took this just outside, a 'fashionable' home fan.
At least this Slavia fan was dressed in club colours!
The orginal post is below:
I've seen games at Viktoria Zizkov twice on previous visits, but not on my last trip. I jumped off a passing tram to take a few snaps of the ground, but could only walk down the side of the main stand, so there are not many for you to look at. Perhaps, in hindsight, I should have tried a few more. It is a very tight, hemmed in ground. The 'beauty' of Czech football/society is that grounds such as these are not prey to property developers, as many old grounds are back home, here in England. If in Prague you will be almost guaranteed a game here, as the 'rogue' Bohemians team are currently groundsharing here.
Here is the entrance from the main road, you cannot fail to see it as the trams go past.
Here is the open seating behind the goal, this is fairly new, as it wasn't constructed when I last saw a match here.
A look down the far side, nice used of the club name in the seating.
The open seats at the far end, from the buildings behind you can see what I mean about the ground being 'hemmed in'.
This is the players tunnel, in the middle of the main stand. Having just looked again at this photo I could clearly get onto the pitch. i have no idea why I didn't walk around the perimeter to get some more, close up snaps of the other sides. Apologies!
Another look across to the far side, from the other end. The white building in the corner is their clubhouse.
And finally a full view of the main stand.
3 comments:
Re. the comment in the first paragraph about Czech grounds not being prey for property developers. Unfortunately this may well prove not to apply to Bohemians 1905's ground, which has apparently been a target for developers for several years now. The local council seems to be favourably inclined to this, not helped by the ground needing considerable investment (undersoil heating etc.) to bring it up to top-flight standard. There's a campaign underway to save it, though, so watch this space...
The memorial stone is for Vlasta Burian who was called the King of Comedians. He also played football with Viktoria Zizkov.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlasta_Burian
Good snaps but sadly you seem to have missed the reason this ground has the reputation of "the best football beer in Prague"! Think that warrants another visit so you can share with the world. In case I am speaking in code I mean the barmaid in the pub behind the goal. Happy snapping!
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