Zlín sets a grim Czech league record but leads for the first time this season

Football club Zlín has set an unenviable record in the Czech first league — after eight rounds, the team remains without a single point, something that has never happened to any club in the history of the independent Czech championship. Yet in the match against Hradec Králové, which ended in a 1:2 defeat, Zlín took the lead for the first time this season.

The debut of new coach Josef Hoftych on Zlín's bench — eighteen years after his first stint with the club — began with a surprising decision: he included in the lineup the twenty-year-old captain of the third-tier reserve team, Jiří Štefan. The young midfielder didn't disappoint: in the eighth minute, he held the ball in the box, beat his opponent, and delivered a precise pass to Mahalík, who headed the ball in to open the scoring.

How Zlín squandered their lead

Despite leading, the hosts were unable to hold on to the result. Near the end of the first half, as Hoftych himself admitted, the team made a "trivial mistake": Dančák sent Chvančara through on goal, and the Czech national team striker, who recently returned to Czech football, scored his first league goal since coming back, leveling the score.

Things got even worse at the start of the second half — Zlín academy graduate Tom Slončík, now playing for Hradec Králové, found the net. Despite clear effort, the hosts failed to equalize, although there was noticeable progress compared to previous matches: the team fired eighteen shots on goal, four of them on target.

The coach on the record and future plans

"Records exist to be broken — we did that," Hoftych commented wryly. According to him, the team must now start collecting points, though the schedule ahead is tough: in a week, Zlín will travel to Jablonec, and after the international break, they will face Slavia.

The coach lamented that the team hadn't shown this level of play against Teplice (a 1:3 loss) or Bohemians (a 0:2 loss) — opponents against whom, in his view, there had been better chances of competing. He also thanked the fans for their support, saying the stands practically dragged the team into the game, especially in the second half, when everyone was hoping for a comeback.

Source: sport.cz