Chodov too strong for us

The men's Extraliga quarterfinals took place in recent days. Our A-team finished the regular season in 6th place, which meant a matchup with last year's runners-up from Chodov in the playoffs. The battle for a semifinal spot also meant the longest away trip of the entire season for our squad.

Unfortunately, fate was not on our side. Our team's number one, Patrik Klos, suffered an injury just before the opening match and had to play as number three. Despite strong performances from Vít Kadlec and Radim Morávek, both narrowly lost their matches 2:3. Patrik couldn't rally the team, and we left western Bohemia with a loss – but determined to turn things around at home.

However, bad luck struck again. Patrik was unable to play in the home fixture at all. The significant blow to the lineup greatly reduced our chances of success. Still, Milosz Piecowski, stepping in for Patrik, delivered an excellent performance. He held his ground against Antonín Gavlas and came close to taking the lead. But Gavlas once again proved his experience and saw the match through.

Vítek fell short against Jiří Martinek, and Radim lost yet another nail-biter, this time against Jakub Zelinka. With these results, Chodov secured both the match and the overall series win. For our boys, this marks the end of the season. Head coach Miroslav "Bindy" Bindač shared his thoughts:

"We had a great start to the season in my view – the guys played really well, and Paťa was probably the third-best player after the first half. We hovered around fourth place and had things going in the right direction, but then the injury hit, and we often had to play without Patrik. It was the same in the playoffs – we fought hard, but in the end, the opponent was simply better."