Corgoň Liga Spring Preview

Slovakia’s Corgoň Liga failed to emerge from its winter hibernation last week, as the first round of ‘spring‘ fixtures was postponed due to the continued adverse weather. In truth, conditions have not greatly improved since then but we should finally see some football this weekend, if only because three of the sides due to play at home have undersoil heating at their grounds while a fourth has an artificial pitch.

MŠK Žilina went into the winter break with a one-point lead at the top of the table and will hope to preserve that advantage at home to MFK Ružomberok. Žilina made some interesting additions to their defence during the break, with Togo capatain Serge Akakpo arriving from from NK Celje and Portuguese left-back Ricardo Nunez joining from Portimonense. Ján Novák, who scored two goals for MFK Košice in a Europa League tie against AS Roma in 2009, should strengthen the forward line. But ‘Ruža‘, who climbed the league steadily during the autumn under Czech coach Aleš Křeček, have brought in some new faces themselves and will provide difficult opposition.

Second-placed Slovan Bratislava appear to be facing a gentler re-introduction to league football in the shape of a home clash with bottom side DAC Dunajská Streda. Slovan coach Vladimír Weiss is now free to concentrate all his energies on the club after being relieved of his Slovak national team duties in January, and has been busy in the transfer-market. His most significant additions are to the forward-line. Ondřej Smetana, a loan signing from Belgian club St Truiden, will add height and physique, while former Petržalka and Senica player Juraj Piroška should bring skill and invention. DAC, meanwhile, have been in off-field turmoil since their local authority withdrew sponsorship from the club last autumn. It is difficult to imagine anything other than an emphatic Slovan win here.

Third-placed Spartak Trnava’s meeting with a Vion Zlaté Moravce side just two places and two points behind them looks a more intriguing prospect, especially since the clubs were involved in a player exchange during the winter. Trnava signed experienced midfielder Peter Kuračka and striker Karol Pavelka, with Ľubomír Bernáth, a talented but enigmatic forward, going the other way. Trnava are always expected to be strong at home, where they have the backing of Slovakia’s most partisan support, but Vion are invariably well-organised and will be quietly confident of earning a good result from this game.

Fourth-placed Senica will be clear favourites to defeat a Nitra team which won only one of its last twelve autumn fixtures. Senica’s biggest asset is probably Stanislav Griga, who has just been named Slovakia’s best coach of 2011 and is among the favourites to replace Weiss as Slovakia coach. He admits his team will miss Piroška, but has been spreading his net wide in search of new players, with Roland Blackburn, a striker from Panama, joining from Chorillo and Liarra Diarrasouba signing from French club Nimes. In Ivan Hodúr and Róbert Rak, Nitra have lost two highly-experienced players, but new coach Ladislav Jurkemík has the necessary know-how to ensure they don’t get into too much trouble at the wrong end of the table.

Eastern clubs Prešov and Košice, who face each other on Saturday, have more cause for concern. Prešov are ahead of DAC only on goal-difference and currently have the league’s least productive attack. They will be hoping that David Střihavka, a tall striker on-loan from Žilina, will help to put this right. Košice are six points clear of their neighbours and thus would probably be happy enough to avoid defeat on Saturday. Their most interesting new signing appears to be Stefan Milojevič, the son of former coach Goran Milojevič, who has arrived from Partizan Belgrade.

The final fixture of the weekend sees AS Trenčín host Dukla Banská Bystrica on their plastic pitch. A strong home record ensured a decent autumn for Adrián Guľa’s attractive Trenčín team and they will want to continue that on Sunday against a Bystrica side who have under-achieved for much of the season and now have to get used to life without top-scorer Martin Jakubko, recently transferred to Russian club Perm.

In Slovakia, the first spring fixtures are often quite a strong indicator of how the season as a whole will turn out. Last year, for example, Žilina had a six-point lead at the top but were surprisingly beaten at Prešov, never really recovered and finally limped home in third place. At the same time, Slovan began the surge that would take them to the title with an emphatic win at Trnava. At the other end, Dubnica wasted several chances in failing to defeat relegation rivals Košice and ended the spring where they’d started it ; in last place. So this weekend’s games, though unlikely to make for pretty viewing, should be worth keeping an eye on.