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/From a special correspondent in the Netherlands./
Few Czech footballers abroad now have such a position in the team as Brno-born Dominik Janošek in NAC Breda. With 11 goals and nine assists, the Czech midfielder has become the unequivocal leader of the team, which traditionally plays in the first league, but this year is experiencing a not very successful season in a lower competition.
“The main goal is still the play-offs for promotion to the first league,” says the center player with a good shot and recalls a somewhat unconventional game system, thanks to which it is possible to advance even from eighth place after the regular part of the competition. Shortly before our meeting in Breda, the NAC team lost 1:4 at home to Dordrecht. “That was unbelievable, the last time I saw such individual quality on the ball was during matches with Slavia or Sparta,” Janošek praises the opponent. After all, he would place his current team in the top five in the Czech league. “The individual quality of the players is really great compared to the Czech Republic, but in terms of tactics and defending, the Czech competition is still the highest,” he compares.
Mainly attack, don’t let it be boring
He also confirms the reputation of the Dutch league as a competition where the game is played in an “up-down” style: “In the Czech Republic, teams focus on the defensive phase, here on the offensive phase. That’s also why something is always happening here, the match is for shots at 10:10 or 15:15. This is unimaginable in the Czech Republic, where the main philosophy is not to score a goal. Here it’s the other way around, mainly to attack, so it’s not boring,” he describes. Attractive football also attracts fans – a full stadium with a capacity of 19,000 people goes to Breda’s home match.
In addition to visits, a number of Czech league teams could also envy Breda other conditions – the club has a 20-member implementation team, which includes, for example, four physiotherapists and a video analyst. After all, the Czech midfielder was well scouted by the club and immediately entrusted him with playing standard situations: “They have adapted to me and it works, we are the best in the entire league. When we kick set pieces, we have a 40 percent chance of scoring a goal,” smiles Janošek. While in the Czech Republic he always started in the middle of the reserve line, in the Netherlands he sometimes plays from the side.
Thanks to his productivity, he already observes that defenders focus on him more in the spring part of the season than in the first months. “They didn’t know me for the first half of the year, so I was more on the ball and could create more. In the last matches there is already personal defending, but I struggled with that in the last two seasons in the Czech Republic as well. It’s nothing new for me and it’s better for my confidence. I know I’m probably doing something right,” he believes.
The phone call from Hašek made me happy
The phone call from the national team coach Ivan Hašek in January also testifies to this: “I was very pleased to be in the spotlight for the future. But I don’t think I’ll go straight to the Euros,” he says modestly. Already in the winter, he learned from the manager that several clubs from the Dutch top division, which is now his main goal, are watching his performances.
“When I was little I always supported Manchester United and wanted to play in the Premier League. Now my goal is to get to the first league and play against Ajax, Feyenoord or PSV Eindhoven,” he plans. But who knows, perhaps from one of the clubs of the Dutch “big three” an offer for the Czech shekel will arrive in Breda in the summer.
But Janošek is now satisfied in Breda, even with the team, although he describes it as the biggest difference compared to football life in the Czech Republic. “The boys take it like a job here. Everyone looks after their own, they go home after training, it’s not like going out for a coffee after training like here. But I’m not complaining at all, the team here is still great,” he appreciates. Another advantage is the fact that the Slovak Martin Koscelník, who played for Slovan Liberec, works in the club.
Photo: SZ – Milan Rokos
Dominik Janošek in front of the stadium in Breda. The atmosphere at the matches is great, he says.
Since there are seven players in the club who only speak English, all meetings and preparations for the match are also conducted in Shakespeare’s language. The Dutch players speak English perfectly, Dominik Janošek had to improve his language a lot: “The progress is big, I’m already giving interviews in English and chatting with the boys,” he boasts.
He is also surprised by a certain phlegmatic nature of the Dutch mentality. “They don’t care a bit, they mainly go to play. Sometimes it’s good, you’re not stressed and you’re calm on the ball, but on the other hand, you don’t have that motivation and it doesn’t whip you. In the Czech Republic, we were able to dig in during training, we fought for every centimeter, here we are all friends. The training sessions are intense, but the boys don’t interact with each other at all,” he observes.
Unlike in the Czech Republic, he spends more time at the stadium, he comes already for breakfast and gets home around three o’clock. When they have free time, they like to go on trips with their girlfriends – for example to the tulip carpets in Keukenhof or to Brussels, which are only an hour’s drive from Breda.
On TV, he does not neglect the Czech top competition either: “Mostly Pardubice, but I also watch the matches of the top three,” says the midfielder, who sometimes writes with his friend from the national team, Ondřej Lingre. If a promotion with Breda or a transfer to a team in the Eredivisie works out in the summer, they can meet on the pitch as rivals and perhaps even as teammates in the national team jersey.
