Chomutov owner Jiří Sochor | Photo: piratichomutov.cz
He fist-pumped triumphantly with each player on his way to the locker room. After that, the hedonist absorbed the final thank-you note of the nerve-wracking season. And the first league! Chomutov avoided relegation from the Max league at the last moment, with a win over Jihlava he condemned Poruba to it. “Yeah, yeah, yeah!” pumped the owner of the club, Jiří Sochor, as he marched in front of the journalists with a glowing grimace.
So tell me, are you completely relieved?
A big one. But maybe I was even the calmest of the club, it only dawned on me an hour before the game. Then I was nervous. I have to commend the guys. Even “loafers” can play hockey, if I do say so myself. Although we finished second to last, we won today.
The atmosphere around the cabin gives the impression of being promoted somewhere or winning a title…
Unfortunately, or maybe for God’s sake, that’s how it is in sports. You win the most important game of the season and the joy is the same as if you won them all.
How many years have you aged on the stand?
I wouldn’t even feel that way today. More like during the season. When I say it like a pirate, it really sucks. A lot of mistakes were made, hopefully we can learn from them. And it will get better.
“To put it in pirate terms, the season really screwed up. There were a lot of mistakes.”
Okay, so how much sleep have you gotten in the last few weeks?
Pretty much for today, I must say. I surprised myself, I was calm. In the morning I went to Roudnice with a boy for a tournament, so I didn’t really think about it. That’s how it hit me an hour before the game.
Did you feel nervous or worried about the team?
The last five games are more about strength. It’s hard to perform flawlessly when you’re in that situation. I was on a trip with the boys, even at that unfortunate match when we won with Třebíčí. But unfortunately someone didn’t take care of something… We could have had three points, but they wouldn’t have if Maštalířský didn’t play that match. These are the “ifs”.
Well, going down because of an administrative glitch would be something…
At first we were very angry. But what would I achieve by throwing thunder and lightning? The boys knew very well that they had made a mistake, they punished themselves. Until today’s game, they had to live with the feeling that they could have screwed up the whole season.
Can you pinpoint the biggest mistake you made during the year? Or what was the main problem?
You probably can’t say that, there was no such thing. But we did a lot of them, plus we had a lot of bad luck. It has to be said that when our goalkeepers got injured, it really hurt us. Not only with us as management, but with the whole team. We fell into lethargy, we were not doing well. We also underestimated the need to have a leader in the cabin.
Did Cole Coskey especially take this role as his own? His offensive qualities are indisputable, but with Jihlava he was returning, knocking down, jumping into shots. He allegedly wrote English messages to his teammates in the dressing room…
Certainly. Coskey is the #1 player for us in terms of productivity. But he also had his ups and downs during the season, it must be said. God forbid he played a top game today.
“We fell into lethargy, we didn’t do well. We also underestimated the need to have a leader in the cabin.”
Did you tie him down because he found a partner in the north and had a child?
No… (smiles) We kind of secretly worked on it. We’ll see if it’s for next season.
Will you take a break before jumping into negotiations on the coaching staff and next year’s squad composition?
Sure, we have to. At least for a few days. Feel free to sit down with a clear head. We need to contact the sponsors and thank them so we know how to build it next year.
From your point of view, will it still be necessary to increase the amount of funds with which the club operates?
In our region, we work with some limit. We exceeded it a lot this year, also considering the problems we had. Rather, we would need to somehow consolidate and stabilize the budget.
Before the season, you said that if an investor came along, you wouldn’t be against a sale either. Where did its development take you in this direction?
I guess I’ll need the distance you talked about. During the season, I was very mentally exhausted and I thought that I would quit, no matter how it turned out. But the open air in Povrle or the last matches gave me a little charge. I don’t know what would happen if I left. Maybe someone else would come.
“This season is absolutely over for me.”
Kolín saved the league a year ago, this year they almost dominated the regular season. Boruba, as one of the co-favorites, falls one floor lower. That’s crazy, isn’t it?
This season has been a blast for me. Probably no one remembers such a balanced competition. We played terribly badly in October, well in November and suddenly we were seventh. We were even looking at sixth place. In December we got slapped, we started going down. We have not recovered from this until today.
Isn’t it a bit strange that you can be directly relegated from the first league but not promoted?
I am a supporter of direct promotion and relegation. At the end of the season, there were some rumors that the first league would expand even more. I wouldn’t raise my hand for it at this point, even if we were soaked in it. After all, that should be said in advance, not when someone’s shoes are leaking. But it might make sense to me. In the second league, there are two or three clubs that could play a professional competition. From an economic point of view, I can think of a division into two divisions to reduce travel.
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