The defense is on firm feet again

Spartak prepared well for the match at Štiavničky after seven and a half years. The team from Trnava almost didn't let the most dangerous player of the home team and the best scorer of the league, Róbert Polievka, to the ball. Štetina and Koš moved him as needed and did not allow him to play. At the end of the match, when he was breathing hard for his usual slalom on Takač's goal, Savvidis ruined his thoughts of any turning point in the match with a vigorous slide.

Spartak gradually went for the opening goal. They shot for a long time and missed the goal from several good positions. It wasn't until the 41st minute that Samuel Štefánik hit the crossbar, turning the game in Trnava's favor. Štefánik also prevailed in the last round in Zlaté Moravce and with four goals he is currently the best scorer in Trnava.

"I'm happy, but the important thing is that we're up in the table, we're second and we're winning. That's more important to me than goals," said Samo Štefánik.

The last time Takač scored was in an unfortunate match in Ružomberok, where the home team beat him three times in the first half, although they were under pressure throughout the match. This game, in which the Spartans seemed to choose bad luck for several games ahead, started the series without a goal.

"Right there in the dressing room, we said to ourselves that if we continue like this, we will get those points. Victories are coming, but we must not shout about it, we must work on ourselves and now enjoy the match in Podbrezová." admitted team captain Martin Mikovič and added that coach Michal Gašparík didn't like too many conceded goals. "The coach scolded us a bit, we know how he is defensively, from the beginning of the season we were scoring goals and that bothered the coach. We did something in training, we went back to the basics, he pointed out situations that didn't go our way. We are also good offensively, we create chances, we score goals, we get points away from home, and that's good."

He confirmed his words after the match in Banská Bystrica and is currently more satisfied. It is still true that his charges did not succeed in scoring in just one match, but from the aforementioned Ružomberok they once again found a way to the solid defense that graced them last year.

"We didn't change anything extra, but cooperation improved. We needed more time because a new player from Štětín came to the defense and he had to get used to the system for a while. Now it works for us as it did earlier in the season. I blamed the team the most, that we conceded a lot of goals. Previously we got 10 goals somewhere after the middle of the season, this time it was at the beginning. Now we have four games without a goal, which is the calling card of the whole team, plus Domin Takač, whom I consider the best goalkeeper in the league and I am glad that he has the longest streak without conceding a goal."

That streak is currently 405 minutes long, and Dominik Takáč, with seven clean sheets, has overtaken Podbrez's goalkeeper Richard Ludha in this imaginary table. And exactly one week from now, both goalkeepers and their teammates will meet in Podbrezová in a head-to-head battle.