Victoria (football club, Pilsen)

Foundation and first participation in European competitions

The club was founded in 1911 under the name SK "Victoria" . On August 27, 1911, Victoria played its first match - against the Olympia Pilsen club (3: 7). For a long 18 years the team existed in an amateur environment, and only in June 1929 it was decided to obtain professional status. The club was registered in the second Czech league in football. A year later, “Victoria” took second place, which meant a direct exit to the country's major league . In 1935, the Pilsen club finished the national championship in 4th place and took part in the Mitropa Cup , where he met with the Italian Juventus (3: 3, 1: 5). ^[6]

Between League One and League Two

In 1938, “Victoria” flew into the second league and until 1972 it either dropped into the lower divisions, then returned to the elite. In 1955, the Pilsen club built its own arena, the Strunzowski Gardens , with a capacity of 25,000 spectators. On it, “Victoria” plays matches so far. In 1971, the first major success came - the red-blue won the Czech Cup for football and for the second time in their history entered the European Cups . In the Cup Winners Cup, “Victoria” met with “ Bavaria ” (0: 1, 1: 6). ^[7]

After 1980, the Pilsner club again began falling into the second league and returning to the first. At this point, red-blue changed its name many times. In 1992, Victoria regained its historical name and the next year entered the elite. By this time, the club had become a “supplier” of football for the main Prague clubs - Sparta and Slavia . Selling its best pupils, Victoria several times flew into the second league. ^[6]

New Age

By 2005, the economic situation in the club had stabilized, and from this year the red and blue are an unchanged participant in the Czech Republic's first league. The main partner of the club was Skoda and a new era began for Victoria. In 2008, Pavel Vrba became the head coach, who later took the helm of the Czech team and was included in the ranking of the 50 best coaches in the world. As a result, in 2010 the team took the Czech Cup and for the first time took part in the Europa League . Since then, the Pilsen club has become the absolute leader of Czech football, buying out the best young Czech players from other clubs and competing with the leaders of the strongest European leagues. ^[6]

In 2011, Victoria for the first time in its history became the champion of the Czech Republic . Also this year, she first entered the group stage of the Champions League , beating Pyunik (with a total score of 9: 1), Norwegian Rosenborg (4: 2) and Danish Copenhagen (5: 2). In the group stage, “Victoria” opposed the Italian “ Milan ” (2: 2, 0: 2), the Spanish “ Barcelona ” (0: 2, 0: 4) and the Belarusian BATE (1: 1, 1: 0). After taking third place in the group, Victoria secured a ticket to the 1/16 Europa League , but lost to the German Schalke 04 with a total score of 2: 4 (1: 1, 1: 3). ^{[8] [9]}

At the end of the 2011/12 season , Victoria was close to winning the second gold. To do this, in the last match it was necessary to win Slovan , but Victoria was content with a 0-0 draw and became only a bronze medalist of the championship ^[10] . In the next season of the Europa League, the red-blue reached the 1/8 finals, where they lost to the Turkish Fenerbahce (0: 1, 1: 1), defeating such teams as Atletico Madrid (1: 0, 0: 1) ^[11] and Napoli (3: 0, 2: 0). ^[12]

In the 2012/13 season, Victoria regained the champion's title, becoming the Czech champion for the second time, and also entered the Champions League for the second time, where she met with English Manchester City (0: 3, 2: 4), German Bavaria ”(0: 5, 0: 1) and Russian CSKA (2: 3, 2: 1). Thanks to the away goal rule, “Victoria” again took 3rd place in the group and reached the 1/16 Europa League. Further, the club underwent coaching castling: Pavel Vrba headed the Czech team , and Dusan Ugrin Jr. became the head coach of Victoria ^[13] . Continuing to participate in the Europa League, Viktoria sensationally knocked out Donetsk Shakhtar from the tournament (1: 1, 2: 1) and flew out again at the 1/8 final stage, where it lost to Lyon (1: 4, 2: 1) ^[14] .

It was not possible to defend the champion title in the following season, Victoria won silver medals, and the club was defeated by Sparta in the Czech Cup and Super Cup ^[15] . In the qualifications of the Europa League, the red and blue were suddenly defeated by the Romanian club Petrolul (1: 4, 1: 1), after which Dusan Ugrin was fired ^[16] . Miroslav Koubek took his place, and in the 2014/15 season the club became the champion for the third time, having won the title two rounds before the finish line ^[17] . In the Czech Cup, the club flew out from Pilsen at the ¼ final stage, losing in the penalty shootout Teplice .

At the beginning of the 2015/16 season, as part of the Czech Super Cup, Victoria met with the Liberec Slovan. The Super Bowl match ended 2-1 in favor of the red-blue , and Victoria won their first trophy of the season ^[18] .

On July 29, in a match of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, the red-blue defeated the Tel Aviv Maccabi (2: 1) in Israel, having won the 13th consecutive victory in the qualifying matches of the Champions League. Thus, Victoria broke the London Arsenal record for the duration of the winning streak in the Champions League qualification ^[19] .

On August 16, Miroslav Koubek was dismissed due to failure to reach the Champions League playoffs in the confrontation with Maccabi (the second match was lost with a score of 0: 2) and unsatisfactory results at the start of the championship. Assistant Jiří Skala and goalkeeper coach were also dismissed. The new head coach was Karel Kreichy , a former Victoria footballer who had previously been an assistant to Pavel Vrba at the helm of the Czech and Victoria national teams (2009-13). The club legend Pavel Horvat became his assistant. ^[20]

Recent Results and Upcoming European Cup Matches

Data for August 16, 2019

* Home games in bold

Name Changes

In 2011, Victoria celebrated its centenary. For more than a hundred years, the club had 7 different names. Sometimes for sponsorship reasons, sometimes by management decision. As a result, it was decided to restore the original name under which the club exists to this day. Below are all 7 names and years of their change: ^[21]

• 1911 - SC Victoria ( Czech. Sportovní klub Viktoria Plzeň )
• 1949 - Skoda Falcon ( Czech Sokol Škoda Plzeň )
• 1952 - Falcon ZVIL ( Czech. Sokol Závody Vladimíra Iljiče Lenina Plzeň )
• 1953 - SB Spartak LZ ( Czech. Dobrovolná sportovní organizace Spartak Leninovy ​​závody Plzeň )
• 1963 - TE Spartak LZ ( Czech. Tělovýchovná jednota Spartak Leninovy ​​závody Plzeň )
• 1965 - TE Skoda ( Czech. Tělovýchovná jednota Škoda Plzeň )
• 1993 - Victoria FC ( Czech Football Club Viktoria Plzeň, as )

Performance in the Czech Championship and Cup

The Victoria Stadium is called the Dusan Arena . The official opening of the stadium, called the Strunzowski Gardens, took place in 1955, after the old Victoria Meadow Street stadium was destroyed by a fire. The Stunts Gardens underwent a major renovation in 2003, and in 2011 the stadium was completely rebuilt and began to accommodate 11,700 people. On November 1, 2011, the stadium was officially renamed the Doosan Arena. ^[22] .

The club took first place in home stadium attendance in the 2014/15 season. On average, 10,867 people attended home matches, and 163,012 fans visited the stadium for the whole season ^[23] . By the 2015/16 season, the club had sold all 7 750 subscriptions for home matches, which amounted to 2/3 of the stadium. Previously, this phenomenon was not observed in any of the Czech clubs. ^[24] .

Relations with other clubs

“Victoria” does not have traditional rivals on the scale of the Prague or Podjestedi derby . The Pilsen derby with ZCHE is not so important, as the second Pilsen club has been playing in the lower divisions of the country for many years ^[25] . The main rival of Victoria is Sparta , matches with Slavia are also extremely important ^[26] . There are no official friendly relations between the ultras of Victoria and the ultras of other teams.

As of July 22, 2019 ^[27]

(Number 27 is forever assigned to the tragically dead Frantisek Rajtoral .)

• League One
  • Champion (5): 2010/11 , 2012/13 , 2014/15 , 2015/16 , 2017/18
  • Vice Champion (3): 2013/14 , 2016/17 , 2018/19
• Czech Cup
  • Owner (2): 1971, 2010
  • Finalist: 2013/14
• Czech Super Cup
  • Owner (2): 2011, 2015

• Club official website (Czech)