Podhrasky: TPS's gold nugget

From January 2015

Czech defenseman Michal Podhrasky is one of this season’s brightest spots in Finnish Salibandyliiga. As one of the northern elite series’ yet few foreign players, he has taken a major role in TPS Turku’s defence.

- When I started to take floorball seriously my goal was to play abroad and Finland was my number one choice, Michal Podhrasky says.
-  When TPS contacted me for the first time, I was doing my last year at the University so I was not able to make the move yet. But before this season they asked again, and this time I was free to leave so it was easy to decide. I think they saw me in national team games and assistant coach Jukka Ruotsalainen contacted me via email. We started to talk about an eventual contract and after like 14 days we had an agreement.

TPS's second best scorer
Michal Podhrasky joined TPS Turku from Prague giant Tatran Stresovice and immediately became a key part of his new team. In his 26 regular season games of Salibandyliiga, the skillful and athletic right-shooting  talent scored three goals and had 10 assists which made him the team’s second best in assists and 6th in points. TPS’ young squad finished 13th in the 14-team league and as this is being written, they’ll still have to hold their breath about renewing their contract. TPS will face Nokian KrP on a best of three - playout series whose loser will have to yet qualify for a place on the highest level.

One or two levels higher than in Czech
- I was expecting the league to be better, faster and harder than in Czech and it has proven to be all of them. Comparing my experiences on team level, the quality of this league is one or two levels higher than the Czech’s and it has been able to help me improve my own game quite a lot.
Yet, on team level Tatran and TPS play on the same level generally, but Michal Podhrasky has learned his native club is actually better at some things.
- What was better in Tatran and quite surprised me here is tactical preparation. In Tatran, especially in the defense, we had a better prepared system and we trained it the whole summer. Here we focus more on offense.
Finnish referees, too, get their share of praise.
- They just don’t make so much mistakes and if they do they know how to communicate with players.

TPS through hard times
Signing Michal Podhrasky was quite a find for TPS who have been through some hard times. Entering Salibandyliiga in 2007, they played their home games at mighty 11,820-seat Turku Areena and had a lot of big names on their roster. In 2009, TPS finished second in the regular season but overstretching their financial resources brought trouble. Key players started leaving the club and making the play-offs became a struggle. Today, former TPS stars like Kari Koskelainen, Riku Kekkonen, Markus Olkkonen, Mikael Lax, Mikko Hautaniemi, Lauri Stenfors and Miko Kailiala score their goals for somebody else.
Besides just floorball, TPS Turku is one of the most famous sports organisations in Finland, and it’s been a bad for year for the legendary club. TPS got relegated from Finland’s highest series in football and their hockey team with all its mighty history and Finnish titles has been lying at the bottom of the table all season. In a situation like this, talented own juniors which TPS has plenty and good finds from abroad are the key to a brighter future. And that’s where Michal Podhrasky fits in perfectly.
- Not easy to judge myself but I’m quite satisfied with my season. For a defender who does not play power plays a 0.5 points per game is okay. Also, I’m now better at facing opponents who forecheck high because so many teams here do it. The team of course had higher goals for the season but because of key injuries we were not able to win important games.

WFC bronze in December
In December, Michal Podhrasky won WFC bronze in WFC in Gothenburg.
- With one word: success! We had a young team but still played good floorball, teased Finland in semifinal and won the bronze. I played the way the coach wanted, focusing in defense and trying to deliver good passes to Matej Jendrisak in the offensive zone. With head coach Radim Cepek signed further, I think we will get even better, work on the system we played this WFC and maybe make some small changes, Podhrasky says.

From a family with love for sports
Like so many top athletes, Michal Podhrasky comes from a family with love for sports. With experience from cycling, foorball and squash, floorball is the one he has practiced in an organized form. Following his older brother who traded hockey for floorball, young Michal followed his footsteps into school floorball where he got noticed by a Tatran coach.
- I started to play in juniors at 15 and the next season I also started in some games in Tatran’s A-team. But then I small fight with the coach got me to SSK Future who were famous for their work with young players. There I made the A team right away.
Playing for SSK, Michal Podhrasky learned a lot but one thing was missing. They never won the league. So, when Tatran called asking him to return, the choice was easy.
- In five amazing seasons we won the Czech league 3 times, 1 silver and 1 bronze and we finished second on Champions cup in Mladá Boleslav.

A country of calm and beauty
After all the success back home, a move up north to Finland was not just about good floorball.
- i was looking forward to a beautiful country with a calm lifestyle and I really found them here. Only thing my friends warned me before was that people should be cool to each other and not appear so friendly. But as I’ve only met nice and helpful people, I can’t find anything to really blame Finland for. Well, maybe the public transportation in Turku, that’s something terrible, Podhrasky smiles.
Salibandyliiga has had the honor of having such further Czech stars as David Rytych, Tomas Sladky, Milan Garcar and Jan Jelinek play in Finland. Still, that’s not so many.

- There are good players in the Czech league but the overall quality of players in Finland is so high that there’s no point in bringing in someone to play in the third line or sit on the bench. But we definitely have some players that could take big roles on some Finnish teams.

Switzerland? Maybe someday
Before choosing to play for TPS, Michal Podhrasky also had an offer from a Swiss club.
- Since my national team trips and some visits I love the nature in Finland and I wanted to try life up here.  But in the future I would also like to try the Swiss league, Michal Podhrasky hints.