We don't want to leave Sparta with the fact that we haven't accomplished anything, said Řepík

Hockey player Michal Řepík took part in the press conference of the hockey club Sparta Prague before the start of the extra league season, September 7, 2023, Prague.

Prague – Striker Michal Řepík awaits his fifth season as captain of hockey Sparta. Every year, the people of Prague are among the aspirants for the title, which they have been waiting for since 2007. The thirty-four-year-old representative is well aware of this and believes that Sparta will succeed in the coming season. He does not want to go down in the club's history as part of teams that did not achieve significant success.

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“The goals are clear. We will try to reach the finals and to win the title. But I think we are not the only team that will try for it. On the other hand, it is not worth looking so much far. We need to start the season well, which we didn't do very well last year and then we had to catch up,” Řepák told journalists at a press conference before the start of the competition.

The last time Sparta won the title was in the 2006/07 season. Since then, she reached the finals twice, but lost each time. “We know the wait is long. But I don't think about it. When we get to the playoffs, I want to win. I want to win for Sparta, for the fans, and for us in the cabin. We work hard throughout the regular season to make it happen. We want to be part of the legends who did it before us. We have a lot of older guys in the team and we don't want to leave Sparta with the fact that we didn't achieve anything. This pushes us forward to get to the finals again and finally win it,” Řepík pointed out.

He is also inspired by football club Sparta, which last season won the title after nine years. “I am very happy in Sparta and I want to help the team to rise to the top. We see how football Sparta has made the spectators crazy, how many people go to the stadium and what kind of atmosphere they have there. I would like to be a part of giving hockey fans the same.” wished the native of Vlašimi, who already worked in Sparta in his youth years.

Prague won six out of seven matches in the preparation, until they were not enough against Liberec in the general round for the extra league. However, Répík did not deal with the results too much. “Of course we are happy that we won. It fits, the lineup has settled. As the coach said, the best thing to do is to enter the season knowing that we have done a good job in preparation. But how many times do we succeed in preparation and then it won't carry over to the regular season. We have to avoid that,” said the participant of four world championships and two Olympics.

Sparta partially changed the squad in the summer and hired, for example, representatives of Filip Chlapík, Vojtěch Mozík or Aaron Irving. “Were we stronger than last season? That will be seen. There are enough of us left, we have strengthened the ranks where we needed. The Czech boys have gone through the school year or have experience from the World Cup. We will need every player to do his best for the team. We are working on to bond, to have a good team. So far, I feel good about everything,” added Řepík.