The minimum goal for the Czech team is to finish in seventh place. “It would mean qualification for the World Cup in two years,” says Srchová, who has been a longtime supporter of the national team. “This is my 20th season in the national team,” smiles the offensive player, who will celebrate her 35th birthday at the upcoming tournament in Portugal.
At the European Championship, the national team in the basic group C will be followed by Austria, home country Portugal, Norway and finally Ireland, the paper’s strongest rival. “However, you can never predict which teams each country will arrive with. Everyone can surprise,” points out the newly 20-year-old defender Adéla Hříbalová. “It’s good that Ireland is the last in the group, we will be played,” adds Srchová. “Austria can trouble us at the beginning, but I don’t think they will beat us. And then we definitely follow the other teams so we know what to expect.”
Photo: Czech Lacrosse Union/David Švarc
Captain Michaela Srchová will lead the team at the EC in Braza, Portugal.
The atmosphere in the national team is good before the European Championship. “Roughly half of the players from last year’s European Junior Championship are in the squad. At first I was worried if the transition to adulthood would be a big change. But it’s great. We know each other from league competitions and we have created a super team. We understand each other very well, we get along great,” reports the young representative, who just brought home a silver medal from the mentioned junior championship last year.
She started playing lacrosse herself four years ago, her father was also involved in it earlier. “I enjoy it, it’s a tactical sport, something different from floorball or soccer. And the group we have here in Jižní Město keeps me going,” confides Hříbalová. The more experienced team has even stronger family roots with lacrosse. “He is played by his brother, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and cousins,” calculates Srchová with a smile. “I just didn’t have a choice when I was little, but I’m not angry at all.”
Photo: Czech Lacrosse Union/David Švarc
The captain of the lacrosse team Michaela Srchová in action.
The Czechs got in the mood for the championship last week by winning the home Prague Cup, in the final they defeated the junior selection of Wales 13:7. But the competition was weaker, the team took the tournament primarily as a game test and practice of attacking signals. Also because the Czech national team was strengthened by the American Isabella Keyes, who is moving to the elite university competition in the Brown jersey next year. Due to the participation of lacrosse in the Olympic Games, many European countries are trying to recruit overseas players. Isabella Keyes can wear a jersey with a lion cub because her grandparents are Czech. “Izzy fit in perfectly, she will definitely be a reinforcement. At the Prague Cup, we played most of the matches together in attack and it was fine. We mostly play team lacrosse with a lot of passing. In America, they tend to go one on one, Izzy will bring us this drive and directness,” highlights the Czech captain.
Last October, lacrosse became an Olympic sport once more. It will return following 120 years in Los Angeles 2028. “It’s a huge meta, the whole team really celebrated it. It’s a much greater motivation for us to train and work hard, we certainly wouldn’t want to miss the Olympics,” explains Hříbalová. “It’s great that lacrosse is returning to the Olympics, it will help our sport a lot. But I leave it open whether I can still be there. I have a little daughter, we’ll see,” Captain Srchová hints at her future.
Sixes, a variant of lacrosse for Los Angeles 2028 Sixes is an Olympic variant of lacrosse played on a smaller field (70 x 36 meters) with five players in the field plus one goalie. Matches are played for 4 x 8 minutes and are very attractive for spectators. The Czech Sixes League is played here, probably the longest running competition in this discipline in Europe. After 120 long years, lacrosse will appear once more at the Olympic Games in 2028 in Los Angeles. It was first officially on the Olympic program in 1904 and 1908, then three more times as a demonstration sport (1928, 1932 and 1948). In October 2023, at the Congress of the International Olympic Committee in Mumbai, the return of lacrosse to the program of the Games was finally approved. Currently, there are over ninety countries in the world that organize lacrosse, and their number has doubled in the last two decades alone.
Because of the return to the Olympics, the sixes lacrosse variant with five players in the field and a goalie is currently getting the most space. That is, the one that will be presented in Los Angeles in four years. World lacrosse needed to unify the rules so that they were almost the same for men’s and women’s categories. “It’s becoming very popular now. We play the home league in nine-a-side lacrosse, but from the fall, a six-a-side league will also be added. Last winter, I tried it out at the international level at a tournament in Hong Kong, and with a relatively young team we placed quite high there,” Hříbalová looks back. “The biggest difference is the lower number of players and the smaller field. The sixes variant is faster and more attractive to the audience. On offense, you have half a minute to shoot, which is not the case in women’s lacrosse. But the basis remains the same,” says Srchová.
Photo: Czech Lacrosse Union/David Švarc
The captain of the lacrosse team, Michaela Srchová.
The upcoming European Classic Field Lacrosse Championship takes place from July 10 to 20 in Portugal, which is hosting the championship for the first time. Nineteen countries will take part in it, and the Czech Republic is among the wider circle of favorites for medals. “I haven’t played lacrosse in Portugal yet. But I’ve been to Barcelona twice for the European Club Champions Cup, the conditions will be similar. I think there can be nothing worse than in Israel, where years ago we might play matches until ten in the evening,” Srchová says. “What talisman do I take with me? Daughter, this is my talisman. I can’t leave her at home, so we’re going to Braga with the whole family,” describes the captain. Hříbalová has a completely different ritual with her teammates. “We have an agreement with the girls that we don’t wash our socks following a win. So the ideal scenario is to last ten days with one match pair,” he declares.
Photo: Czech Lacrosse Union/David Švarc
Czech lacrosse national team.
