FRISCO, Texas – As Major League Soccer’s suspension in play continues, FC Dallas striker Zdeněk Ondrášek is simply focused on keeping his mind and body healthy.
“I never imagined this could happen,” he said. “To be honest, without my girl, dog and PlayStation, I would get even more crazy than I am.”
It is not easy to be away from the sport he loves, but Ondrasek is confident that the team will return to the field even hungrier than it was before.
“It’s different when you run in the park [instead] of running in trainings with the ball,” Ondrasek said. “I think everyone is going to be dead hungry to play football again, so it might be even better.”
Like the rest of us, Ondrášek now finds himself in an unfamiliar time. So, what is the forward doing to occupy his mind outside of the usual in-home workouts and video sessions? For one, he and his fiancé, Daria, have joined a certain social media craze by storm.
“We found TikTok, so we’re trying to have fun on TikTok now,” Ondrášek said. “It’s actually unbelievable. I remember it was two weeks ago the first time Daria found it. We knew the videos, we just didn’t know about the app. She was like, ‘Look at this video. Look at this video,’ for five hours straight … That’s our new hobby and it’s fun.”
To keep a consistent level of competition in their home, the two also bought Monopoly, a game which certainly has the potential to bring out the little cutthroat capitalist that lives inside all of us. While Ondrášek jokingly feels that his fiancé is cheating the rules every now and then, they each have one win apiece.
Although the time frame for a return to action still remains unclear, Ondrášek gave a message to the younger soccer players out there who may also find themselves in this bizarre time.
“I know it’s not easy, but you still can do what you like to do. You can work out and even kick the ball in the bedroom or whatever,” he said. “Just do what makes you calm and happy and try to just do what everyone tells you to do: stay home and wash your hands. Then, we can go back to our things we love to do.”
