After ‘really long’ lockdown, Oravec grateful to be back
Matej Oravec turned 22 on March 30 under extraordinary circumstances for a young soccer player.
The Slovakian midfielder/ defender was barely two months on the job with the Philadelphia Union, having made his first move aboard in January. After two games in the MLS season, neither of which Oravec played a part in, the coronavirus pandemic spiked, putting the campaign on hold.
The team that had acquainted him to this new country, the familiar facilities in Chester, the shops he’d gotten to know around his new home and any anchor of normalcy were cut off. Going back to Europe soon was not an option due to travel restrictions.
“During the pandemic, the days were really long,” Oravec said Friday. “I had nothing to do here because most of the places and shops and stores were closed, so I was just home and training. But I was with my girlfriend, so she made the days easier for me. I’m glad that she’s here.”
The circumstances Oravec had to deal with as America shut down for business to try to flatten its COVID-19 curve are familiar. But to endure them in a foreign country that you’ve only known for a matter of weeks is an almost unfathomable part of the journey.
Union manager Jim Curtin has repeatedly highlighted those kinds of challenges in media chats in the month since the Union returned to training ahead of July’s MLS Is Back tournament. Not only did the club have to try to maintain competitive continuity over a break of more than two months, it had to deal with young men from a variety of countries adapting to life away from home for the first time.
For Oravec, it meant a lot of time with his girlfriend. He was in contact with his family in Slovakia every day or so by phone. And the Union scheduled programming throughout the lockdowns that would keep players engaged and able to go through the mental exercises of film study.
Oravec’s physical regimen during lockdown involved a lot of running … and a lot of boredom. But he feels more familiar with what the Union want to do on the field for his months of remote learning.
“I learned something new every time,” he said. “I understand more and more about my teammates and opponents. This pandemic maybe helped the new players because we get more time to understand the technique and the team.
We can learn and learn every day how we are getting better with the tactics and how to be better.”
Oravec was signed in January to help transform the central midfield position after the Union let Haris Medunjanin walk to FC Cincinnati. Oravec, signed on a pricey transfer from DAC Dunajska Streda, was expected to be the starter in a very different version of that role. Instead, he was slow to adapt in the preseason. Veteran Warren Creavalle got the start on opening day in Dallas, and Jose Andres Martinez, seen as the longer-term project, started and played well at LAFC.
Curtin has emphasized that everyone gets a clean slate after the training sabbatical. Oravec stands to benefit from that as much as anyone, though Martinez has impressed Curtin in recent weeks. Oravec is just glad to be back with teammates. He described them as so welcoming at the beginning of his stint in Philly, and being away from them has been one of the more difficult parts of being quarantined.
“It was super, super emotional,” Oravec said of the first practice back in May. “Everyone, I think, was so happy that we could play with the ball and spend some time together in small groups, so it was really good.”