Teammates describe Pavel Bucha as one of the more serious personalities on FC Cincinnati’s roster. He says that was engrained in him as a youth trying to balance schooling with a competitive training environment, hours from his home in the Czech Republic.
The 26-year-old midfielder brings a sense of discipline to the group, and he’s become the player FCC coach Pat Noonan has relied on the most this season in terms of minutes.
Bucha’s role becomes even more important this week with Obinna Nwobodo out on red card suspension as the Orange and Blue travel to play FC Dallas on Saturday, but the midfield responsibilities could be evolving, regardless, to account for a depleted back line. FCC is shorthanded while Matt Miazga and Nick Hagglund are both out with long-term injuries and fellow centerback Miles Robinson is away with the U.S. national team.
A $1.8 million acquisition from Viktoria Plzen during preseason, Bucha has played a team-leading 1,684 minutes, while starting all 19 league games in his first season playing abroad, and he continues to grow into his role as he becomes more comfortable with the new setting.
FC Cincinnati, tied with Inter Miami CF with a league-best 2.05 points per game, has reaped some of those rewards and hopes more are on the way, as the Orange and Blue push toward a repeat Supporters’ Shield.
A long way from home
Bucha said growing up in Nelahozeves, Czech Republic, his childhood was "strict, and every day was the same" because he had a set routine with schooling and soccer and there wasn’t much time for anything else.
When coaches saw his ability on the pitch, they encouraged his parents to send him to a club in Prague to play more competitively. So, at the age of 10, Bucha joined SK Slavia Prague’s academy, though it was far from home and required him to change schools.
Bucha woke up at 5:30 a.m. every day and took a 90-minute train ride to Prague. He was in school through early afternoon, then went to training and back home on the train, returning usually around 7 p.m. It wasn’t a typical life for a Czech kid, but it was the best option for someone serious about soccer and he was disciplined enough to stick with it.
“I didn't have like, friends going out, and it was only school and football, and also on weekends we had, like, often times, one day we had matches so yeah, there was no time for other activities, really,” Bucha said. “Growing up at that time was really like straightforward and focused on school and football, and that was my life.”
Bucha said he remembers seeing photos at his parents’ house of him barely able to walk but already holding a ball next to his feet. He had started very early playing for a local club, FK Cechie Kralupy nad Vltavou, but originally struggled being in a big group as a shy child.
Through tears many days at the beginning, he continued playing -- with the help of his parents -- and started to enjoy soccer as a team sport. Bucha got better and better, moving on to FK Neratovice when he was about 8 years old, and then especially making a big jump with Slavia Prague’s youth teams over the next decade.
At age 20, Bucha signed his first professional contract for the club’s senior team, moved out of his parents’ home and bought a flat in Prague. He made his pro debut about a month later on Feb. 17, 2018.
“At the time I was thinking what to do in the future, and on one side there was a choice to do high school, and on the other side was to play football,” Bucha said. “So yeah, at the time, because of that first professional contract, I decided to choose that way.
“I liked school, and my parents wanted me to study as long as possible. And I felt like they didn't really believe that someday I could be a professional and, you know, earn some money from football. So, it was tough decision, but now I don't regret.”
The move to Cincinnati
Bucha appeared in five games with SK Slavia Prague before he was transferred to Viktoria Plzeň that July, 2018. His time there included a loan stint with FK Mladá Boleslav during parts of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, but he was a mainstay in Viktoria Plzeň’s lineup after that, netting 27 goals with 21 assists in 163 appearances across all competition in his five seasons.
When FCC came calling at the end of 2023, needing to replace departed Junior Moreno, Bucha had no idea what to think of the opportunity at first.
“It was very big surprise for me,” Bucha said. “At the beginning, honestly, when I heard of FCC, I was, with all the respect, I didn't know what is it all about, so I started to get more information about team, about coaches and about the league. So, first I found out at the end of the 2023 year, and this year in the (beginning), my move here happened.”
Bucha had only known Czech football to that point, and his time at Viktoria Plzeň included high-level competition against the likes of FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in the Champions League group stage, where he made five starts, in 2021-22.
Major League Soccer proved to be very different from the Czech League, where there are two or three wealthy teams competing amongst themselves for the top of the table and everyone else is far behind. Vitoria Plzeň was one of those teams capable of spending on better players, coaches and facilities (and competing against Slavia Prague and Sparta Prague each year) so Bucha said he was “lucky,” but it was an adjustment coming to FC Cincinnati and MLS.
“Players in the Czech League especially, are really, like, tough and mentally strong,” Bucha said. “They push really hard until like they would die on the pitch, and, yeah, there is not as much quality on the feet with the ball, as here in our team or in general in MLS. Also, like from the tactical view of the game, it's more like there are lots of rules from the coaches, and the rule No. 1 is to stick to the game plan and stick to the rules, and so games in the Czech League are sometimes little bit boring, because it's like tactical battle, not like football and technical or quality battle. And it's more like coaches' head battle, who has better tactic to that match.”
Bucha was surprised to find so many players with quality foot skills, particularly the number of South American players in MLS, but the style of play is more entertaining because of that and the freedom coaches give them.
“It's more like coaches here want to give you space to present yourself as a player and show others your quality, and it's more free,” Bucha said. “And also, the matches look like that because sometimes it's really energetic and from side-to-side and counterattacks, and it's very different in Czech Republic. There is no game from whole season like that. It's like, really, sometimes boring and really tactical.”
Bucha said he likes now having coaches that push him to improve his own quality, not just execute the game plan.
When he first arrived, there was an outside perception Bucha had never really played much of a defensive role, which FCC expects of him as more of a holding or box-to-box midfielder. He was mainly known as an attacking midfielder, but Bucha said he’s played multiple midfield roles, depending on the coach he had at the time, and he is flexible.
“I always have been in midfield position, central midfielder, but it depends on which system we played, which formation and how a different coach sees me as a player,” Bucha said. “So, some coaches see in me that I have like ability to attack, creating some chances and score goals, and the others didn't see that ability, and on the other hand, they saw in me just defensive ability to run and be tough in duels and win balls and have recoveries and so on. So, it depended on different coaches, and I had couple of coaches during my professional career, so one year I played like offensive midfielder and then second year I played as defensive, and it was changing all the time.”
The difference for Bucha was getting used to a system with two holding midfielders, which he said was something completely new for him. FCC also has some different expectations on the defensive side that took some learning, but now he has more of an understanding what is expected, and he feels he is improving.
Noonan saw some things early on that Bucha needed to work on, mainly in how he received the ball across his body from wider positions to allow FCC to switch play or break through pressure and also recognizing where the pressure was coming from against different defensive structures. Defending forward was another aspect of his game that Noonan saw could be improved.
“I think there was previous roles and responsibilities that had him protecting maybe two centerbacks or maybe three centerbacks, but whatever the structure of his group was, it was less about going to the ball and more about defensive organization behind the ball to delay and wait for the right moments to go to the ball,” Noonan said earlier this month. “So, certainly we have park balance there as well, but I think there are moments where we can get Pavel releasing and pressing higher up the field when the moment's right and not protecting space.”
Bucha leads the team with an 87.7 percent successful pass rate and is second only to Luciano Acosta in progressive passes and in goal-creating actions. He's also first in blocks (26) and recoveries (128) and second to Nwobodo in interceptions with 25.
Noonan said Bucha’s physical presence and ability to get box to box was a big reason why the club brought him in, but now it’s just a matter of recognizing moments to be intense. He’s been a good complement on Nwobodo, who is sometimes overly aggressive and isn’t as strong moving forward.
Noonan believes there is still plenty more to see in the back half of the season.
“I think defensively, the two of them (Bucha and Nwobodo) have been outstanding for us both in understanding how to win the ball, understanding how to connect passes in transition,” Noonan said ahead of the June 15 game at San Jose when Bucha scored his first goal. “One of the things that we've worked on a lot is their positioning to help us as we're looking to build and play through pressure. I still think there's a lot more for the both of them in that regard, and then there's still more for Pavel in the final third. I think he would probably say that too. He's hungry to contribute in ways that we haven't seen consistently through this first half of the season, and with where our team's at, and knowing that there's more there with him in our attack, I think that's a good thing.
“So, very pleased with Pavel. He's a very good pro, he's a good teammate, takes information well, puts in the work every day. Quiet kid, but if you see the way he trains, you could tell he's much more comfortable in this environment than maybe in the preseason. I am very happy with his progression, and like I said, the expectation is that it's only going to get better for him.”
Settling in as a family
Bucha said the transition to living in a foreign country was tough at first, but he’s settled in with his wife and 3-year-old Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Molly.
A new but exciting challenge is on the horizon as his wife is pregnant with their first child, a son due in early October.
“It was tough,” Bucha said of the adjustment to living in Cincinnati. “We like it a lot here, all things around, like living life, besides football, and for me as football player, it's like living dream. But the biggest disadvantage of all of this, like my life here is that distance between me and my other part of my family there in Czech Republic, and from my friends. So, settling here was a little bit difficult, and yeah, we had to figure out how to how to get here our dog, so it was really tough task for us, but finally, we are here together.”
Most of Bucha’s free time is devoted to his dog, as he and his wife enjoy exploring new trails and parks around the city with Molly.
However, Bucha also has other interests, such as reading and studying German. His ultimate dream would be to play in the German Bundesliga, but with Germany a neighboring country to his homeland, it makes sense to learn the language anyway. He used to take weekly English lessons, as well, when he was at Viktoria Plzen, but now that he uses the language daily, he has been able to cancel those.
His English was good when he arrived but has greatly improved in his five months here.
Centerback Kipp Keller also introduced him to meditation while the two were rooming together during preseason in Florida. Keller would meditate every day, and eventually Bucha grew curious about it. Once he tried it, he bought in, he said.
Otherwise, Bucha describes himself as pretty "straightforward."
“We also like to explore new things here in America and in the city,” Bucha said. “So we were, for example, in Indianapolis to watch the NBA games, and we were here at the Reds to see baseball games, and we are looking forward to NFL season start so we can watch also American football. And yeah, so sometimes we go just to the city, to OTR or downtown, and going through the streets and just looking around what's in there.”
Miazga believes as Bucha has adjusted more to life in Cincinnati, he’s grown more confident on the field, as well.
“You can see he’s getting more and more comfortable,” Miazga said, before his knee injury. “It’s not easy coming from Europe and your first experience abroad is in America, and it’s not even New York or Florida or California where it’s very diverse and you have a lot to do. Cincinnati is its own little niche of a city so I feel like he’s doing really well now. He’s obviously getting more comfortable with the guys, talking more and you can see it in his play. He’s performing really well, and he cares. We were joking with him the other day it seems like he’s beefed up, so I don’t know if it was the American food or the gym, maybe a combination. He’s obviously an important player for us, and he’s performed really well.”
Noonan said many players new to this country take some time to “come out of their shell,” but Bucha is on the quiet side in part because he is locked in on whatever the task at hand is. Bucha also is processing a second language and trying to understand the messages being delivered, so he’s especially focused in those moments.
Even off the field, Bucha is still “very serious,” Noonan said, but his smiles are subtle and becoming more frequent.
The players, most importantly, respect Bucha.
“He's a really quiet dude, kind of reserved, super nice guy, but as time goes on, you see that fight and character come out on the field a bit more, which we love because he's so good on the ball and now you're seeing just that fight in the midfield,” defender DeAndre Yedlin said. “I think him and Obi are such a great pairing together, so he's been a huge piece for us in the middle, really happy he's on the team, especially because he's such a great guy. His character, how he carries himself, he's very positive. He's always smiling, just a really good dude, so first and foremost that's the kind of people you want on your team because that's who you are around the most. Been really pleased with him, and you can just see the growth, which is just great.”
Bucha just wants to be useful to his team and help FCC win championships.
“It’s been good, but there’s more to come,” Bucha said.
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