CzechRepublic: Extra round for the “age group of the century”

Remarkable but true, the world’s second best team behind Brazil according to FIFA’s world rankings (as of November 2005) was only able to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup via the play-offs. The CzechRepublic, the last team to get through to the finals, were again drawn against their recent perpetual adversaries, the Netherlands, in the preliminaries. And the Dutch came out on top for the first time since 2003.

Here you can find information about the star of the team ...

Arguably – alongside England – Europe’s most talented teams, the two faced each other for the first time in the 2004 European Championships qualifying competition. The CzechRepublic won the group basically because they had the  better of the two direct confrontations (3-1 and 1-1). At the European Championships finals themselves, coach Karel Brückner’s side eventually won one of the most memorable and exciting European Championships’ games ever 3-2, after coming back from a 2-0 deficit. But the “Oranjes” then turned the tables in the 2006 World Cup preliminaries with two 2-0 wins. It left the Czechs, who also lost 2-0 in Romania, having to face Norway in the play-off “extra round”.

Two routine 1-0 wins proved however that Brückner’s side possessed abundant strong nerves in addition to their skills. One player making a big contribution to the what in the end effect was a comfortable victory was somebody who had actually announced his retirement from international football after the frustrating EURO 2004 when the clear favourites sensationally lost 1-0 after extra time in the semifinals to giant killers and eventual European Champions Greece: Pavel Nedved. Europe’s “Footballer of the Year” in 2003 returned to the team for the play-offs and again found enjoyment playing for the national team. And football fans everywhere have something to look forward to: the 33-year-old Juventus playmaker, who moved to Turin from Lazio for 41 million Euro in 2001 as a replacement for Zinedine Zidane (73.5 million Euro fee to Real Madrid), will also appear at the FIFA World Cup 2006.

The qualifying group did not go at all well, especially in the final stages, for the highly successful coach Karel Brückner. The white haired 66-year-old, whose own playing career only peaked in the second division, took over from Jozef Chovanec as Head Coach in December 2001 after the disastrous play-off loss against Belgium in the World Cup 2002 preliminaries. A cunning fox who often likes to gather his players around him for protracted team talks before important games, he has been virtually on the up ever since. His team remained undefeated for a 16 game stretch, excited everybody at the EURO 2004 with fantastic football up until the semifinals and caused a sensation when his reserve team humiliated (2-1) World Cup runners-up Germany to send them packing after the group stage.

Brückner suffered a big set back when top striker Jan Koller injured himself on 24 September 2005. The 32-year-old Borussia Dortmund player partially tore his cruciate ligaments in the Bundesliga game against Mainz and will be sidelined for six months. Whether he will regain form in time for the World Cup is still doubtful. Before the injury, the 2.02 metre giant, who is his country’s top scorer with 40 goals in 66 internationals, was qualifying’s leading goal-getter after hitting the back of the net nine times – he eventually ended up in second place behind the Portugal’s Pauleta (11). Koller’s regular striking partner is Milan Baros (24), EURO 2004 Golden Boot winner, who was transferred to Aston Villa from Liverpool for nine million Euro in summer 2005. The reserve striking force, which includes Jiri Stájner (29, Hanover 96), Tomás Jun (22, Trabzonspor) plus the ex-Mönchengladbach player Marek Heinz (28, Galatasaray Istanbul), falls well short of true European class.

The real offensive power (37 goals in qualifying) stems from the midfield, where the key figure, along with Nedved, is Tomás Rosický from Dortmund. The 25-year-old was highly impressive when scoring seven goals in qualifying and is energetically supported by the still lightening fast and highly experienced Vladimir Smicer (32, Girondins Bordeaux) and Karel Poborsky (33, Sparta Prague). Responsible for the midfield defensive duties are Tomas Galásek (32, Ajax) and increasingly Jan Polak (24, Nuremberg) whilst David Jarolim (26, Hamburger) is rarely more than the joker in the pack.

The Czech defence also belongs to the best in Europe. In front of 1.97 meter tall goalkeeper Petr Cech (23, Chelsea), one of the world’s best keepers in the opinion of many experts, is a perfect flat back four containing the former Hamburg player Tomás Ujfalusi (27, Florence) and David Rozehnal (25, Paris St. Germain) in the centre plus Zdenek Grygera (25, Ajax) on the right and Marek Jankulovski (28, AC Milan) on the left flanks.

The team’s biggest problem: the Czech Republic’s “age-group of the century” is slowly getting on a bit. Many stars are way over 30. But captain Nedved says almost defiantly: “Along with older players such as Karel Poborsky and Vladimir Smicer, I’d just like to show everybody that we aren’t yet a lost generation.”

Since being politically separated from the SlovakRepublic on 1 January 1993, the Czech Football Association ČMFS (Českomoravský fotbalový svaz) has failed in his previous attempts to appear at a World Cup finals. It’s biggest achievements came in the period when it was united with Slovakia and was called Czechoslovakia (CSSR). They have appeared in a World Cup final on two occasions. Both finals were lost: 2-1 after extra time against hosts Italy in 1934 and in 3-1 in 1962 against an exceptional Brazilian team that included Pele. All six other World Cup appearances ended at the quarterfinal stage at the latest. Their last World Cup match was played in Milan on 1 July 1990. A Lothar Mattäus penalty marked the end of the road in the quarterfinals against eventual World Cup winners, Germany.