 |
 |
|
| CZECH REPUBLIC QUALIFICATION |
| Faroe Islands - Czech Republic | 0-1 | (Smicer) |
| Bosnia - Czech Republic | 1-3 | (Baranek, Smicer, Kuka) |
| Czech Republic - Estonia | 4-1 | (Berger 2, Nedved, Lokvenc) |
| Czech Republic - Lithuania | 2-0 | (Hornak, Berger) |
| Scotland - Czech Republic | 1-2 | (Elliot - og, Smicer) |
| Estonia - Czech Republic | 0-2 | (Berger, Koller) |
| Czech Republic - Scotland | 3-2 | (Repka, Kuka, Koller) |
| Lithuania - Czech Republic | 0-4 | (Nedved 2, Koller 2) |
| Czech Republic - Bosnia | 3-0 | (Koller, Berger, Poborsky) |
| Czech Republic - Faroe Islands | 2-0 | (Koller, Verbir) |
| After the qualification was over, the group standings looked like that : |
| Team | G | W | D | L | Goals | Pts |
| Czech Republic | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 26:5 | 30 |
| Scotland | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 15:10 | 18 |
| Bosnia | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 14:16 | 11 |
| Lithuania | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 8:16 | 11 |
| Estonia | 10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 15:17 | 11 |
| Faroe Islands | 10 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 4:17 | 3 |
| Jan Koller
was the topscorer with 6 goals from 6 matches. The Czech national team was the only team that finished its' qualification group without losing any points. After beating Scotland in June '99 they were the first team which could book the tickets to Belgium and Holland. |
| FRIENDLY MATCHES |
| Netherlands - Czech Republic | 1-1 | (Koller) |
| Czech Republic - Australia | 3-1 | (Fukal, Koller, Ulich) |
| Czech Republic - Israel | 4-1 | (Nedved 2, Koller, Wagner) |
| THE TEAM |
| In the past the
Czechoslovak team won the championship in 1976 in Yugoslavia and four years later bronze medals in Italy. After the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 the Czechs passed the qualification for Euro '96 in England and got a very tough group : Germany, Italy and Russia. Nobody gave them any chances but they beat Italy, Russia and caused two more sensations when they went through the quarterfinals (Portugal, 1-0) and semi- finals (France 1-0 after penalty kicks) to the final match at Wembley. They lost the Final against Germany and went home with the silver medals. There are many players in the team that experienced that success. Pavel Srnicek of Sheffield Wednesday had to be ready for a substiution as the second goalkeeper, Ladislav Maier was the third goalie. Karel Rada will probably play sweeper, Radek Latal and Jiri Nemec are stable players of Schalke 04. Radek Bejbl is going to change his team after this season. Patrik Berger (FC Liverpool), Karel Poborsky (Benfica Lisboa) and Pavel Nedved (Lazio Roma) are really great stars of their clubs. Pavel Kuka is still able to score some goals as well as Vladimir Šmicer who didn't play this season a lot because of his injury. These ones are supposed to form a team with players from the Czech league like Fukal, Gabriel, Novotny, Rosicky, Baranek, Lokvenc (Sparta Praha) and Cerny, Rada, Vlcek, Horvath, Ulich (Slavia Praha). They're the best players from the best two clubs in the Czech Republic. The line-up should look like this : |
| Koller | Šmicer |
| Berger |
| Nedved | Poborsky | ||
| Nemec | Bejbl |
| Gabriel | Repka |
| Rada |
| Srnicek |
| Patrik Berger will not
be allowed to play in the beginning because of a red card he got in the last qualification match. It’s possible that he will be substituted by Pavel Horvath or Tomaš Rosicky (19 years old, star of the future!). |
| STRENGTHS
& WEAKNESSES The strenghts of Czech team are great players in midfield (Nedved, Berger, Poborsky, Nemec, Rosicky,…) and amazing productivity of Koller in attack. It's not certain who will be his partner up front yet (Šmicer, Lokvenc, Kuka). The whole team can change its' tactics very well and play just what it needs to. That's the work of coach Jozef Chovanec. The weakness is the unstable defense which makes too many mistakes. There are only few players in the back line who have some experience from abroad (Repka, Rada). STARS Tomaš REPKA (defense) Club : AC Fiorentina Former club : AC Sparta Praha, FC Banik Ostrava Age : 26 Matches played : 35 He played in all youth national teams and was a member of the Under-16 team which won the European Championship in 1990. He is very good in the air, very strong in the fights for ball and a natural ball duel winner. His 35 caps are a proof for that. He did not play in England at EURO 1996 because of the red card which he obtained in the match of the Under-21 selection against Spain in the qualification for the Olympic Games 1996. Pavel NEDVED (midfield) Club : SS Lazio (Roma) Former club : AC Sparta Praha, FC Dukla Praha, FC Škoda Plzen Age : 27 Matches played : 42 A strong minded player who still continues to work considerably for his own development. His priority is powerful shot from mid distance. He won the Czech Championship three times with Sparta. After EURO 1996 where he belonged to the first eleven he changed clubs and went to Lazio Roma. "Player of the Year 1998" in the Czech Republic. In the last Final of the Cup Winners' Cup he scored the winning goal. Jan KOLLER (offense) Club : RSC Anderlecht Former club : KSC Lokeren, AC Sparta Praha Age : 27 Matches played : 13 The tallest player in the national team (202 cm) transferred from Sparta Prague to Lokeren in the Belgian league. In the 1998/99 season he was the topscorer of the Belgian first division which won him a move to traditional power RSC Anderlecht. In the national team he made his debut against Belgium as well and scored the 1-0 game winner. He has scored thirteen goals in thirteen international matches of his carrer and was the "Player of the Year 1999" in the Czech Republic. Darkey darkey@email.cz |