Not only that, but we got pretty lucky with the playoff draw too (no disrespect to Montenegro). Looking over there recent results, the Černohorci kind of limped through the latter stages of qualifying ending with 2 losses in there last 3 qualifying fixtures, but they put up some good results in Podgorica - draw against England, and won the rest of their matches there throughout qualifying. The first leg is in Prague, and I think a 2-0 result would just about guarantee us qualification. Otherwise, I know very little about the Montenegrin team aside from Vucinic and Jovetic (who I am pretty sure used to play guitar for Queen). Anyone else know much about them?
The Czech Republic did quite well to make the playoffs, considering the team isn't as strong as it once was. Montenegro will be a tricky opponent, and I expect a close set of games. A comfortable 2-0 win at home in Prague would be nice.
Game is today. It's on ESPN3 for us currently not in Czech. I am hoping for a win. Next summer I am going back home to Czech so I'd love to see us play in the euros!
Belated congrats on qualifying for Poland/Ukraine. Pretty lucky from what I saw ... but well, what counts are the goals.
Thank you, and I tend to think that any time this current squad wins that there is some luck involved, although Montenegro was mostly harmless. Still, we are probably the weakest team going into the tournament. That said, the fact that two teams that would usually be in Pot 3 or 4 are in Pot 1 means that there could be a really weak group that we could be competitive in, or... we could just as easily end up with Spain, Germany, and Portugal in our group.
I hope we´ll win one more time in our "easy" group. But i´m afraid that we aren´t so good as we were in past. It will be difficult. There are many voices in CZE saying we have to pass, but i think it will be shame..
If we don't get through it will be a shame. We got the easiest group by far and there is really no excuse why we shouldn't make it to the knockout round. We even will have strong support in Poland.
Ukraine has announced their squad for the friendly against us on August 15. Our squad should be announced in the next few days. Rosicky is still recovering for another month or so, so he's out (and, unfortunately, it would seem also for the qualifier against Denmark). I do know that Kalas is on the preliminary roster since he mentioned it in an interview. Other than that I don't know how many changes from the Euro 2012 roster to expect, I have to think that a couple of new forward options will be brought in considering our current situation (I'd personally give Kozak and possibly Ondrášek a shot). Other than that maybe Dočkal to try on the right side of midfield.
Kozak came on late for Lazio and did well so I hope he gets a chance especially with Baros retired and Necid hurt. Our striker situation is pretty bad right now. Currently our best strikers are Pekhart, Lafata and Kozak. Not too imposing I must say. Our midfield though is looking strong.
Disaster The final roster No Kalas, no new strikers (and only 2?), 3 goalkeepers for a friendly, and no realization that long-term it's unwise to have your best right midfield option be a box-to-box central midfielder (Jiráček). This is complete crap honestly, why even schedule a friendly before qualifying if you aren't going to try and build depth or correct weaknesses in the roster? Calling in a 30-year-old Rezek who hasn't even been starting for his club in Europa League recently, meanwhile we have several young players in far better form that could (including a right midfielder that is the current top scorer in that competition). Bilek did say that he had planned to select a couple of young players: Chramosta and Krejčí before they were injured (Charmosta tore up his knee and is out till spring, Krejčí had a clean shoulder dislocation and should be playing again in a week or two).
--------------Pekhart----------------- ---Pilar--------------------Jiracek---- ----------Darida----Plasil------------- -------------Hubschman-------------- -Limbersky-Kadlec--Sivok--Selassie- -----------------Cech------------------ It's a decent starting XI against a weaker opponent but we need Rosicky. I don't think Kolar is good enough so might as well give Darida a real chance. Our depth is pretty bad. The older guys aren't good enough so I don't get why some younger players were called in. I wanted to see Kalas and Kozak so I am disappointed neither made the squad. I don't know what is in store for our national team. I hope Bilek can do something. Pilar, Jiracek, Pekhart and Selassie will only get better which is good for the NT.
The starting lineup is fine, it's just that we have some young players that have more potential (and in some cases are honestly better than players on this roster right now) that aren't getting a shot. I would have left out: Rezek, Petržela, Kolář, and a backup goalkeeper. I would have brought in: Kozak, Dočkal, Kalas, and one of Hušbauer/Ondrášek. Oh well, it's a long qualifying process and I suppose since Denmark will be such a crucial match it might be better to hold off on bringing in to many fresh faces until after that match.
So there will be a new face after all. Plašil pulled out of the squad to rest his Achilles, and Hušbauer has been called in. Still would have rather seen Dočkal or Kozak, but Hušbauer has been in good form, is very promising, and plays a more Plašil like role in the middle.
The match is still a day away, but the starting lineup against Ukraine: Čech - Gebre Selassie, Sivok, Kadlec, Limberský - Darida, Hübschman - Jiráček, Kolář, Pilař - Lafata. The reasoning on Lafata over Pekhart sounded like Bilek just wanted to give Lafata a look against a solid opponent, which I'm fine with. Not thrilled about Kolář if they try to play him as the creative mid-again, he doesn't have the ability to be that at the international level (plus that's not really the role he plays at Plzen, in their system the CAM is more of 2nd striker, while the holding mids [such as Darida] play the creative attacking role). Hope that Hušbauer get's a decent bit of playing time, he scored on a nice freekick last weekend and has really been playing well.
Well hopefully Kolar and Darida can form a nice partnership in the midfield to create some chances. If Kolar plays the Plasil role and Darida plays the Rosicky role, I think those two will work together. I still think our only chances will come from Pilar and Jiracek though.
20 minutes in... pretty sloppy so far. Darida has looked good breaking from his deeper position, Pilar a few dangerous moves. Defensive positioning/spacing is really off a couple of times, and Gebre Selassie has probably played his worst 20 minutes for the national so far. Other than that not really much of note... Just got our first real shot on goal, Darida and Pilar working on the left, cross got to Jiracek who hit a decent shot but right at the keeper. We're starting to show flashes of better play.
Either we're experimenting with Jiracek in a free-role or he has a rather avant-garde interpretation of the right midfield position.
HT 0-0 That was ugly, I can't even speculate on what our actual formation looks like. Darida is the only player that I could really praise, he's been solid in defense and initiated our best attacking chances. Pilar and the Sivok-Kadlec duo have been solid enough; Cech has been solid though not really tested. Theo was twice caught out of position terribly (usually drifting too much centrally) and had a couple of careless give-aways including one that led to a break where Ukraine got a decent shot on goal. He's played well enough recently for me to not panic over one lapsed performance in a friendly, but for the purposes of this match it might be better to use Rajtoral next half. Jiracek looks awful at right midfield, center back, left midfield, center forward, and all the other random spots on the field he has appeared. Honestly, his admirable run of form out of position in the Euros aside, I don't think he needs to be playing out wide. Lafata touched the ball about as often as Baros and Pekhart have in this system (a couple of times per half), but with Kolar at attacking midfield it's like we have two forwards that never touch the ball up front. One halftime change, Petrzela for Kolar, which pushes Darida to attacking mid, and Jiracek to the middle.
That really couldn't have gone worse... The final is 0-0, but honestly Ukraine dominated most of the match with the exception of the last 6 minutes or so when Petrzela and Sivok both came close to stealing on undeserved victory. On top of that Pilar was stretchered off the field with his hands over his face in the 2nd half. One piece of good news would be that our next opponent Denmark had a terrible result at home. They lost to Slovakia 1-3.
Initial report on Pilař is twisted knee with suspected ligament damage (though at this point at least they haven't said that it's torn), best case scenario would still be several weeks to a month, so he is almost certainly out for the match against Denmark.