With the U21s about to start their tournament, I figured they deserve some attention. I'm hoping to follow the games live on here, but if not, I'll update afterwards. Anyways, below is the team. Brankáři: Macej (Michalovce), Vejmola (Mladá Boleslav), Zima (Janov). Obránci: Havel (Bohemians 1905), Holzer (Sparta), Kaša (Žilina), Lüftner (Slavia), Simić (Mouscron), Stronati (Mladá Boleslav). Záložníci: Černý (Ajax), Barák (Slavia), Jankto (Udinese), Hašek, Hubínek (oba Bohemians 1905), Havlík (Slovácko), Souček (Liberec), Nečas (Mladá Boleslav), Sáček (Sparta), Ševčík (Liberec), Trávník (Jablonec). Útočníci Schick (Sampdoria), Juliš (Sparta), Chorý (Olomouc). Two notable absences are captain Ales Cermak, who was injured in a car crash as a result of drunk driving and most recently, Ales Mateju, who was injured in training. Both are very good players and would have been starters, but I think we have just enough depth to replace them. The team is largely dependent on its attacking quality and the talent of a few individuals. This generation doesn't have much to offer in terms of goalies and defenders as the previous one did. I'd say the top five players on the team are clearly Schick, Jankto, Cerny, Simic, and Barak. Other players to watch for are Sacek, Soucek, and maybe Holzer. There's no reason why other players can't emerge though.
U-21 so far have lost to Germany 0-2 and defeated Italy 3-1, although their odds of making the knockout round is low because we need to defeat Denmark by 3 goals to be even with Slovakia who are currently the top 2nd place team (small tournament means even smaller margins of error). Of course if Italy beats Germany and we beat Denmark there will also be 3 teams on 6 points in our group and it would be a whole mess of tiebreakers. Our goals against Italy were from Travnik, Havlik and Luftner (who has continued his late season form of not been great in defense, but his goal was an incredible strike: https://streamable.com/g9xu4).
Quite harsh to potentially have two teams with six points eliminated in the group stages, but it does add some urgency and intrigue to every game. Only two draws in the competition thus far. I think Lavicka set us up very well against Italy. The tactics were spot on and a few of the questionable inclusions like Travnik and Luftner (he's still terribly overrated), paid off through their goals. I'm honestly not surprised we beat Italy, I just never would've expected it to be done with an underwhelming Schick and Jankto, plus Barak and Cerny on the bench. Player of the tournament has been Simic for me. Such a classy player who looks head and shoulders above the rest of our defenders. Only a matter of time before he's playing in a top league.
Rough way to end the tournament, were completely outplaying Denmark when they got the 3rd and after that we were in all out attack and vulnerable to the counter attack. A few players probably helped themselves from a potential transfer stand point which is I guess the main goal of youth tournament anyway. Not sure how I rate Lavicka's overall managerial performance, his team was entertaining but not great in defense (which is also how I recall his Sparta teams).
The U-19s seem to be having a solid tournament beating Sweden & Georgia and losing 1-2 against Portugal. We are through to the next round. This is our first U-19 European Championship since 2011 when we were runners up. That U-19 squad had Kaderabek, Krejci, Brabec, Skalak, and Kalas that have all made some impact on the national team as well as a few other solid performers at the club level like Prikryl and Koubek. Hopefully some of this group will take the next step as well.
U-19s play England today. One of our U-19 strikers (though also plays at times on the wing), Martin Graiciar has signed with Fiorentina in Italy today, although he will likely stay with his current club Liberec on loan for this season.
This doesn't inspire much confidence at all. I don't expect anything against Germany, but I'm not convinced we'll succeed in Belfast either. I was hoping to see the likes of Schick, Vydra, Sural, Barak, and Pilar in the squad. They're not all in great shape, but certainly upgrades over the current attacking players. Interesting to see Jarolim drop Sivok and Brabec. Not surprised about the former, but the latter is still a suitable back up at the very least. Hopefully Suchy and Kalas can put together a few stellar performances in the remaining qualifiers, or someone else emerges as a viable option. Five more players will be added to the squad in the coming days.
Vaclik - Kalas, Suchy, Novak - Selassie, Soucek, Darida, Boril - Kopic, Krmencik, Jankto I listed it as a 3-4-3, but it'll likely play out as more of a 5-4-1. I'll be impressed if we don't lose more than 3-0.
The line-up is very unimpressive. Has Krejci been off form or something? I expected him to start this one. Defense also worries me a lot. I am hoping we at least go for it. Pretty much no chance we are going to the world cup, so why not attack them?
I believe Dockal, Krejci and Kaderabek were left off because they are a yellow card from suspension. Basically decided better to go for the win against Northern Ireland than try to get anything against Germany.
A lot of people in Czech football need to be sacked (and in several cases charged with corruption), prefer ably starting at least 10 years ago. The issues start way above the manager and reverberate through the national team and league. If anything I give some of our individual players and managers credit for making something occasionally resembling a 2nd tier UEFA national team and 3rd tier league show up at all the past several years.
This match is so frustrating. Germany have barely been better than us, but we panic immediately when we get into their final third. Germany are letting our players take stupid shots from 30-35 yards out. No way we make one of those. You don't see Germany even attempting such stupid shots when they get into our end. We've also been so damn wasteful.
All we really lack at the moment is the composure and class of someone like Dockal or Schick. Defensively, not too many issues, but Germany have been quite underwhelming for their standards. We're still terrible in possession though. Darida and Jankto look our only threats.
Wonder if we will bring on Krejci and/or Dockal to try and get the final ball? I think best not to risk Kaderabek getting a yellow with defense doing okay.
Your thought was correct. Krejci has come on. Seems to be playing right wing. We also have been finding space out wide, so hopefully Krejci can get some balls into the box.
Keep going. A draw means nothing. We need this win. A win here, and we actually have a chance at the world cup