That was a very meh half, we look disinterested but Bulgaria just aren't that good so we definitely look more likely to score.
I noticed that too in the broadcast, but that was definitely an error since it's not remotely possible to have that much possession and less passes.
Must have been unless Bulgaria didn't complete a pass the whole rest of the half (which actually they got worse and worse), but by the end of it according to UEFA.com stats we completed 143 more passes than they did. Our best spell was the end of the half.
Yeah, I can't believe we are going to be wearing those in the Euros. Our traditional white away kits have always been bland as shit as far as I can remember and yet we've somehow managed to downgrade. I do like our current home kit however. I think the red shirts with blue shorts looks sharp.
My relative first half bright spot would probably be Kolar early on, we were getting pushed back the first 5 minutes and his ability to play with his feet compared to Vaclik probably kept it from generating early shots.
There it is. Conceding goals from nothing. We were asking for trouble with such a high defensive line like that. Upon replay, it was offside...
My view wasn't that good but on first look it appeared offsides or that we stepped back to put him on at the last minute. Still a lapse in marking.
Once again, this game is showing that we are still not complete without the handful of players mentioned earlier that can be our difference makers. Still think we also lack leadership on the field as well.
Just looked at a better replay, they clearly got away with offsides. Still a lot of problems with this performance so far. We don't have the ability to build chances through the middle, everything is set piece or starts on the wing. It's only one data point, but this also supports the Ondrasek is better as a substitute theory. His passing is really off today.
We've been getting progressively worse since Bulgaria went ahead. Not really surprising though given what we're working with off the bench and how we're currently set up.
That's an embarrassing attempt from Dolezal. The lack of pacy and skillful players in this team is becoming frustrating.
I criticize Husbauer a lot as an international, but he actually has done relatively (low bar) well today. Dolezal as bad as ever.
The match stats in a vacuum make it look like we dominated, but there was little energy and no ideas. It should have been 0-0, but that was a poor performance from the start against one of the worst teams in UEFA.
Not even sure I could give 3 best. Kolar and Darida were okay, Sevcik had moments. Worst 3 there are many many many options...
That was a pretty shit game from us. Couldn't break down their defense when they bunkered. I actually took the time to find a pub that were actually showing this game and went wearing my Czech shirt to watch this, and of course we lose.
U-21s have a big match today against Croatia. Our team was hyped up for its offensive talents, but we've actually mostly appeared more cohesive defensively so far.
Croatia 1 - 2 Czech Republic Massive result away for the U-21s. This moves us to the top of our qualifying group for the time being. Was apparently a very entertaining match.
We are officially locked in to Pot 3 for Euro 2020, just barely holding that spot following the Bulgaria match. Because of the set up of this edition of the tournament there are a lot of partially drawn groups already.
Yea we are gonna have to punch above our weight in at least 1 match during the group stage to reach the knockouts.
The good news is that Pot 4 looks like it will be a list of very manageable teams. The weakest Pot 1 team is Ukraine (still good enough to beat us twice in recent memory), and they are already matched with Netherlands from Pot 2. That group wouldn't be bad. The team to avoid in Pot 2 is definitely France... everyone else should be somewhat manageable although Netherlands and Croatia would definitely be heavily favored against us.
Out of the pots, here is my ideal draws: Pot 1: Italy, or Ukraine Pot 2: Switzerland, or Russia Pot 4: hasn't been set yet, but I wanna avoid Finland. Wales also shows up for tournaments. It's gonna be tough. I worry we will get a very hard group. Germany, France, Czech, Wales would be hell