Sulc laughing in disbelief when asked about being played out of position and the (lack of) instructions given to him.
I just saw that clip, I mean credit to him for being honest. I feel some players always try to be diplomatic with complacency.
U-21 made things needlessly complicated against Gibralter by conceding an early penalty so they spent the match facing a parked bus. They did get the winner though so ultimately no harm done. Kind of glad to see the international break over, let the players get back to playing real football.
Based on the sit-down interview that Hasek and Nedved did, it appears he’ll remain in charge for the October break. I have so much to say, but not in the mood to waste anymore energy on the national team. Bring on club football.
The twitter update is insane. We evaluated the performances They were shameful, and we can't let this represent our association to the footballing world We have 3 qualifying matches remaining and we need a change in approach and commitment .... we'll submit another evaluation at the end of October (when we'll have 1 qualifier left before presumably the playoffs) Meanwhile there is already open speculation about our next manager, so it seems this is truly just prolonging the inevitable.
Schick will miss the upcoming break with a hamstring injury, although it doesn’t appear to be anything serious. Now we can fully commit to playing unwatchable, kick and run, brash football with Chory up front. We’ll most likely be without Holes as well.
I really want to know what it takes to lose a spot on the national team under this regime. What value is anyone seeing in Kral or Lingr after the last couple of months? Current form matters more than past form. I would honestly much rather start Vydra. I was watching the Plzen highlights and I'm pleasantly surprised at how he's evolved his game when I used to think of him as just run fast and shoot. Much more canny movement and positioning. He may have made it in the Premiership if he had learned not to lean on his physical attributes so much earlier. With Karabec and Cerny flanking we might actually look somewhat capable in attack...
With his back against the wall, job on the line, and pressure at its peak, Hasek recalls his go-to guy, Ondrej Lingr, the wrong MLS player.. I did expect basically the same team from September and the usual few eye rolls. Yet we’ll start with Provod, Kusej, and Chory up front with Soucek and Cerv in midfield against Croatia. Lingr will be first choice off the bench. We will try to outrun, outwork, and outfight them because that’s the brand of football that we’ve belittled ourselves to. Even if they were all available, we’d never start Cerny, Karabec, Hlozek, and Schick together. That’s too many footballers.
I'd play Provod (or Sulc) centrally probably, something like. I actually think Provod is in better form, although he is also more versatile as he can play wide too... Although after Sulc put in time as wing back, I guess everyone needs to be ready for anything.... -----Soucek --- Krejci ----- Cerny----Provod/Sulc-----Karabec --------------Vydra----------------- I actually think Krejci would serve us better in midfield with his passing and an extra set-piece target, Hranac and Vitik can be the center backs.
There’s been some shockingly bad call ups over the years, but calling up Jan Chramosta in 2025 might be the worst. It’s like waking up in 2015 with him and Vydra in the team. I guess this is our response to the 35+ Croatian unicorns that ran us over in June. I love how Hasek abandoned his own “build a young team for the World Cup” memo as soon as his job came into question.
I feel like Krejci in midfield is something to consider for the next cycle if Soucek (finally) is given a reduced role. I just think the two of them together would be too slow and kind of overlap in certain aspects (like Sadilek and Cerv for example). Unfortunately, the team I expect Hasek to start: Kovar - Coufal, Hranac, Krejci, Zeleny - Soucek, Cerv - Provod, Sulc, Kusej - Chory This is just based on previous lineups and how the last game with Croatia went. I’m sure we’ll play not to lose in a must-win game.
Overlap or not Krejci is in better form and better with the ball, which is where the Soucek - Cerv pairing has killed us. Sadilek in his best form is better with the ball but weaker defensivel... and he is not in his best form. I probably hate this call up extra for making me realize Jan Chramosta is turning 35... I remember when he was consider a potential prospect for the future. That said his greatest talent as a youth player was acting like he's been shot any time a defender got within a foot of him if he was in the penalty area... Saw one commenter on twitter suggesting it would have been better to just take the opportunity to cap-tie Yannick Eduardo, although I disagree since the U-21s actually have something to play for not this pointless spectacle with a lame duck manager.... Also, with all respect to his strong start to the year, it's the Dutch 2nd division, I doubt the Netherlands are going all out to switch his allegiance back...
Agreed, Eduardo is certainly an interesting prospect, but too soon for him at this level. My only concern is that if he does begin to blossom in a first division, we’ll be too busy fielding aging Czech leaguers to even notice. It would so on-brand of us to lose him due to our own stupidity. With that said, Vojta should’ve been the newcomer in the team. Not a 35 year-old that will at most be called up for one, maybe two international windows and then never seen again. I really don’t understand why Kuchta was left out for him either. A terrible, terrible pick.
Hranac isn’t even in the match day roster, so (again) no back-up right back, which was covered by Hranac when Doudera got hurt against Montenegro. We say we don’t have enough players starting in top leagues, but apparently can afford to leave one off the team sheet. Jemelka being preferred in the hierarchy is actual insanity.
It mostly looks different in that Croatia is playing much worse than the first match, so we at least are getting chances without having to put all effort to slow an onslaught. Were we playing some combination of Karabec / Cerny and Vydra instead of Kusej and Chory their might be a goal for us to take this half.
This game is there for the taking if we had any creative players out there and actually wanted to play out from the back. Our build-up play is non-existent. Painful to watch.
Faroe Islands are cruising against Montenegro 3-0... the next match there will not be easy. Unfortunately, one Croatian player that did come ready to play is Livakovic.
Bringing Vydra on in addition to Chory doesn't solve the problem that we have nobody to provide service/dangerous passes. It just means we're going direct.
We're the only 0-0 match of all the current UEFA qualifiers... and I've more or less been predicting that how it ends for the last 40 minutes or so. That may be the worst result we can get, it likely saves Hasek's job, but doesn't help out qualifying position at all.
Yep, there it is. Lingr and not Karabec. He still has to pay his dues and climb the ranks first! Don’t want to rush him or anything!