Not paying very close attention, but my initial impression is that Scotland/Israel are fairly even in ability. Israel maybe slightly better. Neither looks all that formidable outside of a a few players.
The U-21 team is nearly guaranteed a top 2 group finish after Greece lost to Lithuania. Greece were originally one our two main competitors to win the group (along with Croatia), but have completely collapsed since qualification resumed.
Scotland and Serbia, the latter of which looks a much better team so I actually hope the Scots "shithouse their way in"
Good thing I didn't put money on either game.. but yeah, probably also prefer Scotland advance even if it means facing two group stage opponents with home field advantage. Serbia would make for a very difficult group, arguably a tougher one than at Euro 2016, though we've at least improved since.
As mentioned, the U21s are currently in a favourable position to qualify for their tournament next year. They play Scotland in a few hours with the game being streamed on Youtube I believe. I don't really rate Krejci as a manager, but his style remains consistent from what I remember of his time managing Plzen and that is having a good defensive record (just 2 goals conceded in 7 qualifiers). Otherwise, his team selection and in-game management is not the greatest.
If that's the case I may actually put that on my 2nd screen. Permanent WFH has definitely increased my weekday match viewing flexibility. A win against Scotland gives us inside position, but its hard to really predict this group.
I think the Scottish FA will have a stream on their Youtube channel, so I'll have the match on in the background. I already know Thursdays will be my least productive WFH day once Europa League starts.
Hlavaty starting in at AM (according UEFA.com lineup) is an unusual choice. He's been very good the last few matches for Pardubice, but has I think only made one appearance for U-21s before. Also, in general the roster is a clear reminder of how much the league depends on players loaned from the top 3 (and to a lesser extent from abroad).
We can beat Scotland even if the match is in Glasgow. I also doubt by next summer many fans will be allowed into the stadium anyway so the venues will not matter a whole lot. What a tough group we are in though. We should be looking to take the 2nd spot.
I just realized that if Serbia advances that means our group would have Serbia and Croatia, which I'm sure will be fun for everyone (at least likely no/few fans though).
Since we last played them at Euro 2016, I do feel we have made up ground on Croatia in what was otherwise a very lopsided match that we were very lucky to draw. Their experienced core group is now older (Rakitic actually recently retired from the national team and Modric is nearing the end of his career), while we now have a number of younger, more talented players compared to our previous squad. Croatia are still the favourites without a doubt, but I don't think us beating them would be a huge upset, certainly not to the extent that the media or other fans would label it.
I see this as a positive though. I've felt that Krejci has sort of just relied on the same tried and tested players with more U21 or senior league football experience (Hlozek the obvious exception) even if they don't have that much potential. I'm just glad he didn't start Chalus over Zima which I expected. Along with Sadilek, those are probably the two I'm most interested in watching today.
I feel like in Youth matches I've seen 80% of goals are caused by a dumb-error, and throwing in the ball between Scottish players meets that criteria. Shame since we definitely look the more likely to pick up a normal goal.
Completely bypassing Scotland's defense on the wings since the goal, but not taking advantage of the crosses yet.
We're dominating possession but almost all of our actual attack is coming from Sadilek (left-back) and Janosek (holding midfielder), have to think we will make a sub for one of the wing/AM spots. And just moments later Matousek and Rusek on.
Honestly, if you have as much of the ball as we did and never find a way to create chances you don't deserve points.
Very very poor this time around, and when we went down I was surprised by the players not on the bench. Where were Beran and Karabec? Matousek is completely off form, and Rusek also poor lately honestly. These are players that made sense last season.
That was horrible. Kind of now wish there wasn't a stream available to watch that disaster. Honestly, this U21 generation is shaping up to be pretty disappointing overall. On the bright side, we have two potential stars in Kral and Hlozek that are proven senior team material, and eventually Karabec should follow. Otherwise, I'd say Sadilek, Krejci, and Zima are the only other players who currently project to be solid A team players one day.
Well thankfully our current team still has plenty of young talents, so we won't have to rely on any of the younger players for a while.
So lightning does strike twice after all. We have another Covid outbreak (this time actually an outbreak and not the little scare from September). Three players have tested positive and there were up to sixteen inconclusive tests, so plenty of confusion and drama leading up to our game in Israel tomorrow. As far as I know, we have three positive players out and nine negative players already travelling to Israel with Silhavy and the rest of the coaching staff who are also negative. The remaining eleven players with inconclusive tests are still in Larnaca, but I think (or really hope at this point) that if any of their newly taken tests are negative, they will be able to rejoin the team for the match tomorrow. It's a short flight from Larnaca to Haifa. The nine negative players currently confirmed to be available and travelling to Israel are: Vaclik, Mateju, Celustka, Petrasek, Kudela, Boril, Soucek, Sevcik, Holes Plus hopefully as many more confirmed negative tests out of those eleven players as possible, as well as another mini-squad of Czech league players who will fly in on match day... What a f***ing disaster this has quickly become. Basically this international break so far has been me waking up every day with the fear of learning this kind of news.. I just wonder how we manage to keep this under control until the Scotland match on Wednesday, nevermind being able to field a team for tomorrow.
Okay, so some updates to add to this situation: • 10 players retested negative, but there were still a few more inconclusive tests • Silhavy will choose 9 of those 10 players and they will rejoin the team for the game tomorrow • So in the end, the original squad of 23 is now down to 18, but no official announcement on who the positive players are However, our team will then immediately fly back to Prague on Monday where they will undergo further testing and determine whether or not they can travel to Scotland. Honestly, seeing as how our team instantly got disbanded for less in September, I expect the same to happen here. In that case, it will likely be Holoubek again managing a new makeshift squad that will travel to Glasgow.
Most of Europe is in a full on 2nd wave right now, in many cases spreading faster than the first. If Nations League is going to continue they should make teams convene in a single location. It is beyond irresponsible to make players travel to 3 countries in one week, all of which in the middle of an outbreak.
Appears that Dockal, Hlozek, Barak, Novak, and one of Koubek/Nguyen are the players out of the game tomorrow. Very significant losses here. We are now down to one striker in the team (Vydra), and are very thin on the bench. I think the team will still basically be this, but now Darida instead of Dockal (could argue that's an upgrade in some ways), Masopust moves to the left wing, and either Sevcik or maybe now Kaderabek play right wing. Still not a complete disaster (just yet), and still enough to really beat Israel in my mind.
So Vydra will be our only striker option, I thought he put in some good work against Cyprus, but his impatience/general ineptitude in front of goal got him voted worse player alongside Koubek. Hopefully he can be a bit more composed facing goal as I think he just needs to get his confidence up as his touch/movement were solid. Otherwise, it sucks to again have to make unplanned changes, but we have enough midfield quality that losing Dockal and Barak doesn't impact our ability to put together a good starting lineup.
I also at this point am sort of over Nations League, at this point if we get enough to points to avoid a drop in level I'd be fine to send a B/C team and let our top players focus on club play (and health). I imagine if the situation in Europe continues like is now their may be some delays anyway.