A thread to discuss all the U-something squads, and the players of the future. The U-21 squad has nearly wrapped up qualification for the UEFA 2013 in Israel, but will have to finish out qualification without Jan Chramosta who suffered a knee injury early this season. Chramosta was leading U-21 qualification with 9 goals in 5 matches. The Group as it stands Czech Republic 6 5 1 0 19 3 +16 16 Armenia 6 3 2 1 10 5 +5 11 Wales 6 3 1 2 7 4 +3 10 Montenegro 6 3 0 3 14 8 +6 9 Andorra 8 0 0 8 2 32 −31 0 Remaining matches are at Montenegro and vs Wales, both in early September. We also have a U-20 friendly tomorrow against Poland, with this squad. Brankáři: Jiří Adamuška (Tescoma Zlín) Tomáš Koubek (FC Hradec Králové) Obránci Martin Frýdek (FC Senica) Roman Polom (AC Sparta Praha) Jakub Brabec (AC Sparta Praha) Adam Jánoš (AC Sparta Praha) Dominik Simerský (FK Baumit Jablonec) Záložníci: Martin Hála (SK Sigma Olomouc) Patrik Lácha (Baník Most) Lukáš Masopust (FC Vysočina Jihlava) Milan Lutonský (FC Zbrojovka Brno) Jiří Mareš (1. FC Příbram) Aleš Nešický (SK Sigma Olomouc) Ondřej Petrák (SK Slavia Praha) Luboš Tusjak (SK Slavia Praha) Útočníci: František Němec (SK Dynamo České Budějovice) Vojtěch Hadaščok (FC Slovan Liberec) Jiří Skalák (AC Sparta Praha)
The U-21 squad finishes up qualifying for the 2013 U-21 Euros next month with matches against Wales and Montenegro. We are currently top of the group, and would most likely qualify with even 1 point in 2 matches. Just to make sure though we are sending a very talented side (although one missing two key players from last spring in Chramosta and Krejčí). Tecl and Šural are both on excellent form, as are Hanousek and Kopic in midfield. Goalkeepers Milan Heča (Slovácko) 0/0 Tomáš Koubek (Hradec Králové) 2/0 Roman Valeš (Jablonec) 1/0 Defenders Pavel Čmovš (NEC Nijmegen) 7/0 Michal Frydrych (Baník Ostrava) 3/0 Lukáš Hejda (Viktoria Plzeň) 5/0 Tomáš Holeš (Hradec Králové) 0/0 Tomáš Kalas (Vitesse Arnhem) 6/0 Jan Lecjaks (Young Boys) 24/1 Milan Nitrianský (Slavia Praha) 5/1 Filip Novák (Jablonec) 4/0 Midfielders Vlastimil Daníček (Slovácko) 2/0 Marek Hanousek (Viktoria Plzeň) 5/0 Jan Kopic (Jablonec) 8/0 Lukáš Mareček (Anderlecht) 21/1 David Pavelka (Sparta Praha) 4/0 Martin Pospíšil (Sigma Olomouc) 0/0 Ondřej Vaněk (Jablonec) 0/0 Egon Vůch (Teplice) 1/0 Strikers Jan Pázler (Dukla Praha) 1/0 Josef Šural (Slovan Liberec) 0/0 Stanislav Tecl (Vysočina Jihlava) 1/0
The U-21 team has qualified for the 2013 U-21 European Championship. Not the most convincing performance 0-0 at Montenegro, but they qualified with a match to spare, and were never really challenged the whole qualifying process.
The U-21's produced a better result today in the last match of qualifying, 5-0 over Wales. Jihlava's Stanislav Tecl scoring a brace after coming on in the 67th minute. The U-21's completed qualifying undefeated and with a +21 goal differential.
I will admit my own misunderstanding of how U-21 qualification works, apparently winning your group only qualifies you as a seeded team in a playoff round. We will take on Russia in said playoff, 12 October in the Czech Republic and 16 October in Russia. Russia will be a very tough test (they topped a group that included Portugal), especially with Chramosta injured and most likely at least 3 of these 4 being used by the full team: Darida, Krejci, Kadlec, and Husbaur. I'd leave Kadlec and one of Husbaur or Darida (especially if Rosicky is back) to the U-21 for now honestly, Krejci the full team will most likely need with Pilar out.
The U-17s are off to a fast start in qualification for 2013. A 3-0 win over Russia and a 2-0 win against Montenegro.
Some up coming friendlies... Feb 1 - Cyprus U18 vs Czech Republic U18 Feb 7 and 9 - Bulgaria U19 vs Czech Republic U19 Feb 9-13 - U17 La Manga in Spain vs Poland, Sweden and Norway Mar 7 and 9 - Czech Republic U16 vs Switzerland U16 Mar 22 - Switzerland U18 vs Czech Republic U18 (in Spain) Mar 27 - Netherlands U18 vs Czech Republic U18
The Czech Republic U18 side will play in the Slovakia Cup from May 7th to the 11th. They will play Ukraine, USA and Kazakhstan. The other group is Hungary, Russia, Wales and Slovakia. All matches will be played in the Trnava area.
1034365722032398337 is not a valid tweet id Crucial qualifying fixture's for the U-21 coming up. San Marino should be a good confidence builder before the match with Greece who are atop our qualification group. Matousek is deservedly getting the (at times ridiculous) hype right now, but from the league matches I've seen Lischka and Kvet are also playing very well right now.
Filip Firbacher, a striker for Hradec Kralove's U-19, that is on our current U-17 national team made The Guardian's list of top 60 global talent born in 2001. He's still 16 and has never played a minute of A-team football, but I think we can all agree he's the solution to all of our problems... More seriously, he is being tracked by Southampton and Feyenoord.