on another note was surprised that czechs didn't win v northern ireland. guess their good performance in euro qf in a group with spain, denmark and sweden was not just a one time thing
of course, i just don't know if we can get our sh!t together, our team just isn't clicking out there at the moment. hopefully Leo sees what Rewandowski can do out there and starts him instead of Saganowski i think if Leo lets Boruc, Dudka, and Majewski that could help quite a bit too, oh and a healthy Brozek i just didn't think it was possible to be sitting this nicely, but after seeing the results of the others' in our group after todays match... i feel so much better
It looks like a group with five nations fighting for qualification until next Autumn now. Czech Republic are not a European superpower any longer these days, and for the country of 5 millions of citizens it is not easy to recover after the likes of Nedved, Poborsky, Koller or Galasek call it a day. Even those countries like France or Germany suffer when one talented generation becames too old and Czechs don't have this depth in my opinion. Having said that, they still have much more potential than Poland and especially their defensive line is much stronger, with players like Jankulovski, Grygera or Ujfalusi who seem to be defensive gods comparing to likes of Jop, Kowalczyk or Golanski. I am not very surprised that Czechs lost 2 points in Belfast - they dont have so creative midfield and I think it will be very hard group with all 5 teams able to lose points to each other. Winning everything at home will be crucial and Slovenia started very well with 4 points out of 2 games. But generally I belive Poland can beat Czech Republic and lose to Northern Ireland and so on and home game against San Marino is the only easy game left for us. But also no opponent should be considered strong favourite against Bialo-czerwoni.
Article about Robert Lewandowski. It may be typical "from zero to hero" sport scenario, but maybe it is worth placing link here as Lewandowski scored in his debut against San Marino http://www.sport.pl/pilka/1,65039,5686861,Bajka_o_Robercie_Lewandowskim.html
i could care less, anything positive about our national team at the moment is great... especially after the last few weeks of constant bad news after bad news... for us to gain 4 points, be on top of the group, and even get a positive news article or two... its nice to see there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel. sidenote: i've been pro-Leo the entire time
Some obvious points made but please tell me how pointing out that the fact the czechs have 5 million people bear any relevance to their football squad .... It's all about the country's footballing infrastructure! It's downright stupid when people point out the countrys population Second, I completely disagree with your 'assesment" of France and Germany .... France obviously no longer has the best player of the last 20 years but their overall quality is still Much to be much envied ... France is not "suffering" as they placed second in world cup in 06... And their flop at last years euro can be attributed to Domench's inability to establish an identity of the old and new generation ... Germany has been a squad premier squad for the last 6 years and their euro 2002 flop can be chalked up as a fluke... U can't medal in every major competition .... So with respect to Germany and France I have no idea what you are talking about As with Czechs no longer being a premier power in European football, I agree as brueckner really goofed relying on the older players to carry the torch.... Nevertheless, Czechs are still favorites and our 2-0 win in Cyprus means very little right now
i think you meant Euro 2004 and San Marino personally i think the Czech Republic are fine even though a bunch of their older generation are past their time... but the current crop they have is pretty damn good, its just they play usually with one striker up top which is fine... BUT you need more creativity in their midfield's attack which i think they sort of lack. it sort of sucks for them because Rosicky's leg supposedly gave out the other day when he was in training and he maybe out for the next month or two (should be out for our qualifier against them). the others (Sirl, Sionko, Plasil, Polak) are great midfielders but they are slightly hesitant in their attacks... does this mean the Czech Republic are worse off? i don't think so. i just think their style or mindset has changed and they play different ball than they used to.
No I meant our 2-0 win over the Czechs in a friendly earlier this year in Cyprus and it's rosicky's knee ... Not leg
ahh... i didn't know what match you were referencing. and Rosicky's knee is part of his leg fyi he's had issues with his legs the past few years now. i know lately it has been his knee from what the press has been saying
Stupid or not, the biggest countries in Europe produce biggest number of quality players: Italy, Spain, Germany, England, France. Good footballing infrastructure is necessary and Czechs produce more good players than many bigger nations (including Poland, unfortunatelly) but they still don't have so many players to choose from as previously mentioned nations. France won a bronze medal on 1986 World Cup and after that they didn't even qualify for World Cup until they were hosts in 1998. After Germany's Euro 1996 triumph, they have had two terrible Euro finals in Benelux and Portugal and poor World Cup in France, until they recovered in this decade. So, the point is that even these big, traditional footballing powerful countries have longer periods when they cant build succesful national sides (for example if the likes of Platini, Matthaeus and maybe Zidane finish their carreers) and I think it may be similar with Czechs after Nedved, Poborsky etc dont play for them any longer.
true story, the only question is if the Czech manager is competent enough to handle change. if he can they will be good, if he can't they could struggle as long as he is in charge. personally i think they will be fine. but if there is a time to possibly take advantage of the Czech side, it would be this coming month. so i have to be licking my chops. so hopefully Leo's visit to Scotland this past weekend to talk to Boruc went well.
Brazil doesn't have such a good infrastructure but still produce a lot of talent and they could probably name 2 or 3 squads and each of them would be competitive. I still think that 50th best player from Holland or Portugal isn't as good as 50th from Italy or Brazil. But we can discuss it again and again so maybe that's time to say we have different view and stop exploring this subject. Anyway I hope You understand what I mean: I am not saying bigger country produces better footballers, I just think that if two countries have similar infrastructure etc, bigger one will probably have more players who can succeed at international level.
we are not in the group of death... in addition we have time to figure things out. relax, we didn't have the greatest start in many peoples eyes but yet we are on top of the group AND Slovakia as well as Czech Republic have dropped points besides us. the next two matches this coming month will be a better indicator where we stand.