Euro 2008 Team Profile: Czech Republic

Nickname: None. Bad start.

Jersey: Red for home, white for away. Like everyone else in Group A.

FIFA World Ranking: 6th - as of May 2008. That makes them the fourth best team in the tournament, according to Sepp Blatter.

Fixtures/Schedule: Group A
June 7th vs Switzerland (Basle) 18:00
June 11th vs Portugal (Geneva) 18:00
June 15th vs Turkey (Geneva) 20:45

Coach: Karel Bruckner
The 68 year old is all about Czech football. Spent his formative managerial years as working within the country, worked his way up via the old Under-21 and assistant manager job route and has sat his wily old arse in the big chair since 2002.

Threatened to quit after the players partied a little too hard during Euro 2008 qualification, but decided to see it through. Retiring from management for good when this tournament is over, and the Czechs are going to miss him.

Expectations: The Czechs aren’t mentioned among the favourites for this tournament, but they have an excellent European Championships record. Won it (as part of Czechoslovakia) in 1976 (beating Germany on penalties, which is meant to be impossible) made the final in Euro ‘96 and made the semifinals last time out in 2004.

Got plenty of talent to play with, but will miss injured playmaker (and armband wearer) Tomas Rosicky desperately. There was rumour of Pavel Nedved doing another Frank Sinatra international comebcack, but he decided to stay put. If the Czechs can still muster some creativity to go with their pretty passing, then don’t rule them out to go far.

Key Player: Probably Petr Cech. Feels like the Chelsea keeper has been around forever, but he’s still only 26. Definitely one of the best keepers in the world, and easily the best keeper who plays while wearing a padded helmet. Hasn’t looked 100% this year for the Blues, but even then he’s still looked hard to beat

Other Key Players: Bruckner can count on veteran and giant forward Jan Koller (stats: 35 years old, 6′8″) to win all kinds of everything in the air, while 21 year old Martin Fenin is a name you might learn during the tournament. The youn striker knows how to make an impact, scoring a hat-trick on his Bundesliga debut for Eintracht Frankfurt this season.

David Jarolim of Hamburg brings width to the right (but may be needed in the center, we’ll see) while the defence will be mostly Italy based with Zdenek Grygera (Juventus) Marek Jankulovski (Milan) David Rozehnal (Lazio) and Tomas Ujfalusi (Fiorentina.)

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Jaromir Blazek (Nurnberg), Petr Cech (Chelsea), Daniel Zitka (Anderlecht)

Defenders: Zdenek Grygera (Juventus), Marek Jankulovski, Michal Kadlec (Sparta), Radoslav Kovac (Spartak Moscow), Zdenek Pospech (Copenhagen), David Rozenhal (Lazio), Tomas Sivok (Sparta), Tomas Ujfalusi (Fiorentina)

Midfielders: Tomas Galasek (Nurnberg), David Jarolim (Hamburg), Marek Matejovsky (Reading), Jaroslav Plasil (Osasuna), Jan Polak (Anderlecht), Libor Sionko (Copenhagen), Rudi Skacel (Hertha Berlin), Stanislav Vlcek (Anderlecht)

Forwards: Milan Baros (Portsmouth), Martin Fenin (Eintracht Frankfurt), Jan Koller (Nurnberg), Vaclav Sverkos (Ostrava)

Complete Euro 2008 squads, with numbers, here.

Team Blogger: The Czech Republic Euro 2008 Blog will be captained by the always entertaining Yuko.

Random International Moments:

The invention of the Panenka penalty (by Antonin Panenka) in the 1976 European Championship Final. Never has a tournament been won on penalties with such class. OK, it’s not the Czech Republic, but there’s a direct historical line. Plus it’s awesome to watch again.

Karel Poborsky’s goal at Euro ‘96. Brilliant.

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