The Czech Republic made it to the semifinals of the 2004 European Championships and finished second in the 1996 tournament. The Czechs tore through the qualifying round, dropping only one game and posting clean sheets in eight of the twelve games. The Czech squad even finished at the top of the group ahead of 2006 World Cup semifinalist Germany.
Jan Koller (1. FC Nuremberg) led the way for the Czech Republic in qualifying, scoring six goals and increasing his all-time Czech scoring mark. Koller and fellow striker Milan Baros (Portsmouth) will have to step up their games to compensate for the absence of captain Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal). Petr Cech (Chelsea), who took the Blues to their first ever Champions League final and helped the team finish second in the Premier League, will be called on to anchor the defense. Unfortunately for the Czechs, though, legendary midfielder Pavel Nedved will not come out of retirement to compensate for the loss of Rosicky.
The Czech Republic was placed in Group A along with Switzerland. Portugal and Turkey. Ranked 6th in the world by FIFA, the Czechs have an excellent chance of making it out of the group along with either Portugal or Turkey.
Comments
why is rosicky absent?
Posted by: Angelo | June 6, 2008 06:33 PM
I think that this team has potential to become a great team, and will go far with one of the greatest goalies ever
Posted by: sam | June 6, 2008 06:46 PM
To angelo: Injured.
Posted by: Zitrejsi ruze | June 7, 2008 02:59 PM
I like Purugal but czech Republic has nice F50 shoes
Posted by: Logan | June 7, 2008 07:55 PM
Yeah! Ujfalusi the captain of Czech Republic! Bring the cup home boys!
Posted by: Ujfalusi | June 8, 2008 01:14 AM
I am an American, and I am totally in love with the Czech Rep. team. I am supporting my heritage and cheering for them against Portugal right now!
Posted by: Katie | June 11, 2008 01:12 PM
Ok is it just me or did that big czech rep. man do a karate chop against portugal? I think he did and it was totally pointless. Go ferdinandy torre!!!
Posted by: todd | June 11, 2008 03:51 PM
If you don't win the uero cup then who do you think wil win.
Posted by: steven | June 11, 2008 07:14 PM
you guy are really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: steven | June 11, 2008 07:15 PM
bring home the glory
Posted by: roman | June 11, 2008 07:17 PM
Good luck
Posted by: em | June 12, 2008 10:38 PM
Its dissapointing that the Czech had to go home the way they did, but they have the pootential to beat the best
Posted by: Dipska | June 15, 2008 09:47 PM
czechs are good
Posted by: mac | June 18, 2008 12:11 PM
czech will be winner if peter cech not blunder.oh my czech..... cech ur sucks.........
Posted by: anti cech | June 21, 2008 09:05 AM
im so mad czech gave up 3 goals in the last 20 min to lose to turkey
Posted by: czech republic rules | June 23, 2008 09:46 PM
Best sporting spirit team of the tournament. There is not a single bad guy on the team. Lost an ugly game to Turkey. Petr is having an awful year.
Posted by: Petr Czech | June 25, 2008 02:37 PM
this year at august in bejing olympic world soccer teams are Republica de Argentina Federative Republic of Brazil of south america Republic of Cameroon Republic of Cote d’Ivoire of africa Kingdom of the Netherlands Kingdom of Belgium Italian Republic servia of europe People's Republic of China Commonwealth of Australia South Korea japan of asia as we know all of world soccer is ended to this summer but in beijing olympic wait to world soccer fans we predict to winner of golden prize all most of people predict Federative Republic of Brazil Republica de Argentina will be winner of bejing olympic maybe we agree to we said and predicted anyway go to see bejing olympic this last summer soccer festival.
Posted by: winners | July 19, 2008 07:48 AM
Rosicky would have made the difference at the euros. They needed somebody to control the midfield instead of letting Deco dance around unattended. And too bad for Cech, but if it wasnt for the blunder they would have gone through
Posted by: Anonymous | August 6, 2008 03:32 PM
petr cech screwed it up for them
Posted by: mack | August 26, 2008 07:34 PM
i think they'll make it to the final,im not sure they'll bring it home
Posted by: marc | September 8, 2008 07:19 PM
this team sucks
Posted by: person | September 15, 2008 02:32 PM
GOOD TRY BUT I WANT TO SEE MORE IMPROVEMENT!!!
Posted by: ASTRA&AL-HAMBRA | September 19, 2008 05:33 AM