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Fading Football Legacy: Are Czechs Living on Past Glories?

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Fading Football Legacy: Are Czechs Living on Past Glories?
Czech Republic, stats vs reality

The Czech national team's recent stats are impressive, but expert Jakub Dvorak says their performance doesn't match the numbers, and the country's footballing heyday is behind them.


“The 18-game unbeaten streak at home is largely because the Czechs haven’t faced any world-class...”


The Czech Republic is gearing up for a crucial World Cup qualifying playoff clash with Denmark, and they're riding high on a streak of being undefeated on home ground in 18 matches. However, Czech football expert Jakub Dvorak says the stats are misleading, painting a rosier picture of the national team than reality.


Reports believe the team's performance hasn't been as impressive as the numbers suggest. Denmark's coach, Brian Riemer, has also taken note of the Czechs' home record, making this a interesting matchup.


"That says a bit about the quality that we are going to face. We are facing a team that has had relatively reasonable success. They were promoted to the A-team in the Nations League and have had a long stretch without defeat at home, so we have to take that very seriously,” said Brian Riemer on Monday's press conference.




Czech football expert Jakub Dvorak isn't impressed by the 18-match streak. He points out that most of the games were played at home against weaker European teams, except for the goalless draw against Croatia last year.


Dvorak's take is that the stats are a bit misleading, and the team's performance against top-tier opponents hasn't been as strong.




“The 18-game unbeaten streak at home is largely because the Czechs haven’t faced any world-class teams at home. The Croatians were closest to that level; otherwise, the teams were either on the same level or even worse. Personally, I don’t put that much weight on it, because if the Czech Republic wants to make it to the World Cup, they should have used higher-quality opponents as a benchmark.”


“The draw against Croatia (in the World Cup qualifying campaign) was influenced by the circumstances of the occasion. The Czech Republic lost heavily in Croatia, and there was a lot of pressure to ensure that didn’t happen again. On the other hand, the Croatians were comfortably leading the group and just needed to avoid losing in the Czech Republic. And they managed to do that,” Dvorak said.


The Czech fans created a pretty subdued atmosphere during the match against Ireland, despite the team's thrilling comeback win in the penalty shootout, securing their spot in the playoff final. However, expert Jakub Dvorak notes that the Czech national team's relationship with their fans has been strained in recent years.


Dvorak's comments suggest that the team's performance hasn't been enough to win over the fans, and past controversies may be contributing to the tension. For instance, Tomas Soucek was stripped of the captaincy after a dispute with fans, which may have affected team morale.




“The Czech stadium atmosphere isn’t anything special. Even in the last year, matches were played in smaller cities, and the stadiums still weren’t filled. There was only one game in Prague that was sold out, and that was against Croatia. On top of that, there were some conflicts between the team and the fans. It wasn’t until the match against Ireland that the atmosphere seemed good and unified, and you could feel great energy from the fans, which carried over onto the field,” says Dvorak. 


Denmark sees the Czechs as a football nation with a rich history of producing talented players like Pavel Nedved and Tomas Rosicky, known for their attractive, creative football. But Jakub Dvorak says those glory days are behind them – the team isn't playing with the same flair and freedom anymorem


“The style of play played by Karel Bruckner’s team, leading the Czech Republic to the World Cup (2006), is, unfortunately, a thing of the past, and this is linked to the fact that we no longer produce such great players. The only skilled offensive player on this team who possesses individual abilities and can compete at a world-class level is Patrik Schick.”


“We have plenty of solid centre-backs and hard-working midfielders, but we lack creativity and individual skill. On top of that, Slavia - one of the best teams of the past decade - plays a physically demanding style. Lots of tackles and duels, lots of running, plenty of crosses and long passes. They’ve been successful with it, and as a result, the national team has followed suit to some extent. Players like Tomas Soucek, Lukas Provod, Tomas Holes, Michal Sadilek, and Tomas Chory are clearly built for physical battles, not for attractive, combination-based football,” ends Dvorak.


Czech Republic's football glory days over?
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