Czechia are back at the World Cup as a very different side to the team that fell at the first hurdle on their last appearance in the competition, 20 years ago.
After a 20-year wait, Czechia – under their new name – are finally back at the biggest football tournament on the planet.
Their last appearance came at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, when they didn’t even make it out of their group. They started with a promising 3-0 win over the United States, but followed up with a disastrous 2-0 defeat to Ghana, before another 2-0 loss to Italy. At the earliest stage, they were sent packing.
But as well as elimination, that World Cup also spelled the end of an era for the nation.
That tournament roughly marked the end for the golden generation of Czech football, built around Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky, Vladimir Smicer and several others who were consistently playing in Europe’s biggest leagues.
The Czech team at the 2006 World CupWhile big names like Tomas Rosicky, Jan Koller, Petr Cech and Milan Baros continued to represent the Czech Republic at the European Championship, there would be no more appearances at the World Cup, and the nation struggled to continue to produce stars like that at anything like the same rate.
A team full of quality players and household names from Europe’s biggest leagues meant Czechia were labelled the ‘dark horses’ for the 2006 World Cup following their run to the semi-finals at Euro 2004.
But times are different now. They are no longer able to rely on star quality. The only players in their squad from Premier League teams are at Wolves (Patrik Schick, tends to be less dependent on individuals and can survive even when one or two key players are missing.
Qualifying wasn’t exactly plain sailing, though. A 5-1 defeat in Croatia in June last year marked only the third time since the country’s independence in 1993 that the team had conceded five goals in an international match, while a 2-1 loss in the Faroe Islands ultimately cost coach Ivan Hasek his job.
His replacement was Miroslav Koubek, a 74-year-old coach who had enjoyed two successful seasons with Viktoria Plzen, before taking charge for the play-off matches against the Republic of Ireland and Denmark. He opted for players who fit his tactical approach and saw out back-to-back 2-2 draws before Czechia eventually turned to their now-trademark discipline in penalty shootouts to win both ties. They have now won all five of their penalty shootouts in qualification campaigns and major tournaments.
Throughout the qualifiers, Czechia were characterised by their effectiveness from set-pieces. They scored more set-piece goals (including penalties) than any other team in the UEFA World Cup qualifiers (11), accounting for 50% of all their goals (22). In their two play-off matches, all four of Czechia’s goals came from set-pieces.
Czechia were, alongside Italy and Northern Ireland, the only teams in the UEFA World Cup qualifiers to score at least one goal from a penalty, a corner, an indirect free-kick and a throw-in, and they also scored the most goals from corners of any team in the qualifiers (7).
That isn’t the limit of this squad, though. Koubek will be able to call on several players who come into the tournament after excellent seasons, and are capable of making a difference.
Schick is probably top of that list as the biggest Czech star at the moment, having maintained consistently strong form over the past few seasons. He recently became the first Czech or Czechoslovak player to reach 100 goals in Europe’s top five leagues.
Since recovering from a long-term adductor injury in late 2023, Schick has significantly overperformed his expected goals tally over the last two seasons, scoring 37 goals from 29.8 xG for Bayer Leverkusen – an overperformance of 7.2 goals. Across Europe’s top five leagues over that time, only seven players have outscored their xG by a larger margin.
Meanwhile, Matej Kovár provides quality between the sticks.
A significant chunk of the squad is also drawn from the Czech top flight, the Chance Liga, where players from Slavia Praha make up the majority of selections.
The truth is, at this World Cup, Czechia are outsiders in their group. There is no ‘dark horses’ tag. They will face South Korea, South Africa and Mexico, and won’t be big favourites in any of these fixtures. However, the group does look fairly balanced, and each of the teams have hopes of progressing.
Advancing from the group would represent the biggest success for Czechia on the international stage since Euro 2020, when they were eliminated by Denmark in the quarter-finals.
On the world stage, however, it would be Czechia’s best achievement as an independent nation. Twenty years on, getting out of the group may even banish some of the demons of that disappointment for their golden generation the last time they played in the World Cup.
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