Czech Republic News Archives

Czech captain and Arsenal midfielder Tomas Rosicky is doubtful for Euro 2008 because of recurring knee tendonitis. The 27-year Rosicky is suffering from a painful inflammation at the back of his knee and has been out of action since the end of January.

The vice president of the Czech football federation Vlastimil Kostal says that he’s “worried” about Rosicky’s participation in Euro 2008 and the Czech team doctor says that the treatment is “difficult” and that Tomas would probably not play for Arsenal again this season.

Missing a major tournament (or indeed, the season run-in for your club) is tough on any player but the main thing here for Rosicky is to ensure that he gets fit with a view towards staying fit in the next season. More injuries will not help his career nor his place at Arsenal. Rosicky and Arsenal must ensure that he doesn’t turn into another Louis Saha and have a torturous time training and getting injured for no good reason.

Euro 2008 kicks off on Saturday 7 June 2008 and Soccerlens will be covering it every step of the way, from the on-pitch action to team news to the wonderful fans that will be traveling to Austria / Switzerland.

Here’s the full list of Euro 2008 fixtures, bookmark and share away. Once the tournament starts, we’ll use this page to list results as well.

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Euro 2008 promises to be massive - with or without England. Along with team beer and several exciting stars expected to leave a mark on the event, there’s also the small matter of football fans (if anyone forgets, this is what we had in Germany 2006).

I know a lot of bloggers will be covering Euro 2008, so this post is for them - while preparing Soccerlens for Euro 2008 coverage, I realised that there was no one place to get all the team flags (we already have the Euro 2008 kits, if anyone’s interested). Don’t know about you guys but I like to have images on my posts and flags / team crests are quite useful to have when you’re covering an event, even if some of them look the same (damned Europeans).

Alright then, here we go:

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In today’s video roundup we look at yesterday’s friendlies.

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Whilst the whole world and his mother are hypothesizing about Don Fabio and his crew, I thought it might be a good idea to look at some of the other fixtures in what looks like a (dare I say it) appetising week of international friendly football, with fifteen of the sixteen Euro 2008 qualifiers in action, including six ties between the Euro 2008 competitors.

Here’s hoping that there are no injuries to top players, and no compensation paid out – although these days, so tight is the dialogue between club and national managers (a perquisite not available in days gone by) that players may be rested or asked by royal decree to play just half a match. That said, as a Spurs fan, I wouldn’t be too miffed if some divine force threw a lightning bolt or two at Cesc.
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For many teams across Europe, the second biggest tournament to qualify and win would be the Euro. Behind the World Cup, of course. So it is a big time for all teams across the continent to unveil kits that will be worn for this event only, or for a couple years following. Though some of the kits have not changed since the 2006 World Cup, there are some that have, so I have created a collection of the kits here.

However if you want a brief synopsis of the teams kits, here you go:

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Tomas Rosicky.

USA 0-3 Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic faced the US in what promised to be a tightly contested match. The US had a decent qualifying run and had a balanced team on paper. While they did not have the kind of flair players that the Czechs possessed in their ranks, they were known for their strength, determination, grit and teamwork.

They showed neither of the above as the Czechs steamrolled them in what was easily the best performance by any team yet. Apart from Reyna hitting the post in the first half, the US did not live up to even the outside chance that many observers, including myself, had given them. They had no reply to the Czechs defensive organization, the fluidity and creativity in their midfield, and the finishing provided up front by the likes of Koller and Rosicky.

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Czech Republic 3, USA 0

Czech Republic Goals: Koller 5, Rosicky 36 76.

For a team ranked number 5 in Fifa latest world rankings, USA were hugely out of depth. Commentators called this the best ‘team performance’ of the World Cup so far, with the Czech Republic (incidentally, ranked 2nd in the world) comprehensively and comfortably beating USA. They weren’t far off the mark. USA rarely troubled Peter Cech, apart from one Reyna shot that hit the post after Cech had missed it.

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