Czechs Are Going Home

23 Jun 2006, 10:48 - Sport
Czech football representation, semi-finalists at Euro 2004 and ranked second in the world by FIFA, lost it game with Italy yesterday. The result Czech Rep. - Italy 0 - 2 is not enough to pass to the quarterfinal, so Czechs are going home. The coach Karel Bruckner and all the players will have the chance to find out what has been done wrong.

Before the 9 June when world championship started, Czechs have been considered as one of the teams that would be jewel of the whole football world celebration. And the first match against United States (3 - 0) showed it can be true. But one of the leaders of the Czech game Jan Koller has been injured after several minutes of the first match and cannot play the following matches.

His absence, together with Milan Baroš, was a possible key factor that contributed to failure against Ghana (0 - 2) last Saturday. This was a match where Czech team was paralyzed by first goal in 66 seconds. Then the Czech goal keeper Petr Čech has prevented the team from a serious »disaster«, when he get rid of several Ghanian chances.

The second loss in the third match of Czech team in the Group E against Italy means that Bruckner’s team scored third in the table and that it will not continue in the tournament. Italy and Ghana pass the group and play their matches in quarterfinal. Czechs are going home.