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Baros, Sverkos Launch Czech Revival | 
Seldom has a talented football nation witnessed the kind of humiliation that the Czech Republic has suffered in the entire last year. In a World Cup qualification campaign where they were placed in perhaps the most competitive of groups alongside Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and Northern Ireland, perfection was almost always essential for the Czechs. Instead, everything that could go wrong ended up going wrong, dragging the nation’s morale to a major low.
For instance, a disappointing start to the campaign was quickly followed by a controversial incident at a team gathering where half the first-team squad was accused of involvement with prostitutes. A ban on each of the accused players, including skipper Tomas Ujfalusi, led to the sacking of then-coach Petr Rada, which only worsened the chaotic situation. With order being restored in the Czech circles just recently, the nation began dreaming of South Africa 2010 once again.
On Wednesday night, the eternal scapegoats San Marino were always slated to face a Czech outlash that has been building for months. After all, a win at the Sparta Stadium was only a necessity for the home side to merely revive a bid for its qualification through a very competitive second-place finish. It goes without saying that the nation’s returning stars were desperate to repay the faith of their fans following last year’s embarassing ban.
When all was said and done by the final whistle, the Czechs emerged 7-0 emphatic winners to tie for the second place with closest rivals Slovenia, who had earlier ended Poland’s hopes of qualification with a 3-0 win of their own. To reiterate, the Czech dominance in this particular fixture was hardly ever doubted. It was rather the sources of their goals that won all the headlines as the underperforming strike duo of Milan Baros and Vaclav Sverkos combined for a massive tally of six goals.
Sverkos, who went from being his nation’s beloved upcoming star to one of its banned “villains”, scored a vital brace, which is thus far the only addition to his opening Euro 2008 goal about 15 months ago. Baros, another of the previously banned stars, made twice the impact with his impressive four-goal performance. Given how the former Liverpool striker has failed to live up to all his previous “A-list” billings by barely securing his place in the Turkish League, it is not difficult to fathom why Baros also needed a night like this on a personal level.
To think that the Czechs are still poised to watch the World Cup from their homes next summer (due to Slovenia’s far easier schedule) certainly generates sympathy for such a great side. However, just as in Portugal’s case, the Czech revival has at least officially started. As long as the entire squad remains committed to fighting till the end, I am sure there will be positives to take from the experiences of this extremely difficult campaign.
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At the end of the fourth paragraph, I clearly acknowledge that this result was only expected and rather a necessity for the Czechs to even stand a chance. Like I said, the headlines were not made by their 7-0 win, but rather by the amount of goals scored by two strikers who had been humiliated in exile.
Again, whether or not this team misses Jan Koller is also an opinionated thought because despite Koller’s unique abilities, I feel there is a lot of potential in the Sverkos-Baros partnership if they can both keep it up. And I am not saying this just because the two of them hammered San Marino, but because they are both just natural finishers in their own right.
When a team plays San Marino, thet are generally have to hammer San Marino cause they are no good so they are not a great team after just one game, they badly miss Jan Koller and are not the as good as the team of old.