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Everyone was amazed. Fans, experts, even Ondřej Kúdela himself. They make no secret of the fact that after leaving for the Indonesian league in the summer, he no longer counted on invitations to the national team.
But Jaroslav Šilhavy thought of sending him an invitation at the first opportunity. Despite the fact that it is a long way from Indonesia to Prague, despite the fact that it is a competition whose level and pace are significantly different from the standards of the highest level of performance in the League of Nations, in which the Czechs are now competing.
Their goal is to get at least 3rd place in a difficult group of four and not to be relegated to performance zone B. To do this, it is necessary to keep the Swiss below them in the table. The Spaniards and the Portuguese are already out on points.
But is it really necessary to have Ondřej Kúdela on hand for all of this? many asked. International player Ladislav Vízek even called this coach’s choice a “flip”.
And what does Stanislav Levý, former representative, later league coach, say about Kúdel’s nomination? “I assume that the implementation team has enough information about the player’s current performance. And also about the level of competition in which Ondřej is now operating. That’s why they decided to nominate him,” Levý chooses a diplomatic vocabulary in his answer, albeit with a noticeable ironic undertone.
So why did Šilhavý remember Kúdel again? For the League of Nations matches against Portugal (Saturday) and in Switzerland (Tuesday), as usual, he cannot count on several players. Above all, he has a weakened stopper position. “We are still missing Čelůstka Kalas, Petrášek, now also Holeš, Hovorka for a long time and also Krejčí, who could also start at the back,” calculated the coach’s absence.
In addition, Pilsen’s Lukáš Hejda informed him some time ago that he wants to concentrate only on his club career, even in view of his health.
Let’s also mention that the U-21 national team plays extremely important matches, the so-called play-offs, within this qualifying period. The better of the two matches between Iceland and the Czech Republic will make it to the Euro of this age category. And that’s why Šilhavy didn’t even reach into this potential reservoir of “cadre reserves”. After all, he probably wouldn’t find a candidate for the A-team at the stopper position at this moment anyway.
Not that Šilhavý doesn’t have any stoppers at all. No matter what, he fills that position with ease. In his nomination, we find Brabek, Zelený, Zim, Jemelka – and also Ondřej Kúdela.
Recently, coach Šilhavy chose a formation with three stoppers. As part of the September meeting, there are two matches on the program, after the first one there may be problems with cards or a health failure. And let’s not forget that the coach can count on Zeleny as well as Jemelka for other positions in the lineup, specifically on the defensive ends.
Bottom line: Śilhavy was looking for a substitute stopper with a high probability, someone so to speak as a backup if something went wrong. And although it was generally expected that he would probably look for such a player in the domestic competition and therefore invite some newcomer to rub shoulders in the “repre” game, Šilhavý surprisingly chose a different solution. And he sent the nomination to the 35-year-old footballer to Jakarta.
Let us remind you that Kúdel’s contract with Slavia Prague expired in the summer. He pondered what to do next, and was approached not only by an exotic but also a lucrative offer from Indonesia. Another Czech footballer with national team experience also wears the jersey of the Persija Jakarta club, namely forward Michael Krmenčík. Although Šilhavy did not call him to this meeting, he did at least mention him on the list of substitutes.
To clarify: Each nomination includes a list of non-travelling substitutes below the line. The current one features two men with a career as a stopper, namely Patrizio Stronati and Luděk Pernica.
From this it can be concluded that these two were the next closest aspirants for the nomination. Both the 27-year-old Stronati from Baník Ostrava and the 32-year-old Pernica from Viktoria Plzeň would obviously be much closer to the meeting than Kúdela, who traveled 10,700 kilometers in the air for the nomination and also has a return journey ahead of him.
And all this maybe just so that he could train with the team and complete the matches on the substitutes’ bench. After all, this was exactly the case already in June, when the first four-game “batch” was played in the League of Nations group.
Kúdela was already on vacation at the time, but another player unexpectedly dropped from Šilhavé’s team. And so, in June, he additionally called up Kúdela, who was already known at the time to be leaving Europe and heading to Asia for a “football vacation”, for experiences and a financial reserve for a pension, which is a nice combination.
No one protested against Kúdel’s additional nomination in June. There was no reason, he finished the season in Slavia, he was healthy and it was generally believed that he was symbolically saying goodbye to the national team by participating in the event. In addition, the unfortunate June term of the League of Nations “crept” into the players’ holidays. And so everyone was happy that Ondřej Kúdela took on the rather ungrateful role of June, i.e. the non-playing stopper in the national team’s substitution.
After all, here we come across one of the qualities that coach Šilhavy appreciates in him. Kúdela does not hesitate, she brings positive signals to the team and from the substitutes. And if he were to start, in addition to his overview and organization of the game, he would also be able to contribute with excellent constructive passing, which is his big plus compared to other stoppers.
It was still understandable that Šilhavý took all these aspects into account in June. But now in September he really shocked with it. According to behind-the-scenes information, even the president of the association, Petr Fouska, was surprised by Kúdela’s nomination, who came to personally ask the builders of the national team if they were really sure that Kúdela would be indispensable at this event.
In addition to the sports aspects described, Fousek also realized the price of a return ticket between Jakarta and Prague. And in Strahov today, they are not in a comfortable enough economic situation to just wave their hands over this item, on the order of 100,000 crowns.
It must be remembered that if Kúdela is flying to a meeting of the national team, then it is of course necessary for him to travel in the comfort of first class. The union will of course pay for his trip. And what is important is that Kúdela was slightly surprised by the nomination, but he did not worry about it in any way. He expressed that she pleased him and honestly arrived at the meeting.
Stanislav Levý adds to his surprising nomination: “I assume that the coaches know in what role they want to use Ondřej Kúdela in matches. The matches themselves will show us whether this nomination was justified.” Without a doubt, the management of the association will provide feedback to the coach after the September meeting about the effectiveness and meaningfulness of the “Jakarta operation”. As always, he will be interested in the points scored and the game performed. And this time, probably one thing in particular, namely the degree of application of Ondřej Kúdela during the event.
It seems unlikely that he would continue in the national team. However, Jaroslav Šilhavý from Jakarta has already called him once, so nothing can be ruled out. However, it doesn’t make sense.
There is an assumption that with every week or month spent in the Indonesian league, Kúdel’s sports level will decrease, moving away from the standards of the national team, due to the lower level of the competition, but also to his advancing age. Every other trip around the globe will understandably be more tiring for him. And so we could go on.
But it doesn’t make sense. The only thing that makes sense is to select and incorporate other candidates for the national team jersey into the team. To think of Ondřej Kúdela, working in Indonesia, in good terms, with due respect and reverence. And accept the fact that the representation has already given what it could. Entrusting his part to others, to younger people, is the only way.
Euro 2024 qualification is being played next year, it is necessary to enter it prepared, to make full use of the November deadline.
The specific idea that perhaps Ondřej Kúdela should fly from Jakarta in November for a warm-up match against the Faroe Islands sounds so bizarre in itself that it is perhaps not even worth discussing it in any way. To add to that, in addition to the Faroe Islands in Olomouc, the team also has a trip to Turkey in November.
Silhavý now surprised Kúdelová with a nomination for the League of Nations. For a change, Ondřej Kúdela unpleasantly surprised the coach before the Euro, which was played in 2021. The then Slavia player lost him due to a disciplinary punishment. UEFA suspended him for 10 competitive matches in cups and the national team for the incident in the Europa League.
At that time, Ondřej Kúdela was at the peak of his form and performance. He lost his dream start in the tournament by his own fault. That’s when this well-known gentleman lost his temper and threw something at opponent Kamara with his hand covering his mouth in a tense game against Rangers. He heard a racist insult. And Kúdela got a “band-aid”.
Because of this, he played “only” 8 matches in the national team in his career. That is, for the A-team. Years ago, in the under-20 selection, he also won the title of junior vice-champion of the world, together with Fenin, Suchy and other talents from the 2007 WC in Canada.
Kúdela is not the first representative to travel from another continent to a national team event. In autumn 2019, striker Zdeněk Ondrášek arrived from Dallas, USA. And it paid off, he scored the winning goal for England, thanks to which Šilhavé’s team advanced to the last Euro.
In 1994, Ivan Hašek contributed at least a small part to the later silver success at the Euro in England. He started in the qualifying match in Malta (0:0) and, like Kúdela now, flew to him all the way from Asia. Hašek specifically from the Japanese engagement in Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
In Malta, he played the 56th game of his major international career, the last in the collection. Coach Uhrin did not send further invitations to distant Japan. For interest: at that time, Ivan Hašek, former captain of the national team, was 4 years younger than Ondřej Kúdela, the first Czech representative called up from Jakarta, is today.
