“When you win, you work much better,” breathed coach Jan Suchopárek with relief in his voice. In the eyes of the fans, it is not much better than his ex-colleague Šilhavy: he himself admitted that in June he coached the decisive match in the EURO group with Israel (0:1), and the new cycle for the youngsters did not start well either.
The twenty-one team did not win once in the first three parts of the qualification for the next European Championship and is second to last in the group with two points. The team around captain Václav Sejko wanted to boost their confidence against Slovakia on Monday, which they did thanks to a 2:1 win. However, the performance in Hradec was far from without mistakes.
Sejk et al. they played most of the match relaxed and had the upper hand. You could see from them that they are not under such pressure as in the qualification. They managed 18 shots, four of which were on goal. Both goals were scored by attackers: Denis Alijagič, who returned to the 21st team after a year and a half, and Christophe Kabongo. The striker from Podbrezová in the Lvíčat jersey celebrated his third autumn goal, of which he scored two in the friendlies against Slovakia (2:0 in September).
Another goalkeeper also showed up: Lukáš Horníček, a substitute from Braga in Portugal, caught the previous four matches. Matyáš Vágner did not disappoint against Slovakia, he can easily get a chance in the qualification as well.
And the minuses? (Not) defending Artur Gajdoš, who had a sea of space before the goal at 1:1. This is related to the longing of coach Suchopárek, who talked about the fact that offensive players usually relax after an offensive action and do not switch to defensive.
However, the weak end stood out in the list of shortcomings. The Czechs were just defending themselves and waiting to see if the hosts of the next EURO would not strike a draw. “It happened despite the fact that we are trying to get into the players so that they are not afraid to play up even when they are in the lead. The problem is that we often run out of energy towards the end,” noted Suchopárek. He too must have had memories of the bitter September in Iceland, which decided the win in the 94th minute, and the October loss to Wales. He scored the equalizer two minutes later.
Also because of messed up conclusions, the twenty-one got into a mess. In the qualification for the EURO, they only have to resemble a band - and ideally keep winning. Right from the March battle with Iceland. Against the Slovaks, Suchopárk’s boys proved for the second time in three months that they can win, they just need to transfer this ability to the qualification. Otherwise, even the winning friend will turn out to be useless.
