Czech football team gets off to winning start under Ivan Hašek

The Czech national football team has been in the doldrums recently with problems on and off the pitch and a big question mark over qualification for the World Cup in South Africa next year. So there was more than the normal attention for the first game under new coach Ivan Hašek, even if was just a friendly.

Jaroslav Plašil and Milan Baroš, photo: ČTK

Normally a victory in a home friendly against Belgium would not be something to shout too much about. But the Wednesday night fixture was the first under new football federation boss and coach Ivan Hašek. So, everyone wanted to see whether he had worked some magic on the out of sorts Czech team.

The team included two of the six players — Václav Svěrkoš and Milan Baroš — who were given a temporary ban for inappropriate behaviour (off-the-pitch ) following a 2:1 home defeat in the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in April.

That defeat left the Czechs fourth in the group with just eight points from six games. And even with wins in the last four fixtures they are still not sure of automatically having a chance of travelling to South Africa next year.

After a hesitant start on Wednesday, in which they went a goal down, the Czechs came off the field in Teplice 3: 1 winners against Belgium. The Czechs showed moments of flair during the match which recalled better days. But Hašek said after the match he was particularly encouraged by the 100 percent commitment from the players. They were even applauded as they left they field.

Ivan Hašek, photo: ČTK

Karel Haering is a reporter with the daily Sport. He is cautious about the message that should be taken away from Wednesday evening’s win:

“I think it is very, very soon to talk about a new era because it was just the first game and if the Czech team fails to win in Slovakia it could be the end of the era of Ivan Hašek. So I would be very careful about making any big announcement.”

The really big test for the Czech team is coming up in three weeks when they travel to Bratislava for the World Cup qualifier against group leaders Slovakia on September 5. Will the new manager and apparently re-inspired players be able to pull it off?

Mr Haering again: “At the moment it really unpredictable. Slovakia drew yesterday in Iceland. I do not know how mentally they will be prepared for the big clash in September. This is one of the biggest clashes of their history and in the past they had problems how to manage some important games because of, let’s say, worse mental power. So it is very difficult to predict this game.”