Group A

Czech Republic
The Czech Republic has qualified for four European Championships in four attempts and has only lost two qualifying games along the way.


How they qualified
They topped Group D beating out Germany by two points and finished a mammoth twelve points ahead of third place the Republic of Ireland. Jan Koller led the scoring with six goals.


The Coach
Karel Bruckner took over the full national team in 2001 after a successful spell in charge of the under-21 side. Since then Bruckner has integrated many of the players from the under 21s that finished second in the 2000 European Championship with remnants from the 1996 European Championship side that finished as runners-up to Germany.

A failure to qualify from the group stages at the 2006 World Cup nearly cost the veteran coach his job but he managed to ride out the criticism. Nonetheless the 67-year-old has decided to retire at the conclusion of the 2008 Euros.


Key Players
Tomas Rosicky is injured and he will be badly missed by a side that many consider to be in decline. Goalkeeper Petr Cech will be a key to Czech hopes and confidence as will a back four that has depth with the likes of Grygera, Jankulovski, Rozehnal, Ujfalusi and Kovac to choose from.

Milan Baros was the top scorer at Euro 2004 and is an enigma. The striker has consistently failed to deliver the goods at club level with Liverpool, Aston Villa, Lyon and Portsmouth but put a Czech top on him and another player appears.  A scoring rate of almost a goal every two international games places his striking rate among the best in the world.

 
Great Euro Memory
It took a golden goal by Germany’s Oliver Bierhoff in the 1996 final to kill off Czech hopes of becoming European Champion at the first attempt. The Czechs battled Germany all the way and with a break at the right time they could well have won the 1996 tournament.


Synopsis
Their finish ahead of Germany while scoring twenty-seven goals and conceding only five flatters to deceive. There is a fine line between experience and old age when it comes to a soccer team and it may just be that the balance has tilted too far in a squad in which nine players the wrong side of 30. Martin Fenin who moved to Eintracht Frankfurt last summer after impressive performances at the under-20 World Cup is the only player under the age of 23 in the squad.


Coming Up in World Cup Qualifying
Drawn in Group 3 with Poland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and San Marino.



Portugal
Portugal has now made it to the last four European Championship Finals and qualified for the knock stages in 1996, 2000 and 2004.


How they qualified
Portugal finished a point behind Poland in Group A and three points above Serbia and Finland while drawing six of their fourteen games. Ronaldo was the top scorer with eight goals.


The Coach
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s relationship with the Portuguese media has plummeted to depths so low that the Brazilian coach might even be regretting turning down the England job in 2006!!

Scolari has proven time and time again that he can create teams that are difficult to beat and in a number of cases his teams have been incredibly successful. Conversely the Scolari-approach more often than not sacrifices players natural flair at the twin alters of the isms – pragmatism and cynicism.


Key Players
Cristiano Ronaldo’s importance almost goes without saying (but I thought it should be mentioned anyway)  but if you look through the squad of players available to Scolari you cannot fail to be impressed.

The likes of Alves, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Meira, and Miguel are all excellent  defenders, while the midfield has a mixture of creativity, strength, experience and pace with Deco, Petit, Nani, Moutinho,  Veloso and and Raul Meireles all pushing for spots.

If you look past Ronaldo perhaps the key forward for Portugal might be Werder Bremen’s Hugo Almeida. Almeida’s abilities might be best described as rugged and willing but he might be given the chance to complete a Portuguese puzzle that has repeatedly been missing a piece up top.


Great Euro Memory
It was 3-2 loss but the 1984 semi-final against France was an extra time epic in Marseille.


Synopsis
Finished as runners up to Greece when they hosted four years ago and a lack of goals from their recognized strikers (or striker) has cost Portugal silverware at past European Championships and World Cups. Portugal looks solid defensively and Cristiano Ronaldo could carry his country deep into the tournament once more.

However, all the other teams are more than aware of Ronaldo’s capabilities and no doubt  they will set out to try and nullify him.  Deco has been an important part of Scolari’s plans but his form has been generally disappointing over the last year. No goals and only three helpers for Deco during the qualifying stage carries  a warning that his most effective days at the top level may be on the wane. 


Coming Up in World Cup Qualifying
Drawn in Group A with Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania and Malta.



Part One - History and background

Part 3 coming up Friday  - Switzerland and Turkey.
 

Gunner 44 - I think what we should learn from this is the EPL is a marathon not a sprint. But even in a marathon you don't want to be last for a long time you have to keep moving up as the race goes on. But anyways on Friday I heard you say that you don't see Arsenal winning the title and I just have to ask why? Because I think they have as much chance of winning it as Man U and Chelsea.

Bobby – My reasoning is that as the weather deteriorates Arsenal will drop points. I am also not convinced that they have got their wide midfield and full back players sorted out and in particular the left hand side where have been playing without a naturally left footed player. With Clichy back it will help but he will need time to get back to full match fitness.

Manchesterboy4life - I am just wondering what you think of Man U having a strong start to both the premiership and Champions league and if you think they have the depth to go deep in Europe and still hold off the Blues on the home front? Also do you hear of maybe some transfer news that we who are not in the know may be oblivious to?

Bobby – I cannot see United succeeding on two fronts. If they get passed the last 8 in the Champions league I will be surprised. They look to me to be a side that looks better equipped to have a run at the league title. They have surprised me by scoring the number of goals they have this season so far.

USAEnglandfan - Bad to worse at West Ham... really breaks my heart because they were one of my favorite teams to watch last season, they have some of my favorite players, and Pardew has that easy-going air that I really like. I have only been able to watch a select few EPL games this season so I'm a bit out of the loop, but how are NRC and Benayoun doing? What can this slide be attributed to? It has to be something more than the Argies signings.

Speaking of which, I don't fully buy the Argentina-England incompatibility theory. Heinze has done fine, Arca was Sunderland's only bright spot and was pretty highly sought after in the EPL this summer, and am I wrong that D'Alessandro had a solid run at Portsmouth? Personally I think the issue is that most of the talented Argentinians are snapped up by Spain before the EPL cares to look.

Last question: West Ham has a decent amount of stars. If West Ham goes down, what big name guys do you guys think would sink with them?

Bobby – I have only seen a limited amount of West Ham games this season so I am probably not in a great position to comment…but. It appears to me that there is just a general malaise about their play. Zamora was on a good run early on but nobody else is picking up goals. I know Dean Ashton only played the second half of the season but I think he was a big reason why WHU finished strongly last season. I expected better this season…a lot better but we might be seeing that a number of the players just played over their heads last season.

Your comments about Argentine players are well stated. Just with any nationality – some will work out and some will struggle. Back in the late 70’s when Villa and Ardiles signed for Spurs was a fantastic success while Villa – despite his fantastic goal to beat Man City in the FA Cup – was a disappointment.

Djnima -  Very interesting article on Rosicky. I agree with the article in that Wenger is playing Rosicky out of his natural position. However, the professor has no alternative. I don't think he can play Rosicky and Cesc in the middle of the pitch without being soft at the back. Gilberto has to come into the equation to help out in defense. I think playing Rosicky on the wing to adapt him to the EPL will smooth out his transition.

I am not an arsenal fan but it has been such a pleasure to watch them play football!

Bobby – I agree that Rosicky is being played in a wide position to allow him to accustom himself to the Premiership. I still believe that Rosicky has been signed to replace Bergkamp and you will see him paired with Henry but just a little deeper.

neophyte -  Since we are on the subject of Keepers (I enjoyed that article about it being the safest spot on the field) who are your top three EPL Keepers? May I taint your opinion a bit--Is there anyone out there with as good of technique as Van Der Sar?

Bobby – The good ones to choose from: Van der Sar, Cech,  Lehmann (didn’t think I would ever say that), Friedel, Reina (last season), Robinson, Given and ….David James.

I will discount age. I would place Cech first, Van der Sar second and then I have trouble splitting Lehmann, Freidel and Given for third place.

bigdavedisaster - All this talk about the EPL lacking teams with skills is simply wrong in my opinion. I’ll put up the skills of Arsenal Man U and Chelsea (all of which I hate) up against the top three teams in any other league. As in most league the teams at the top with the players tend to play a more skilled "pretty" game while the lesser teams have to scrap and hustle for the few chances that they get. Comparing leagues is simply a matter of taste. It’s comparing apples to apples and the champions league helps do that.

Bobby – I have never understood the argument of which league is “the best” and fans dismissing leagues because the quality is poor. The beauty of the game is that it can be played in many different ways that emphasize different qualities and attributes. It is also a game that can be played at any skill level. To me the issue is not which is the best league, it is whether or not what you are watching entertains and engages you.

gooner17 - Maybe Hunt did or didn’t mean to hit Cech but how come no one is saying anything about Ferreira? iI was taught as a defender to shield off attackers to protect your keeper in those situations and to make sure the keeper wins the ball first. Instead he just points to where the ball is (like Cech couldn't see it) and lets his keeper get nailed. Ferreira should feel just as bad as Hunt.

Bobby – Excellent point on Ferreira. I saw another example today in the Chelsea game of something that shocked me. It was the second half and Shevchenko was in a central position and passed the ball to Lampard(?) in the inside left position. Shevchenko then made to go beyond Lampard and to move into a position around about the edge of the penalty box on the left.  I was taught never to run in front of a teammate who has the ball…..which is exactly what Shevchenko did. Shevchenko should have side stepped Lampard and made a run behind him which would have allowed Lampard to thread a ball through to Shevchenko who would have then been moving at full throttle. As it was Lampard had to hesitate because he could not pass the ball till Shevchenko was out of his way and by the time he could pass the ball Shevchenko had run into an offside position.

buffytvs - 1) Today Charlton reaffirmed their faith in Ian Dowie. Isn't such an announcement usually the immediate prelude to a firing?

2) Seems to me a disproportionate number of 'Goals of the Week' emanate from the MSL. Who picks these things?

Bobby – Aaah – the dreaded vote of confidence. Time for Ian Dowie to update his CV.
As for who picks the “Goals of the Week” – I have to say I don’t know. 

henry14 -  l have to say first congratulation to Liverpool and Chelsea, but when l look at their game it was one of the worst attitudes to football by Jose Mourinho, what was a back four quickly became a back seven, it was boring , similarily to the game arsenal played against CSKA Moscow, it was a miserable game , they had 8 men in the box which is a very poor approach, the performance does not give me much to think they can go all the way, what did you think watching the game

Bobby – I didn’t see the Arsenal game but I did watch Chelsea and Barcelona. It was a disappointing affair. Chelsea forced Barcelona to play into congested areas of the park and their tactics worked almost to perfection. Without Eto’o Barcelona is missing speed through the centre and that allowed the Chelsea defense to play tight on the forwards. If anyone was likely to score for Barcelona it looked to be Messi.

 

And finally there was a lot of discussion on the Cech injury and the role played by Stephen Hunt. My take is that there was no intention on the part of Hunt to injure Cech. Quite simply if you are going to go after someone you would put the boot in; you would not use your knee. You have to be an absolute #### to try to inflict injury by the use of a knee given that the odds are that you will come out the worst of it. Hunt was going full speed, Cech slid into his path and Hunt when to go to ground. Gravity takes over at that point and there is no way to avoid the collision.

Mourinho’s comments about the ambulance taking 30 minutes to get to the ground were another example of the Chelsea manager’s unfortunate tendency towards exaggeration in times of stress. Two seasons ago he said he saw Barcelona manager Frank Rijkaard enter the dressing room of referee Anders Frisk at half-time only to have to back down and admit that he had never seen anything of the sort. Now he claims 30 minutes when the records apparently show the actual time taken was only 7 minutes. It is not an endearing trait of Jose’s.  

David James - the Portsmouth keeper - on obesity.

The injuries to Cudicini and esppecially Petr Cech is top of mind. Tony Cascarino still considers the position between the posts to be the safest on the park. There is also a list of severe injuries suffered by goalkeepers. When I started to watch football there were no substitutes and teams would always have their designated outfield player ready to take over if the goalkeeper went down injured.

Dr. Thomas Stuttaford gives an experts view on the Cech injury.

Rod Little on the subject of what does Steve McClaren write in his notebook. As an aside most fans would have noticed Jose Mourinho scribbling away during a game. But according to the excellent biography by Patrick Barclay it is something that only happens in the first half and is for his use at halftime. In the second half Mourinho considers it a pointless exercise.

Brian Glanville looks at the acquisition of Tomas Rosicky and a historical perspective of other Arsenal playmakers.

Mark Hodkinson on something that is bound to resonate with nostalgia buffs. A book is to be published this week on the late Peter Adolph – the inventor of Subbuteo.

And last and certainly least - is the strip that Bolton’s wore on Sunday the ugliest in the Premiership and if not which one is worst? Which team has the worst strip in the Premiership. For those that missed it it is the clour of something you find hardened on a pavement on Sunday morning.

A cracking game, great atmosphere, and both teams willing to go forward. Two excellent goals, a missed penalty and a sending off.

The Ghana keeper Kingston even managed to hold on to a couple of crosses to say nothing of two stunning late saves!

The front two of Amoah and the magnificent Gyan were the key I thought. The Czech defense was run ragged. A reminder that pace combined with skill is a potent combination.

Not many bright spots for the Czech Republic but Petr Cech kept the score respectable - without him it could have easily have been 4 or 5.

Man of the Match - Asamoah Gyan. He may have missed a penalty but his overall play was superb and he took his goal very well. Good news for the USA - he will miss Thursday's game.