{"id":298712,"date":"2025-11-21T06:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298712\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T06:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:31:12","slug":"how-big-a-mess-is-the-czech-football-team-right-now-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298712\/","title":{"rendered":"How big a mess is the Czech football team right now? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the press conference that followed Thursday\u2019s World Cup<\/a> playoffs draw, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson<\/a> made a rather interesting revelation in an offhand way. Responding to a question about how the Czech Republic had fired their coach last month after losing to the Faroe Islands, he replied: \u201cWe lost in Armenia and almost fired the coach then …\u201d <\/p>\n

The idea that Hallgr\u00edmsson was close to the sack back in September \u2013 apparently closer than we realised at the time \u2013 seems, in retrospect, mad. Yes the Hungary and Armenia games were bad, but who sacks a manager one week into the qualifiers? Maybe Hallgr\u00edmsson was saved by the awareness in Abbottstown that if you fire a manager just two matches into the campaign you hired him for, then it\u2019s you, not he, that looks like the idiot. <\/p>\n

Since then, as we know, things have gone much better, culminating in last week\u2019s incredible victories that took Ireland to the playoff place that few still seriously expected at the campaign\u2019s halfway point. <\/p>\n

The big decision Hallgr\u00edmsson made was abandoning the 4-2-3-1 system he\u2019d spent a year working on, and reverting to the 3-4-2-1 (often in fact 5-4-1) that we saw so much during Stephen Kenny<\/a>\u2019s time as manager. It was a radical backtrack that didn\u2019t look great for him at the time … and then Ireland closed out the campaign with three wins. What are we to make of this? If the coach is to be criticised for making mistakes in the first window, then he must also be credited for quickly correcting them and delivering the outcome everyone hoped for.<\/p>\n

No question, Ireland enjoyed a little bit of luck \u2013 but it\u2019s hard to be lucky without believing that the luck might just go your way, and under Hallgr\u00edmsson this belief seems to be taking root. The team still has a bad habit of conceding first \u2013 it\u2019s happened in six competitive games out of eight in 2025 \u2013 but they recovered to win three and draw one of those six matches. And whenever Ireland have taken the lead, they\u2019ve gone on to win. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s largely painful history of major tournament playoffsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The idea that fortune smiles on the Icelander was bolstered by Thursday\u2019s playoff draw, which placed Ireland in a four-team path where the two higher-ranked sides both seem to be in periods of decline rather than growth. On paper, Czech Republic look the least intimidating of the four semi-final opponents Ireland could have been pitted against. <\/p>\n

\"FAIFAI communications manager Kieran Crowley and Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson at Fifa HQ in Zurich. Photograph: Priscila B\u00fctler\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Seeking a Czech voice to give some insight into their current situation on the Second Captains podcast, we texted a well-known former Czech international, who politely declined the opportunity to comment, saying \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about Czech national team because it\u2019s a big mess right now …\u201d He added a couple of crying-laughing emojis.<\/p>\n

So what kind of mess are we talking about? Czech Republic lost 2-1 away to the Faroe Islands last month, and three days later sacked head coach Ivan Hasek and two of his three assistants. The remaining assistant \u2013 35-year-old Jaroslav K\u00f6stl, who has no previous experience as a head coach \u2013 was asked to stay on as interim manager for last week\u2019s games against San Marino and Gibraltar. <\/p>\n

The Czechs won both games, but the 1-0 friendly victory over San Marino was regarded by supporters as almost as big a disgrace as the defeat to the Faroes. Tomas Soucek scored the only goal but also missed a penalty in a generally dreadful effort by the Czechs. <\/p>\n

In the next game, a more comfortable 6-0 win against Gibraltar, the Czech ultras spent large parts of the night chanting \u201cfight for Czechia\u201d. The players, annoyed by the implication that they weren\u2019t already fighting for Czechia, chose not to acknowledge that section of the crowd at the end of the game, causing predictable uproar. <\/p>\n

\"CzechCzech Republic’s Tomas Soucek celebrates with team-mates after scoring against Faroe Islands in October 2023. Photograph: Michal Cizek\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The Czech FA took the side of the fans. Their statement declared that the fans had a full right to criticise the team, and that \u201cthe reaction of the players should have been quite the contrary. They should have thanked the [ultra] fans.\u201d The association decided that the players\u2019 match fees would be donated to charity, and Soucek \u2013 for years the linchpin of this team \u2013 was stripped of the captaincy for one match, which will be the playoff semi-final against Ireland. <\/p>\n

The effect all this will have on a match that is still four months away is hard to estimate. Will the desire to win the fans back over \u2013 or even just to prove them wrong \u2013 rally the players together, or will the hostility fester? Will K\u00f6stl still be in the job? Nobody knows. <\/p>\n

Clearly the FA would like to replace him with a more experienced coach; the problem is that not many experienced, high-profile coaches seem desperate to manage the Czech national team right now. The squad is not overburdened with world-class talent and the association pays less than the FAI, with former coach Hasek\u2019s salary estimated at the time of Euro 2024 at \u20ac250,000 \u2013 less than 40 per cent of what Hallgr\u00edmsson earns. In Ireland we know from recent experience that finding the right international coach is not always a simple job.<\/p>\n

\"CzechCzech Republic players celebrate during their World Cup qualifying match against Gibraltar last Monday. Photograph: Michal Cizek\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

The match is likely to take place at Slavia Prague\u2019s Fortuna Arena, where the capacity is just under 20,000 \u2013 meaning Ireland\u2019s allocation is likely to be less than 1,000. However, when Croatia drew 0-0 in Prague last month, it was evident that Croatian fans had somehow managed to get their hands on rather a large number of home tickets, meaning the balance of support in the ground was close to 50-50. <\/p>\n

Amid a general slump in morale, it looked like a lot of the home fans had cashed in and checked out. You would expect, though, that the prospect of a do-or-die home playoff will feel more exciting than a regular qualifier in a group where first place seemed out of reach and second place already assured. <\/p>\n

Overall the Czech Republic are a similar team to Hungary, whom Ireland proved capable of beating. The thing Hallgr\u00edmsson was happiest about on Thursday was the fact that the playoff final, should Ireland get that far, will be in Dublin. Denmark? North Macedonia? As long as it\u2019s a final and not a Fifa-enforced friendly between losing semi-finalists, who cares?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the press conference that followed Thursday\u2019s World Cup playoffs draw, Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson made a rather interesting revelation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,170879,90969,85,21418],"class_list":["post-298712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-ken-early","tag-republic-of-ireland-mnt","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}