Czech Republic crushes the USA but at a price
The Czech Republic continued where they left off at Euro 2004 and produced some sublime football to destroy the USA 3-0. The match highlighted the uselessness of the FIFA World rankings with the US apparently the 5th best team in the world if you believe FIFA’s classifaction but clearly not in the same league as the Czechs.
Giant centre forward Jan Koller showed Peter Crouch how a big man should play when he powered in Zdenek Grygera’s cross with a thumping header in the 5th minute, but was strechered off shortly afterwards with a hamstring injury which may rule him out of the next few games. However, new Arsenal signing Tomas Rosicky picked up the slack, first with a long range curler from 25 metres in the 36th minute, later smashing a shot against the bar and finally by finishing off a flowing move in the 76 minute to make it 3-1.
The Czechs ooze class but much depends on how quickly Koller and fellow striker Milan Baros recover from injury. Vraclav Lokvenc, Koller’s replacement, is more in the Peter Crouch mould, not in Koller’s class. In any event the Italians will be worried. They are likely to have to beat them in order to avoid a last 16 clash with Brazil. Based on today’s displays, the Czechs seem destined to win the group.
