Czech national soccer team / world championships

Czech Republic
Česká republika

World Cup record goalscorer:	Oldřich Nejedlý (7 for Czechoslovakia) Tomáš Rosický (2 for Czech Republic)
World Cup record players:	Ladislav Novák (12 for Czechoslovakia) 10 players with 3 games for the Czech Republic
Rank :	19 (including the results of Czechoslovakia)
Balance sheet
3 World Cup games 1 win 0 draw 2 defeats 3: 4 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Czech Republic 3-0 USA Gelsenkirchen ( DEU ); June 12, 2006
Biggest World Cup victory Czech Republic 3-0 USA Gelsenkirchen ( DEU ); June 12, 2006
Biggest World Cup defeats Czech Republic 0: 2 Ghana Cologne ( DEU ); June 17, 2006 Czech Republic 0: 2 Italy Hamburg ( DEU ); June 22, 2006
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( first : 2006 )
Best results	Preliminary round 2006
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(Status: after the 2018 World Cup )

The article contains a detailed description of the Czech national soccer team at soccer world championships . The Czech Republic first took part in a World Cup finals, but is viewed by FIFA as the successor to Czechoslovakia after the split of Czechoslovakia. Therefore, the FIFA statistics for the Czech Republic also include the matches and players from Czechoslovakia.

overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Spain and Yugoslavia failed.
2002	South Korea / Japan	not qualified				In the qualification in the relegation play the runners-up of Belgium failed after the group stage behind Denmark 2nd place was occupied.
2006	Germany	Preliminary round	Italy , Ghana , USA	20th	Karel Brückner
2010	South Africa	not qualified				In qualifying at Slovakia and Slovenia failed.
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification against Italy and Denmark , which could not qualify either, failed.
2018	Russia	not qualified				In the qualification that began in September 2016, defending champions Germany and Northern Ireland failed.

Statistics (data incl. 2018: 21 or 6 world championships; percentages are rounded)

• Unqualified: 5 × (24%; 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018)
• Sports qualification: 1 × (5% or 17% of the attempts)
  • Preliminary round: 1 × (5%; 2006)

1998 in France

For the second World Cup in France , the Czechs, who had become vice European champions in 1996 , and the Slovaks wanted to qualify with their own national teams for the first time and were drawn into a group. However, they only finished third and fourth with tied points behind Spain and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , against which neither could win. The Faroe Islands and Malta had nothing to do with the outcome.

2002 in Japan and South Korea

In qualifying for the first World Cup in Asia , the Czechs had to play against Denmark , Bulgaria , Iceland , Northern Ireland and again Malta. With six wins, two draws and two defeats they only finished second behind Denmark. So they had to go to the playoffs of the group runners-up against Belgium and lost twice with 0: 1.

2006 in Germany

Scene from the game against Ghana

The Czechs were then able to qualify for the first time for the 2006 World Cup in Germany . In a group of seven with the Dutch , Romania , Finland , Macedonia , Armenia and Andorra , they again took second place. Although they scored the most goals, they also conceded 12 goals. As second in the group they had to go to the playoffs against Norway and this time they won both games 1-0.

In Germany, they met the USA in their first game and won 3-0. The realized Jan Koller already in the fifth minute the first World Cup goal for the Czech Republic. Against World Cup newcomer Ghana they fell behind after just 67 seconds with the fastest goal of this World Cup. Asamoah Gyan scored the first goal in Ghana's World Cup history. In the 67th minute, however, he shot a penalty kick against the post. The Ghanaians had received this after an emergency brake from Tomáš Ujfaluši , who also received the red card . In the 82nd minute, the Ghanaians then scored the 2-0 final score. With a win against Italy , the Czechs could have reached the knockout round. However, they fell behind after 26 minutes and had to play undernumbered for the entire second half after the yellow-red card for Jan Polák . In the 87th minute, Filippo Inzaghi sealed the end of the Czechs with the second goal for the eventual world champions, who said goodbye to the World Cup for at least 12 years.

2010 in South Africa

The Czechs could not qualify for the first World Cup in Africa . Again they had been drawn into a group with the Slovaks, but only ended up third behind Slovakia , which qualified for the first time, and Slovenia , which reached the World Cup finals via the playoffs. Only Northern Ireland , Poland and San Marino ended up behind the Czechs. The qualification was already lost in the first two games with a 0-0 win in Northern Ireland and a 2-1 win in Poland. Exactly the five points were missing in the end.

2014 in Brazil

Also in the qualification for the second World Cup in Brazil only the third place was taken. Behind former world champions Italy and Denmark, who missed the playoffs as the worst runners-up in the group, the Czechs were only able to distance Bulgaria, Armenia and Malta. In particular, the home defeats against Denmark and Armenia ensured that Michal Bílek , who had taken over the office of national coach after missing qualification for the previous World Cup, resigned in September 2013 and was replaced by Josef Pešice .

2018 in Russia

In the qualification that started in September 2016 , the Czech Republic faced defending champions Germany , Norway , Northern Ireland , Azerbaijan and San Marino . There was only one friendly match against Azerbaijan, which was lost 2-0 in 2009. There were two wins and four defeats against Germany in six games, but no World Cup qualifier yet. They met five times in the European Championship qualification or at the European Championship finals. Against Northern Ireland, Norway and San Marino, however, the balance is positive, with no game lost. There have already been World Cup qualifiers against all three. The Czechs started with two goalless draws and a 3-0 defeat at the world champions, followed by a 2-1 win against Norway and a 6-0 win in San Marino. After a 1-1 defeat in Norway and a 2-1 defeat at home to Germany, they had to win in Northern Ireland to have a chance to qualify. The 2-0 defeat, however, thwarted all hopes, so that there was no chance of a successful qualification before the last two games. The Czechs then won in Azerbaijan and against San Marino, but in the end that was only enough for third place. From this group only group winners Germany could qualify for the World Cup finals in Russia. Group runner-up Northern Ireland missed their chance in the playoff against Switzerland (runner-up in Group B).

Ranking of the Czech World Cup players with the most appearances

01. Ladislav Novák : 12 appearances in 3 tournaments

02. Josef Masopust : 10 appearances in 2 tournaments

03. Svatopluk Pluskal : 9 appearances in 2 or 3 tournaments

04. Josef Košťálek : 7 appearances in 2 tournaments

05. Oldřich Nejedlý , František Plánička and Viliam Schrojf : 6 appearances in 2 and 1 (Schrojf) tournaments respectively

Note: all named players played only for Czechoslovakia at World Championships. Ten players have made three appearances for the Czech Republic so far.

Ranking of the Czech World Cup players with the most goals

Oldřich Nejedlý - top Czech World Cup goalscorer

01. Oldřich Nejedlý - 7 goals

02. Tomáš Skuhravý - 5 goals

03. Zdeněk Zikán - 4 goals

04. Michal Bílek , Milan Dvořák , Václav Hovorka , Antonín Panenka , Antonín Puč , Tomáš Rosický , František Svoboda - 2 goals each

Note: Players in italics scored the World Cup goals only for Czechoslovakia.

Czech World Cup captains

• 1934, 1938: František Plánička , Jaroslav Burgr (quarter-final replay 1938) both for Czechoslovakia
• 1954, 1958, 1962: Ladislav Novák (for Czechoslovakia)
• 1970: Ivo Viktor (3rd game, for Czechoslovakia)
• 1982: Zdeněk Nehoda (for Czechoslovakia)
• 1990: Ivan Hašek (for Czechoslovakia)
• 2006: Tomáš Galásek (1st and 2nd game up to half-time), Pavel Nedvěd (3rd game)

Players banned from World Championships

• 2006: Tomáš Ujfaluši received the red card in the second group match against Ghana and was suspended for the last group match as was Vratislav Lokvenc , who received the second yellow card . Jan Polák received the yellow-red card in the last group game . Since the Czech Republic left, this had no further effect.

Share of players playing abroad in the World Cup squad

Legionnaires made up the majority in the squad when they first participated. Only substitute goalkeeper Jaromír Blažek , who was not used, and record international Karel Poborský played in the Czech Republic.

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
2006 (3)	21 (5 in Germany, 2 in England, 2 in France, 3 in Italy, 2 in the Netherlands, 2 in Austria, 4 in Russia, 1 in Turkey)	David Jarolím (1), Jan Koller (1), Jan Polák (3), Tomáš Rosický (3), Jiří Štajner (3); Milan Baroš (1), Petr Čech (3); Jaroslav Plašil (3), David Rozehnal (3); Marek Jankulovski (3), Pavel Nedvěd (3), Tomáš Ujfaluši (2); Tomáš Galásek (2), Zdeněk Grygera (3); Vratislav Lokvenc (2), Libor Sionko (1); Martin Jiránek (0), Antonín Kinský (0), Radoslav Kováč (1), Pavel Mareš (0); Marek Heinz (1)

Games

The Czechs have played three World Cup games so far. One was won and two lost.

The Czechs never played in the opening game and never played against the hosts.

The Czechs lost once (2006) to the eventual world champion.

The Czechs never played against the defending champions, but once faced a newcomer to the World Cup: Ghana.

All games are unique so far. Both the victory and the defeats are the highest in each case against these countries.

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
1	June 12, 2006	3-0	United States	*	Gelsenkirchen ( DEU )	Group game	First game against the USA
2	June 17, 2006	0: 2	Ghana	*	Cologne ( DEU )	Group game	First game against Ghana
3	June 22, 2006	0: 2	Italy	*	Hamburg ( DEU )	Group game

See also

• Czech national soccer team / European championships

Web links

• Football World - Statistics - Czech Republic on fifa.com
• fifa.com: "Statistical overview: records and milestones"

References and footnotes

1. ↑ Czech players in Italy (1934, 1990), France (1938), Switzerland (1954), Sweden (1958), Chile (1962), Mexico (1970) and Spain (1982) with the Czechoslovak team.
2. ↑ fifa.com: Czech Republic
3. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2014 (PDF file; 195 kB)