SLOVAKIA AT THE WORLD CUP 2010

Slovak Football Association (SFZ)
1938
Coach: Vladimir Weiss
Confederation: UEFA
FIFA Ranking (Nov 09): 34
Previous Appearances: None
Group F
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

Background

Slovakia has strong grounding in football, considering the fact that it was a part of Czechoslovakia from 1918 until 1992. The Czechoslovakian team always had Slovak players in its ranks. The Czech national team qualified for eight World Cups. Slovakia became an independent Republic in 1993. This is their first World Cup appearance.

The road to the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals

Slovakia was in Group 3 with Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Poland, and San Marino for the qualification campaign. They made a perfect start with a 2-1 home win over Northern Ireland. But they suffered a reverse in the next round, getting beaten 2-1 by Slovenia.  Slovakia then notched up a 3-1 triumph over San Marino and then went on to beat Poland 2-1, both goals scored by Šesták. The Slovakian winning run continued and the next victim was Czech Republic, the score line being 2-1, one of the goals netted by Šesták. San Marino was mauled 7-0 before Slovakia was held 2-2 by the Czech Republic. Meeting Northern Ireland for the second time, Slovakia did it once again, this time 2-0. But the dream run was brought to an end by Slovenia at home by the odd goal in three. In the last match of the group Slovakia edged past Poland 1-0 and ended the campaign successfully with 22 points, pushing Slovenia to the second position.  

Strengths

Rich experience of club football in various leagues across the world will serve the Slovakia team well in the world cup. All the key members of the team are playing for mammoth clubs in various countries. Slovakia had scored the maximum number of goals in the qualification matches and this was because they have a reasonably descent attack. But defence is their real strength, with Jan Mucha under the bar and Martin Skrtel guarding him.

Weaknesses

The bench strength is suspect. Not many replacements are around if the leading players get suspended or are injured.

The Coach

There are three Vladimir Weisses. The father, the son and his son. Father was a former Czech player, the son, former national player and now national team coach and his son, a member of the current national team. Quite natural then that Vladimir Weiss is greatly respected in his country. A tactician, he was the motivator and strategist of the Slovakian team that for the first time qualified for the World cup.
Star Men

Martin Skrtel (Liverpool, England);

A key member of the Slovakian team, Skrtel is a stone wall when it comes to defending his goal post. He is fast and good in the air and hence dominates most of the personal duels. Skertel is currently with Leverpool as a centre-back

Martin Jakubko;

Jakubko may not be there in the starting eleven, but certainly has a role in the coach's game plan. He has shown a superb ability to enter the field as a substitute and convert opportunities into goals.

Stanislav Šesták;

Šesták had an important part in Slovakia’s qualification for the world cup. He scored goals when the team badly wanted them. An interesting statistics is that he has scored a goal in every three matches he played.  Capped for his country only in 2004, he has become a vital player. It is quite obvious that he will have to be in good form if the Slovakians are to reach any height of significance in South Africa.

Marek Hamšík;

Getting into the national team only in 2007, he has already played in 30 internationals and has come out with reasonably good performances as a midfielder. He is only 22 and has a long way to go, the threshold of which will be 2010 South Africa.

Best Footballing Moment

City: Prague, Czech Republic Event: World Cup Qualification match Time: 83rd minute Scoreline:1-1. Then Erik Jendrisek started off on a solo run and crashed the ball into the Czech net. It was a memorable win for Slovakia.

World Cup Objective