Míča, Šídlo and Kaďorek, the comets of the Superleague autumn, are heading to the camp in Český Dub

Two teams were assembled by the coaches of the Czech national team for the preparatory camp, which will be hosted by the Podještěd Sports Complex in Český Dub from 8th to 12th December. Even so, they had their work cut out for them to fit all the players they wanted to see into the nominated twenty-four.

In the autumn part of the Superliga of small football, the creators of the national team of small football were impressed by many performances. “It was difficult to make a basic nomination, we had more potential players there, but we would have been around forty people by then. We took the ones we have, we like the selection, but every nomination is difficult,” admitted Czech coach Stanislav Bejda.

The squad of 20 field players and four goalkeepers is dominated by newcomers this time, with several players returning to the national team after a long break.

“Guys who made their mark in the Super League have appeared in the nomination or as substitutes. There are also experienced guys who have some history in the national team, the composition is about half and half. Among the newcomers is Poli, who hasn’t been in the national team for a long time, but he’s picked himself up. Kafe from Jihlava is a similar case,” the coach mentioned Jakub Polák from Most or Daniel Kavka from Jihlava.

The coach welcomes the return of the world champions from Tunisia 2017. “Some of the boys have straightened up a bit or prefer to play a little football. For us, the main parameter is how they appeared in the Super League, plus historically we know the boys. I have to say that this time we preferred the ones we don’t know, we wanted to see the new guys,” Bejda pointed out.

Among the newcomers are the best players of the autumn part of the Superleague of small football, Jiří Míča from Jihlava, Lukáš Kaďorek from Olomouc Mighty Ducks and Milan Šídlo from Koráb Praha are all in the elite six of the scoring of the national competition.

Even though half of the nomination is made up of newcomers, the coach does not believe that there is a generational change.

“We are trying to continuously integrate young guys, I see it more as a revitalization of the national team. Some of the new players are as old as the existing ones, but only now have they become visible or have started to prefer small football and only now play Super League. Some of them are twenty-eight years old, so it is more about the middle generation of players who see new motivation in small football where they can reach the top,” described the Czech coach.

The Czech national team will field two teams at the camp, which will compete against teams from England and Ukraine in the tournament. One will be made up of experienced players, the other will be based mainly on new faces.

“We will arrange it typologically according to positions, so that we don’t put four defenders in one five. At the initial training we will get a feel for what it can look like. We’re planning it so that one half will be more experienced and the other will be made up of more rookies. The more experienced guys who have known the national team longer can logically fit in better, so we’ll stick to that.

For the newer guys, we’ll try to put them in positions that work based on synergy from the super league selections. Of course, this is not dogma. It is possible that some of the new players will appear among the experienced ones and vice versa. What is important is what positions they play, although we may switch one or two positions during the tournament if someone fits better typologically elsewhere. This is a preparatory tournament for us, so we will see what it brings,” added Bejda.