Solid football, Kuchta’s form is in the shitter, why did Soucek go for the penalty?! How are the fans reacting to the loss to Switzerland?

The Czech national football team has played the last two matches of the group stage of the Nations League against Portugal and Switzerland. However, neither of them was successful and they have to accept relegation to the Nations League B. How are the fans reacting to these matches and relegation?

Not to be relegated – that was the clear plan of our national team. But after the last two matches of Group 2, the future of the Czech national team is clear.

The Czech Republic falls into category B, having collected only four points in six matches. Group 2 was eventually won by Spain ahead of Portugal, with Switzerland finishing third. Jaroslav Šilhavy’s men scored only one win in this group, against Switzerland on 2 June (2: 1).

Their last point came three days later in a home match against Spain (2:2), but they did not get a point in the following four matches.

First the national team fell in Portugal (0:2), then in Spain (0:2), and the last time the Czechs lost 0:4 at home to Fernando Santos’ team and also on Swiss soil (1:2).

Reactions of the fans

On the Facebook profile of the Czech national football team, more than 400 comments were posted under the announcement of the result of the match against Switzerland, and the reactions of the fans are of course very different.

Many would probably expect the fans to be angry and unleash considerable criticism on the national team, but the opposite is true in many cases. For example, Patrik Neugebauer wrote the following in the comments.

“Solid football from our side, for a World Cup participant. Mainly we lacked focus in finishing and maybe a little bit of luck. It’s a shame we’re dropping to B, but it’s certainly no shame, we could only surprise in this company.”

Jakub Jeřábek then expressed his dissatisfaction with the penalty kick and the missed chance to level the score. And he was by no means the only one, many other fans wrote about Tomáš Souček’s poorly taken penalty.

“Why the hell did the completely out of form Soucek go for the penalty? The look on his face before the penalty made you think he wasn’t going to give it. It should have been Schick again. Zima played very well today. Praise should also go to Stanek (he should have caught from the start, but after the battle every general), Jemelka, Cerny, Vlkanova. On the other hand, Soucek and Vaclik are out of form. This pisses me off – three sticks, penalty, useless goal. There was definitely more to play for today.”

“If it wasn’t for that disastrous minute and the penalty, it would have looked different, but hand on heart. To be competitive and to play these teams we came up against – fair and square, I don’t think anyone could have expected that. Plus, with the current form of some of the players, relegation is a perfectly logical outcome. Nevertheless, we move on,” wrote a fan who goes by the name Marek Boora Hlobil on Facebook.

“Unfortunately deservedly! But it was an interesting performance today. It’s stupid to worry about where the fault lies. There are more than enough of them. I will always cheer for us, even if we are 150th in the world rating,” added Luk Jirkovsky.

Kuchta and Soucek the target of criticism

But who is receiving a lot of criticism from the fans is midfielder Soucek and forward Jan Kuchta. There were big doubts around the latter during the nomination itself. Coach Šilhavý, however, defended the move by saying that Kuchta has not disappointed in the last national team matches and has given solid performances.

But after the matches against Portugal and Switzerland, we can objectively say that Kuchta is really out of form and it is no wonder that the fans are criticizing him.

“Holy shit, Kuchta is in bad shape. One header, otherwise nothing at all,” wrote Michal Pohorský. His words were then added by another fan. “Kuchta was good in Slavia, where he was kept under the throat of the hated Houštecký. And for a while in Moscow, well.”

“You don’t understand. At the time when Tecl was regarded as the biggest kicker, he at least got some minutes for the national team. Now, when he’s firing, even against weaker teams, there goes Kuchta, who is absolutely out of shape and has no desire to play, ” added Dominik Ivan.

“Soucek is absolutely wrong, not because of the penalty but because of his style of play, invisible, unnecessarily overrated person in football,” a fan who calls himself Pekelnik Wilson criticized Soucek.

In conclusion…

Other comments afterwards talk about Soucek being an overrated player according to some fans and being invisible in the match. But of course the failure to score a goal is not the fault of just two players, even though these two players were the ones most criticised by fans.

However, as already mentioned, the Czech national team suffered from the unsatisfactory individual performances of other players in both matches. Many comments also discussed the sacking of coach Šilhavy. The question remains, however, whether it would make sense at the moment, and whether it would solve anything.

After all – coach Šilhavy already knows how to work with the national team and at this point it is probably the best solution to let him work.

Sources