South Africa World Cup 2010 Group F: Slovakia

GROUP F

Italy Paraguay New Zealand Slovakia

Slovakia

Road to South Africa

Most people did not expect Slovakia to qualify from a balanced Group 3 that included four Central European Slavic nations plus a moderately good Northern Ireland, but what did people know. Four years ago the Slovaks came close to their first major tournament after overtaking the highly fancied Russia and making it to the playoffs against Spain. There they were well beaten (1-1 and 1-5), but not without controversy, as the second leg in Spain was marred by some unorthodox refereeing.

Finally, this time the eastern part of the former Czechoslovakia fulfilled their dreams in a group without a clear favourite, but with two frequent participants at world or European championships - Poland and the Czech Republic; neither qualified.

Slovakia started well, beating Northern Ireland, and went on to achieve two historic away wins in Prague and Belfast. In spite of losing both times to a much-improved Slovenia, the Slovaks reached the last day of the qualifying campaign as leaders and with a chance of qualifying directly by winning away to Poland in Chorzow. In a dramatic game, the already eliminated Poles tried hard to interfere with the outcome of the group, but an early own goal put Slovakia in the lead and proved decisive in a match no Slovak will ever forget.

Fixtures

Slovakia Copyright © Soccerphile	Slovakia Copyright © Soccerphile

Slovakia v New Zealand 15 June; Rustenburg
Slovakia v Paraguay 20 June; Bloemfontein
Slovakia v Italy 24 June; Johannesburg

Analysis

Slovakia is a hard-working team that fights for every ball. Their virtues are discipline, strict marking and not giving away possession easily. They are hardly a soccer machine, but will probably give a lot of headaches to the teams in their group. It is easy to imagine them drawing to both Italy and Paraguay and defeating New Zealand, which could suffice to qualify for the second round.

All of the internationals are employed abroad including Germany (Sestak, Pekarik), the English Premier League (Skrtel, Weiss), Italy (Hamsik) and Russia (Durica, Jakubko and Zabavnik). Their strength seem to lie in defense, headed by the goalkeeper Jan Mucha and Liverpool's agile central defender Martin Skrtel. The experienced Karhan also performs a significant defensive role with his tough tackling. The creativity is entrusted to Napoli's talented Marek Hamsik, while the attacking line spearheaded by Stanislav Sestak doesn't sound too breathtaking even though Slovakia scored the most goals in their group.

Their most notable weakness is the lack of depth for a month-long competition like the World Cup (well, they are likely to go home earlier than that). If any of the key players gets injured or suspended, the reserves will be hard-pressed to neutralize the loss.

Key player: Marek Hamsik

A versatile, creative offensive midfielder who showed an extraordinary talent very early on at Slovan Bratislava, earning himself a transfer to Italy two years ago at the age of 19. After a brilliant start at Brescia, he joined high-flying Napoli, where he developed into a match-winner who usually performs best in the important games.

His technical ability and understanding of the game are unquestionable and apart from setting up his teammates he frequently goes forward to score. In the national team, he has netted eight goals in 29 appearances.

One to watch: Stanislav Sestak

The Bochum striker was the squad's top scorer in the qualifiers with six goals, including two crucial strikes against Poland when Slovakia came from behind to win 2-1. Sestak is a player with good ball control and striking ability who had scored 26 goals in 72 Bundesliga games with Bochum by late January.

Coach: Vladimir Weiss

As a player, Vladimir Weiss (45) won caps with Czechoslovakia and took part in the 1990 World Cup in Italy in the last appearance of any Slovak player in the World Cup so far. As a coach, he has worked at Artmedia Petrzalka, winning a league championship in 2005 and competed in the Champions League. Celtic fans may remember a terrible 5-0 drubbing they took from Weiss's team in the preliminary round.

In 2007 he took over Russia's Saturn Ramskoye before starting to manage Slovakia in 2008, taking the squad directly to the World Cup.

Weiss is said to be a stern, difficult man who does not pamper his stars. Former two-time player of the year, Marek Mintal, appeared only in one game during the qualifiers and then quit the national team. Curiously, there are other two Slovak soccer personalities called Vladimir Weiss: one is the coache's father, and the other is his son, a distinguished member of the team, currently playing with Manchester City.

Record

First appearance. No participation in a World Cup as an independent nation.
Eight participations and two-time finalists as a part of Czechoslovakia.

FIFA Ranking

Early flight home for Vladimir and the boys.
World Cup Betting

How they qualified

Won European qualifying group 3 ahead of Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

On the sidelines

Slovakia played their first international in 1939 while the country was a pro-Nazi puppet state. On that occasion, they defeated their German political sponsors 2-0. Their first game after gaining independence from the Czech Republic took place in October 1992 against Lithuania and finished 1-1.
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Soccerphile says

The Slovak people are aware their team will never emulate the successes of the old Czechoslovakia, who won a European Championship and an Olympic tournament and played in two World Cup finals. The times have changed and their pool of quality players is just one third of Czechoslovakia's.

An appearance at a World Cup is all that the nation hoped for and is probably what they will get. While Italy should make it through to the second round by the sheer weigth of talent, experience and influence, in order to accompany the Azzurri, Slovakia will be obliged to beat Paraguay, one of the leading South American powers. And that could just prove too tough for the first timers.

The Squad

Goalkeepers: Jan Mucha (Legia Warsaw), Dusan Kuciak (Vaslui), Dusan Pernis (Dundee United)
Defenders: Marek Cech (West Brom), Jan Durica (Hannover), Peter Pekarik (Wolfsburg), Martin Petras (Cesena), Kornel Salata (Slovan Bratislava), Martin Skrtel (Liverpool), Radoslav Zabavnik (Mainz)
Midfielders: Marek Hamsik (Napoli), Kamil Kopunek (Spartak Trnava), Jan Kozak (Politehnica Timisoara), Juraj Kucka (Sparta Prague), Marek Sapara (Ankaragucu), Zdeno Strba (Xanthi), Miroslav Stoch (Chelsea), Vladimir Weiss (Manchester City)
Forwards: Filip Holosko (Besiktas), Martin Jakubko (Saturn Moscow), Erik Jendrisek (Schalke), Stanislav Sestak (Bochum), Robert Vittek (Lille).

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