The Netherlands and the Czech Republic continue to
duel atop Group One in UEFA’s World Cup qualifying,
with both sides playing beautiful attacking football,
picking up from their memorable meeting at Euro 2004.
However, it is the Czech Republic that have commendably
showed little mercy when facing the minnows of their
group; over four days this week the Czechs thrashed
Andorra and FYR Macedonia by a collective score of 14-2.
Wednesday’s 6-1 mauling of Macedonia followed
Saturday’s 8-1 demolition of Andorra. Jan Koller
of Borussia Dortmund led the way in the second match
scoring four goals across 11 minutes separated by halftime;
two goals in each half. Granted the Czechs’ opponents
weren’t exactly world-class but sometimes-powerful
nations can take their foot off the gas when facing
a supposedly inferior, usually tiny country. England
struggled to scrape a 2-2 draw against Macedonia not
so long ago, while just recently Portugal were stunned
by the same score against mighty Liechtenstein last
October. No such let-up from the Czech Republic. The
Netherlands will hold on to the group lead for now but
the Czech Republic should go through automatically as
at least one of the two best runners-up.
Edward Knowles, International Editor, 90:00™
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