Editorial: Is this our time?
Are you feeling nervous yet? I certainly am! It feels like one of our biggest games in years in Prague tonight as we try to qualify for this summer’s World Cup.
And the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) will feel a bit confused as they go into the match looking like the stable and better run national football association! Ireland face Czechia tonight with the winners set to face Denmark or North Macedonia to decide who gets the dubious honour of heading to the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada. Should Ireland get through to the World Cup, our games would be in Mexico and Atalanta, facing Mexico, South Africa and South Korea. That’s a long way off at the moment however. The Czechia FA cancelled their league programme last weekend to give their team maximum preparation time. On Tuesday the Czechia league was hit by a massive scandal as Czechia police and Interpol made a series of dawn raids in coordination with the UEFA anti match-fixing unit. According to media reports, the three year investigation concerns alleged betting corruption in club matches from youth to first-team level. The fallout from what has been called the largest police operations in Czechia football ever will be huge. With Irish manager Heimir Hallgrimsson revealing that he has signed new contract this week and Ireland having won three must-win games in a row, Ireland certainly have the greater stability. New manager Miroslav Koubek is in charge of the Czechia national team after being appointed in December. This is the first game in charge for the 74 year old who has previously managed a number of Czech clubs. He has been brought out of retirement.
An Irish journalist in Czechia called Ian Willoughby spoke to RTÉ Sport about how the Czechs view their team and this game. He said the public were not really engaged by the team, which is not a golden generation, this match or even by football. He said Czechs are more interested in winter sports at the moment so that all bodes quite well.
The Irish public are definitely on board! Despite getting less than 1,000 tickets for the game, more than 6,000 Irish fans are expected to head to Prague. Czechia finished second in Group L, only four points ahead of Faroe Islands who they lost to October. Croatia topped Group L which included Montenegro and Gibraltar. Under Koubek, Czechia are likely to play a back 3, which could be similar to Ireland and will go direct to their physical forward line. Their star is Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrik Schick who has 9 goals in 21 games for the Bundesliga side this season. We go into this game on the back of a wave of momentum, something the men’s national football team hasn’t had much in recent history. We can turn over Czechia but it won’t be easy or very enjoyable.
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty,” said Theodore Roosevelt, who clearly was a Republic of Ireland football fan! Come on Ireland!