Czechoslovakia national football team

• 1. Introduction

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  Antonin Panenka scored the penalty that won the 1976 European Championship for the Czechoslovakia national football team, and he did it with a chip. The technique has carried his name ever since, whenever another player tries it.

  Between 1919 and 1993, the team played men's international football under the flag of a country that no longer exists. It qualified for eight World Cups and three European Championships. How did one team reach two World Cup finals? Why did it once abandon an Olympic final? And what became of it when Czechoslovakia itself came apart?

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• 2. Before the World Cup

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  Bohemia's national team was established on the 19th of October 1901, while the region still sat inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its first international came on the 5th of April 1903, a 2-1 defeat against Hungary in Budapest. Hungary then travelled to Prague on the 7th of October for a 4-4 draw. The sides met three more times up to 1908, and one of those games, on the 6th of October 1907, gave Bohemia its only victory. Its final match came on the 13th of June 1908, a 4-0 home loss to England.

  Objections from the Austrian Football Association got the Bohemian federation, known as the ČSF, expelled from FIFA. In March 1909 it answered by founding a rival body, the UIAFA, together with the French USFSA and the English Amateur Football Association. Bohemia won that body's Great European football tournament in 1911, beating the English amateur side 2-1 in the final.

  Paris hosted the Inter-Allied Games in 1919, a large sports competition staged to celebrate the Allied victory in the First World War. An independent Czechoslovakia made its first appearance there, though FIFA's official register leaves those matches out. The team won its group with victories over Belgium, the United States and Canada. It then beat the hosts, France, 3-2 in the final, thanks to two late goals from Antonín Janda.

  On the 28th of August 1920 in Antwerp, Czechoslovakia opened its Olympic campaign with a 7-0 win over Yugoslavia. Thirteen of the players in that squad had also played at the Inter-Allied Games. A 4-0 win over Norway followed the next day in the quarter-finals, and a 4-1 win over France on the 31st took the team to the final. Against Belgium on the 2nd of September, the Czechoslovaks trailed 2-0 after 40 minutes and walked off in protest at the English referee, John Lewis. The tournament ejected them.

  The team returned for the 1924 Olympics in Paris and beat Turkey 5-2 in the first round. In the second round it drew 1-1 with Switzerland and then lost the replay 1-0. It had declined an invitation to the first World Cup in 1930, and its own first entry came four years later.

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• 3. Italy and France

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  Poland withdrew from the 1934 qualifier after losing the first leg 2-1, which handed Czechoslovakia its first World Cup place without a second game. At the finals in Italy, the team got past Romania, Switzerland and Germany to reach the final. The hosts won that final 2-1 after extra time. Oldřich Nejedlý collected the Golden Shoe for his five goals in the tournament.

  A 7-1 aggregate victory over Bulgaria sent Czechoslovakia to the 1938 World Cup in France. In Le Havre, a 3-0 win over the Netherlands carried the team into the quarter-finals. There it met Brazil in a match remembered as the Battle of Bordeaux because of its rough play. Czechoslovakia lost the replay 2-1.

  The year 1939 brought three more matches, played under the occupation name of Bohemia. The team beat Yugoslavia 7-3 and drew with Ostmark, the name given to occupied Austria. It also drew with Germany itself, the opponent it had beaten on the way to the 1934 final.

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• 4. Near Misses

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  Czechoslovakia stayed out of the 1950 qualifying campaign, then topped its group for 1954 without losing, collecting three wins and a draw against Bulgaria and Romania. At the finals in Switzerland, the team was put out of a strong group by defeats to Uruguay and Austria.

  Wales and East Germany finished behind Czechoslovakia in the qualifying group for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. On the 8th of June, the team opened the finals with a 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in Halmstad. It then drew 2-2 with the reigning champions, West Germany, and beat Argentina 6-1. On the 17th of June in Malmö, a play-off for a place in the knockout stages went to Northern Ireland again, 2-1.

  The 5th of April 1959 brought the first qualifying match ever played in a UEFA European Championship. Czechoslovakia lost it 2-0 away to the Republic of Ireland but still advanced 4-2 on aggregate. Wins over Denmark, 7-3 on aggregate, and Romania, 5-0 on aggregate, put the team into the four-team finals in France. The Soviet Union beat it 3-0 in the semi-final. A 2-0 win over the hosts at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille secured third place, and Marseille would see Czechoslovakia again in December 1969.

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• 5. Chile 1962

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  A play-off in Brussels decided who went to Chile, after Czechoslovakia finished level in its qualifying group. The team beat Scotland 4-2 after extra time. At the finals, a goal from Jozef Štibrányi gave it a 1-0 win over Spain, and a 0-0 draw with holders Brazil followed.

  On the 7th of June, Václav Mašek put Czechoslovakia ahead against Mexico after only 12 seconds. The team still lost 3-1 but advanced from the group anyway.

  Goalkeeper Viliam Schrojf played superbly in the quarter-final, and a goal from Adolf Scherer in Rancagua was enough to beat Hungary. Scherer then scored twice late in the next round against Yugoslavia, which put Czechoslovakia into its second World Cup final.

  In Santiago's Estadio Nacional, Josef Masopust finished a pass from Scherer to give Czechoslovakia the lead after 15 minutes. Brazil equalised soon afterwards and took advantage of Schrojf's errors to win 3-1. Masopust's inspired play earned him the 1962 Ballon d'Or. He would finish his international career with 63 caps and ten goals, between 1954 and 1966.

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• 6. Drought and Delivery

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  Portugal topping the qualifying group kept Czechoslovakia away from the 1966 World Cup. The team also failed to qualify for the European Championships of 1964 and 1968.

  On the 3rd of December 1969, a 4-1 win over Hungary in Marseille, in a play-off, sent Czechoslovakia to the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. The two sides had finished joint top of their qualifying group. At the finals the team lost all three matches, in a group that included holders England and eventual winners Brazil. It then missed the 1972 European Championship and the 1974 World Cup.

  Yugoslavia hosted the 1976 European Championship, and Czechoslovakia earned its place by topping a group with England, Portugal and Cyprus. A 4-2 play-off win over the Soviet Union confirmed it. In the semi-final in Zagreb, the team beat the Netherlands 3-1 after extra time.

  The final took place on the 20th of June at the Crvena Zvezda Stadium in Belgrade. Czechoslovakia led 2-0, but the match finished 2-2 and went to penalties.

  Sixteen of the 22 players in that squad were Slovak. In both matches of the final tournament, nine of the 13 players used were Slovak. That Slovak weight in the team would matter later, when the country divided.

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• 7. Last Tournaments

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  Scotland won its group in qualifying for the 1978 World Cup, so Czechoslovakia stayed home. The team did reach Euro 1980, where it finished second in its group behind West Germany. That meant a third-place play-off against the hosts, Italy, at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples. Czechoslovakia won it on sudden-death penalties.

  At the 1982 World Cup in Spain, draws with Kuwait and France were followed by a 2-0 loss to England. The team went out in the group stage.

  Italy staged the 1990 World Cup, the last major tournament the country played. Czechoslovakia opened with a 5-1 victory over the United States, then beat Austria with a penalty from Michal Bilek. A 2-0 defeat by the hosts at the Stadio Olimpico did not stop it advancing.

  In the last 16 at the Stadio San Nicola in Bari, Tomáš Skuhravý scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Costa Rica. On the 1st of July at the San Siro, a penalty from Lothar Matthäus gave West Germany a 1-0 quarter-final win. West Germany went on to win the tournament.

  Later that month, Jozef Vengloš, who had managed Czechoslovakia at the tournament, was appointed by Aston Villa. He became the first foreign manager in English football.

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• 8. Dissolution and Records

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  At the end of 1992, when Czechoslovakia dissolved, the team was playing in UEFA qualifying Group 4 for the 1994 World Cup. It finished that campaign as the Representation of Czechs and Slovaks, abbreviated RČS, and was disbanded in November 1993. The Czech and Slovak national teams are both considered joint successors of the Czechoslovak record.

  Peter Dubovský was top scorer for that final side with six goals. Three of them came in a hat-trick against Romania on the 2nd of June 1993 at the Všešportový areál. On the 17th of November 1993 in Brussels, the team played its last match, a goalless draw against Belgium. Because the game decided direct advancement from the group, the draw ended its hopes for the 1994 tournament.

  Zdeněk Nehoda holds the cap record, with 90 appearances and 31 goals between 1971 and 1987. Marián Masný and Ladislav Novák each played 75 times, and František Plánička played 73. Antonín Puč scored the most goals, 34 in 60 appearances between 1926 and 1938. Nehoda is second on 31, and Nejedlý and Josef Silný each scored 28.

  The trophy cabinet held two World Cup runner-up finishes and one European title. Olympic football brought a silver medal in 1964 and a gold medal in 1980. The team finished third at the European Championship in 1960 and again in 1980. It also won the Central European International Cup in 1955-60. Adidas supplied the team's kit from 1978 until the end in 1993.

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