Slovakia at the World Cup

Slovakia

Vital Statistics:

World Cup appearances – 0

Best World Cup – N/A

FIFA World Ranking – 33

Manager: Vladimir Weiss

Captain: Marek Hamsik

Profile:

The World Cup always welcomes new faces and Slovakia will be on the ‘New boys on the block’ in South Africa as players & fans alike get all excited at the prospect of their first ever appearance in a World Cup finals. However, one of the reasons as to why Slovakia will be appearing in their début finals is because of the split between Czechoslovakia, and this then led to the founding of Slovakia in 1993. They have, though, had three failed attempts in 1998, 2002 & 2006 but finally managed to end their drought with success in 2010 after bypassing a competitive Group 3 in European qualifying.

The Slovaks, as we like to call them, play in their white strip for home games and blue for away. They aren’t the biggest of footballing nations by any stretch of the imagination and this is evident when you breeze through their squad names in that very few will stand out. This is certainly the case if you concentrate solely on English football as just a handful of Slovakian internationals ply their trade in The Premiership or The Championship, with Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel one of the more well know players for Slovakia. West Brom’s Marek Cech might also jog a few memory’s.

Key Player(s):

Marek Hamsik -

Quite why he is the captain of Slovakia I’m not sure as he just doesn’t seem the leading type, but the Napoli playmaker is a very gifted individual and will be the main inspiration behind Slovakia’s forward play. Hamsik, from what I’ve seen of him at Napoli, tends to play just off the striker and drifts into gaps that are handmade by the strikers. He is a good reader of the play in that he will get into good positions to score, he has a decent hit on him as well, but he’s basically going to be Slovakia’s playmaker in South Africa, threading through balls to their striking duo of Robert Vittek & Sestak. Hamsik is a tricky customer as he can leave a defender for dead with his quick turns and skills, but whether he is a natural born leader is open to debate.

Martin Skrtel -

On paper, Skrtel is Slovakia’s best defender, if playing for Liverpool means anything. He is a bulky individual, one who isn’t afraid to get stuck in and stick his head into situations which could lead to disaster. One thing Skrtel does have a lot of is courage and bravery as collisions and knocks don’t phase him. However, he isn’t the best tackler of the ball, he can be sloppy in possession and has often looked very poor when wearing his international colours. Like we said, he is the best defender on paper, but that’s a scary thought in truth.

Strengths – Slovakia were a stubborn, robust side during qualification and were only once beaten by more than one goal in the qualifiers. However, one quality which did surprise me was in front of goal in that Slovakia scored in all but one of their ten qualifiers, scoring 22 goals overall. They were also very tidy at the back conceding just 10 in return, which does highlight their solidity. Hamsik will be the man to watch for them as he is a tricky player when in possession.

Weakness – Slovakia just don’t appear to have any world class quality on paper, with even their captain, Marek Hamsik, still unproven at the highest level. Moreover, while the Slovaks did score a fair few goals during qualifying, 22 in 10, they did come against nations miles away from the top ten in the FIFA ranking, whilst seven did come in one game against one of the poorest footballing nations on the planet in San Marino. Scoring will be a problem for Slovakia we feel, especially as they don’t have a single recognised striker in their midsts.

Qualification:

Sector: European

Group: 3

Position: 1st

Win-Draw-Lose: 7-1-2

Goals Scored: 22

Goals Conceded: 10

Slovakia finished top of what was a competitive group, but only because their wasn’t a world class nation in sight. The best team in Group 3 were the Czech’s and they massively underperformed during qualifying which paved the wave for a surprise entrant – Slovakia. Moreover, Slovakia didn’t qualify until the very last qualifier when they won 1-0 in Poland.

World Cup Potential: 1/5

The Polish will be one of about half-a-dozen nations that we feel don’t stand any chance of bypassing the Group stage of the competition let alone make any real in-roads in South Africa. They lack strength in depth, any real world class quality and have a play-maker for a Capitan. Hamsik is just 22 years-of-age and handing him the captains armband in what will be Slovakia’s biggest sporting spectacle to date, looks a bold yet rash move. We won’t hold out much hope for the Slovaks as we expect them to crash and burn early.

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