Bouncing Czechs

USA vs Czech Republic
Gelsenkirchen

The USA might be ranked fifth in the world but just look at who they play against to get those rankings.

Today Team USA played with the big boys and the biggest of them all, head and shoulders above the rest, Jan Koller lost Eddie Pope with a trick run to the front post (as Zdenek Grygera's cross was coming in from the right), then took a couple of steps back and powered his header home, in the 5th minute, past the helpless Kasey Keller.

With the one goal lead, Czech Republic seemed prepared to let the USA have more of the ball; hoping to catch them on the break again.

The first real attack on Petr Cech's goal, in the 28th minute, resulted in Claudio Reyna's well struck shot thumping back off the foot of the post; with the Chelsea goalkeeper clearly beaten.

Ten minutes before half-time, a poor clearance fell to Tomas Rosicky. The Arsenal replacement for Robert Pires looked up briefly, struck the ball cleanly and watched as it flew into Keller's top left corner.

A sprint into the channel, just before half-time, was a stride too far for the just returned from injury, Jan Koller; as he pulled up and rolled over in the US penalty area, with what looked like a strained hamstring.

The injury momentarily silenced the boisterous Czech fans; when they would have preferred to be celebrating a comfortable half-time lead, with their main target man a continued threat on the pitch for the second-half.

Half-time: (0:2)

Bruce Arena made two half-time substitutions to try and change the direction of the game.

The Americans still struggled to get into the game, early in the second-half, although Pavel Nedved did get more physical attention; eventually earning the American captain a booking, on the hour.

Because of the earlier booking, Reyna appeared sloppy when tracking Nedved; allowing the Juventus maestro to turn easily and orchestrate another dangerous attack for the Czech Republic.

Tomas Rosicky so nearly made it three, in the 68th minutes, with a cracking shot onto Kasey Keller's crossbar, from way outside the area. Bruce Aren looked on glumly; perhaps already pondering his battle plans for the next two games against Italy and Ghana.

He would have some relief to see substitute Eddie Johnson show what a threat he can be, with a shot narrowly wide; a block on his next advance; followed by Cech's safe hands cutting out another possible chance.

As Arena stood up to plan his next tactical substitution, Rosicky ran through the middle; looked up once, then twice before lifting the ball cooly over Kasey Keller and into the net.

The strong result by the Czech Republic will be a little overshadowed by the injury to Jan Koller; especially if they get through to the final stages and he hasn't healed.

Final Score:
USA 0 - Czech Republic 3

Teams
USA: (Captain Claudio Reyna)
18 Kasey Keller; 4 Pablo Mastroeni, 6 Steve Cherundolo, 22 Oguchi Onyewu, 23 Eddie Pope; 7 Eddie Lewis, 10 Claudio Reyna, 15 Bobby Convey, 17 DaMarcus Beasley, 21 Landon Donovan; 20 Brian McBride.

Czech Republic: (Captain)
1 Petr Cech; 2 Zdenek Grygera, 6 Marek Jankulovski, 21 Tomas Ujfalusi, 22 David Rozehnal; 4 Tomas Galasek, 8 Karel Poborsky, 10 Tomas Rosicky, 11 Pavel Nedved, 20 Jaroslav Plasil; 9 Jan Koller.

Referee:
Carlos Amarilla (Paraguay)

Our man of The Match:
Tomas Rosicky; two great goals and good interpretation of the play around him.