Slovakia

Slovakia is another nation who has made it through to the finals technically for the first time, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia granted them independence in 1993. Slovakia somewhat surprisingly came top of their European qualifying group which contained near neighbours Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic. A sweet tasting victory for sure.

Slovakia cruised through qualifying despite losing twice to Slovenia, who then went on to beat Russia in the play-offs before been drawn in Group C with England. Other than that though, the Slovaks were undefeated in the remaining 8 games, only dropping two more points with a home 2-2 draw to the Czech Republic.

Vladimir Weiss is both the manager and one of the players, although one is senior to the other. Manager Weiss Snr controversially selected his son to play for the national side, but Weiss Jnr’s performances did merit a call-up, and his form in qualifying means that he is one of the men to watch out for this summer.

Weiss Jnr plays on the right-wing and his youthful age (20) means that he has plenty of gas to keep his pace going throughout a match. His main concern though is lack of match practice. At Bolton he rarely gets a game, clearly he does not always live up to his true potential, whether he will in South Africa is another big ask.

Fortunately for Weiss Snr, and maybe even Weiss Jnr, there is another youthful midfielder who bares all the burden of a nation wanting success at the World Cup. Marek Hamsik is only 22 but he wears the armband for Slovakia. Currently playing his football for Napoli it is believed that he will go on to bigger and better places after the World Cup. His 8 goals in 30 caps is a decent return for a young midfielder and he will be looking to add to that tally. He is by far the best player Slovakia have, so expect most of the good play to go through him.

At the heart of the defence Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel slips in. A very strong and aggressive defender, yet he has at times been far too easily undone in the Premier League. If Slovakia are to progress in the tournament then he will need to play consistently well against some world-class forwards.

The two men looked upon to score the goals are Stanislav Sestak and Robert Vittek. Sestak was the country’s top goal-scorer in qualifying with 6 goals. Vittek poses the opposite problem. His work-rate is high but no goals in qualifying did not aid his already dwindling goals/caps ratio (18/69) which is a slight worry.

Slovakia has been fortunate in their group draw in the World Cup. Italy obviously may be a hurdle too much, but minnows New Zealand are beatable. If they weren’t, Slovakia may as well pack their bags now. However, as long as they do not lose to New Zealand, a straight fight against Paraguay should decide who goes into the last 16 in second place in Group F.

Having said all this, with little international star names, or quality, to their side Slovakia has done remarkable merely to qualify for the World Cup. New Zealand, inspired by the atmosphere the World Cup brings, will no doubt provide a harder task than the Slovaks expect. Paraguay also have been impressive in their qualifying and so I would fully expect to see Gerardo Martino’s men beat Weiss’. However, Slovakia have much to be proud of and if they do make the last 16, expect to see wild celebrations in Bratislava.