Can I just say that I really love the fact that ESPN3 has the all the Euro 2012 qualifying matches? This makes it so I can see some of the teams I'm interested in, but would never see because neither Fox Soccer or ESPN over the air would carry their matches unless they were playing Spain, Germany, or England. Scotland is one of those sides.
This was a big match for both teams. Scotland really needed a win to keep their hopes of qualifying alive, and even then they'd need to keep winning. The Czechs were in a little better spot. All they needed was a draw on hostile turf to put them in the driver's seat for the chance to finish second to World Champion Spain.
The Scots nearly blew it right off the bat as the Czechs missed two glorious chances in the opening ten minutes. In the 5th minute, Striker Milan Baros took a great ball in, but put the ball over the bar at point blank range in front of a wide open goal. Less than a minute later, the Czechs could have capitalized on a gorgeous set piece, but Jan Rajnoch hit the free header off target. The Scots were left to count themselves lucky.
Late in the first half, it seemed like Scotland started to get their feet a little bit. Right before the stroke of half time, Kenny Miller got in a hard strike that ricocheted off the 'keeper's foot and in to give the Scots a 1-0 lead at the break.
The second half continued to be a gritty affair. When these two teams met the first time, Scotland deployed in a 4-6-0 formation and tried to defend for 90 minutes. In the second half of this one, they didn't use that formation, but played very defensively. Again, it didn't work. The Czechs equalized in the 78th minute off of a strange, almost chested in goal from Jaroslav Plasil. Ugly, but it counted, 1-1.
The Scots didn't give up though and fought back with a fury. In the 83rd minute, Kenny Miller made a nice connection with Darren Fletcher, who slotted it home to put the Scots back up 2-1. Then the controversy came.
Scotland were whistled for in what my opinion was a pretty bad penalty in the 89th. Danny Wilson got the ball, but Rezek was looking for the PK and went down. The ref gave the spot kick, which Michal Kadlec nailed into the roof of the net to equalize at 2-2. A couple minutes into stoppage time, Scotland begged for a PK after Christophe Berra went down in the box, it was probably more of a penalty than the Reznek foul was, but the ref gave Berra a yellow for diving and the match ended at 2-2, pretty much crushing any chance the Scots had at qualifying. Tough breaks in the end.
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