Czech Republic coach: Karel Bruckner
The 68-year-old’s old-school demeanour belies a keen grasp of the modern game.
Bruckner remains loyal to a relatively small pool of players but has the tactical understanding to improvise.
He became national coach in 2002 – having never worked outside the country at club level – via spells as Under-21 boss and assistant to Jozef Chovanec with the senior team.
Steered the Czechs to the Euro 2004 semi-finals, and though the team had a disappointing World Cup and a troubled Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, Bruckner will be remembered as one of Czech football’s greatest coaches.
What would be a successful tournament for you?
I’ll keep repeating the answer to this because I can’t think of a cleverer one. I’ll tell you the same thing all the national sides will tell you: we want to advance from the group stage but it’s not easy, whichever group you are in. These will be difficult games and the smallest things can make all the difference. We have to do everything we can in terms of preparation and training but it’s often the little things that decide the result. I don’t like to make predictions. I prefer to analyse a match or a tournament in retrospect. Having said that, success would be qualification from the group phase. Anything else would not do.
It was a difficult qualifying campaign. Was there ever a point when you thought the Czech Republic might not make it through?
I think it’s one of my basic duties not to have such thoughts and I never did. I am an optimist and I have to encourage the players. I believe if I had such thoughts it would have a negative impact on the players. I think in this regard I come across as quite positive.
More and more Czech internationals now play their club football abroad. Does that make your job more difficult?
Not really, this is now the norm for national teams at this level. A national team squad made up of players from domestic leagues is more the exception than the rule. The way the world is today, with all the communication and the possibilities for watching games, means that it isn’t a problem.
Could the Czech team still do well if one of their key players – Tomas Rosicky or Petr Cech, for instance – were injured for Euro 2008?
This is a problem every team has to face, whether it’s a national team or a club side. The biggest problem for us at the moment is Rosicky [who, wince the interview took place, has been ruled out by injury]. He’s our playmaker and is practically irreplaceable. Well, he is replaceable – we played without him in several [qualifying] matches; in Germany, for instance – but it would be a great loss, I have to admit that. Having said that, I’m confident we can deal with the loss of any such player. We have proven several times we can cope, whether it’s by replacing them with a player of a different quality or by altering our style of play. We have always dealt with it.
Why are you retiring after the finals?
I’ve been coaching for 34 years. That’s quite long enough.
What are your plans?
I have plans but I’m not going to tell you what they are.
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