Jubilation for Czechoslovakia, as they qualified for their first World Cup since 1982, with Dr. Jozef Vengloš bringing immediate success to the national team.

Dr. Vengloš had had an interesting challenge at his hands from the start of these qualifiers, as he had to do without Czechoslovakia’s most stylish players, Lubos Kubík and Ivo Knoflíček, after they had defected to the West. His solution from the start was a more pure long-ball tactics, hoisting the ball towards his target strikers and for the midfielders to chase the knock-downs. His players adapted well to the new tactics right from the start. A (routine) win in Luxembourg was followed by a strong performance against Belgium (h), in which they were unlucky not to find the winner (0-0).

One of the most intriguing matches of these 1990 qualifiers was the reverse fixture between Belgium and Czechoslovakia in Brussels, where they gave the hosts a good fight but eventually were dealt a defeat. The result of the match meant that Belgium increasingly looked like winners of the group and so Czechoslovakia would have to fight out Portugal for the remaining qualification berth. The match was also noteable for the fact that Dr. Vengloš welcomed back defenders Kocian and Straka to the team, after being suspended by the federation for a year, and changed the team formation to 5-3-2.

An easy win against Luxembourg was followed by hard-fought 2 points in Switzerland. A strong win against Stielike’s reformed Swiss team, but the match revealed some of Czechoslovakia’s problems: Dr. Vengloš’s crop of players is well suited to keep a high tempo on the ball and put their opponents under pressure when they need a goal, but poise little threat on the counter-attack. Here, they secured an early lead, but had nothing to offer in their turnovers for the rest of the game.

The same problem was revealed in the next encounter, the vital match against Portugal (h). Czechoslovakia got their early lead (again!), but got in all kinds of difficulties when they had Griga expelled and found themselves under Porgugal’s siege. Usually looking very solid defensively throughout the qualification, they this time let in a goal (due to a mistake by Stejskal), before Bílek, who gradually was emerging as one of Czechoslovakia’s most important players, notched the winner with his famous right peg. Not always convincing, but the result was the important thing, and put Czechoslovakia in the driver’s seat.

Czechoslovakia’s true decider was the match against Switzerland (h), where a 3-0 win meant that they were all but qualified for Italia’90. This performance again showed how difficult it is to score against them, and some of the extreme individual abilities that exist in the team (Bílek, Moravcik, Skuhravy). But this was yet another performance where Czechoslovakia were pegged back for most of the match – surprisingly. They seem slow and vulnerable when countered against, and never look a threat when sitting back to hit their opponents. These are Czechoslovakia’s weaknesses. The “decider” against Portugal was never exciting with regard to the outcome, even though it somehow did have a peculiar tension to it.

Final position: 2 (out of 5 – qualified)
Total record: 8 5 2 1 13-3 12
Home record: 4 3 1 0 9-1 7
Away record: 4 2 1 1 4-2 5