Soccer-Euro-Czechs are missing their midfield magic

                                
 By Sonia Oxley
                                
 VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - Czech Republic go into Euro 2008
without the main midfield ingredients that have given the team a
stylish flavour at previous championships.
                                
 Captain and playmaker Tomas Rosicky will miss the trip to
Austria and Switzerland through injury while their golden group,
including mainstays for over a decade such as Pavel Nedved and
Karel Poborsky, have retired from the international stage.
                                
 Next to the flair of a midfield that used to feature a
former European Player of the Year and others who plied their
trade at some of the world's top clubs, those trying to fill
their shoes at this tournament are distinctly ordinary.
                                
 Coach Karel Brueckner has deemed 27-year-old Rosicky to be
irreplaceable but the team are nevertheless going to have to
find a way of plugging the gap.
                                
 "There is no replacement (for Rosicky)," Czech sports Web
site sport.cz quoted Brueckner as saying.
                                
 The coach seems likely to adopt a more defensive approach,
possibly by using a five-man defence and a lone striker.
                                
 "It seems we will play three central defenders," he said.
                                
 He has hinted that lofty 35-year-old Jan Koller could play
up front, with Milan Baros dropping back to a supporting role on
the left.
                                
 "The fact that I could use him (on the left) ... is nothing
unusual," Brueckner said of Baros. "Today nobody plays two
out-and-out strikers anymore. And for Milan this role is no
worse or more exacting."
                                
 Whereas the Czechs previous regular midfielders played for
big clubs like Juventus and Manchester United, the current crop
turn out for less glamorous teams.
                                
 Marek Matejovksy is at Reading, who were relegated from the
English Premier League last season, Libor Sionko plays for FC
Copenhagen, Jan Polak is with Anderlecht and 35-year-old
defensive midfielder Tomas Galasek wears Nuremberg's colours.
                                
 
                                
 GOLDEN AGE
                                
 Nedved, Poborsky, Vladimir Smicer and Patrik Berger were
regulars during a golden age for Czech players who enthralled
the fans and put themselves on the best clubs' shopping lists
with their Euro '96 performances.
                                
 Several of the team that reached the final in England that
year were still in the side that became favourites to win the
title four years ago in Portugal before a Greek 'silver goal'
ended their hopes in the semi-finals.
                                
 Nedved and Poborsky were still directing the midfield at the
2006 World Cup in Germany before they decided to make way for a
new generation. Media rumours of a possible comeback by Nedved
in Rosicky's absence came to nothing.
                                
 Brueckner has been criticised in the media for not allowing
young players to break into the team, preferring instead to
stick with tried and tested but sometimes unremarkable players.
                                
 One big source of comfort while the Czechs try to resolve
their midfield conundrum is that in Petr Cech they have one of
the world's best goalkeepers.
                                
 Czech Republic kick off their Euro 2008 campaign against
co-hosts Switzerland in the tournament opener on June 7 and are
joined in Group A by Portugal and Turkey.
                                
 (Editing by Ken Ferris)