Geneva/Prague - Czech national team lost what looked like a shoo-in in their last game at the Euro 2008 football championship against Turkey on Sunday and are out of the tournament.
Squandering a 2-0 lead in the last minutes of the game, Czechs left much to be desired in their uninspired and uninspiring effort.
Many fans will undoubtedly question the outgoing coach Karel Brueckner´s substitution calls with hot shot strikers Milan Baroš, Václav Svěrkoš and Martin Fenin sitting out the game at the bench while the lone striker Jan Koller all but disappeared in the second half as did most of the forward play the Czechs were presenting.
Brueckner only sent defensive players on the field at the time when Turkish gung-ho offense let their side vulnerable in the back.
Et tu, Brute?
But it was grave mistakes committed in their own defense play that cost Czechs a quarterfinal berth in the end, especially one coming from the least expected side - that of the otherwise reliable goalkeeper Petr Čech, considered one of the best in the game these days (although, perhaps, not any more after this game).
Čech dropped a relatively easy cross and let Nihat Kahveci score into an empty goal with less than four minutes left in the regular time, which brought the Turks back in the game.
And two minutes later the same player defeated Čech again with a superb curl from a distance putting his team one goal ahead and ultimately, into the quaterfinals against perfectly beatable Croatia.
They only have themselves to blame
There goes the opportunity to defend the bronze medals from four years ago, if not the silver medals from twelve years ago. And let´s not even mention the gold medals won in 1976.
Then again, this team didn´t look good in the tournament in the first place. But wasting an opportunity which presented itself with the lucky two-goal lead against Turkey - with less than 30 minutes to go - is tantamount to a crime.
Even veteran coach Brueckner, who has confirmed his earlier decision to quit after the tournament, knows that.
"To lose such a game is incredible, even with four minutes to go we were winning 2-1 and to concede two goals in the last four minutes, is unbelievable," Brueckner told reporters at the press conference after the game.
"You cannot make mistakes like that and expect to win games. We made mistakes on the second and third goals and we did not defend well, and you can't play like that," he said.
He´s certainly right about that. So please, let´s not talk about bad luck this time as the Czech nation is prone to do every time the national team fails. They sucked. Big time. And it´s only right they are out of the picture now. Which goes for Great Old Karel too.
Reminisce if you like: Czech national football team back in top form
