Czechoslovakia nobody counted. They were the reigning European champions, though – and because of that there was interest and inevitable evaluations of the current team compared to the one of 1976. Czechoslovakia followed curious path of highs and lows: after the 1970 World Cup there was sharp decline, then they soared and won the European championship in 1976, then missed the 1978 World Cup, and again moved up to the 1980 European finals. In a way, Czechoslovakia was in the same difficult situation West Germany was after winning the 1974 World Cup – the winners aged, and were replaced by players almost of their generation, who were already established at the time of triumph, but were inferior to the stars. Second-stringers, who never reached the class of the champions, but were the top players when the champions started their exit. West Germany was not great with the second-stringers and similarly Czechoslovakia was not. Both countries did not make radical coaching changes either – Derwall was uprgraded from assistant to head coach when Schon stepped down in 1978. In the same year Jozef Venglos replaced Vaclav Jezek, whose assistant he was since 1973.

Like Derwall, Venglos did not introduce radical changes, but fiddled with the same players Jezek used, continued the same tactics and training methods, and carefully called new players now and then. And like Derwall, Venglos moved to new options only when there was no choice because of retirement or heavy injury. The only difference between West Germany and Czechoslovakia was that the Germans faced the problem earlier – in 1980 was more or less West Germany of 1975-78. They had the most of the 1976 champions at hand, but it was not the same team and hardly made any news. Opinions were almost uniform: Czechoslovakia had no chance. Venglos himself said so. Czechoslovakian media too: 'the same players, only 4 years older' was the judgment. People like Ruud Krol, who considered Czechoslovakia strong and dangerous were tiny minority and were not taken seriously. Reality was speaking loudly: there were no new exciting talent in Czechoslovakia. The best players were still the 1976 European champions and those,who were not able to make the national team back then. Venglos tried the same approach used in 1976 – a long, secluded training camp and many friendly matches against various not so great opponents. Like before, results were not great, which, like before, assured most observers that Czechoslovakia is not strong indeed. That was costly mistake in 1976. And just like before, the rather big group of players was trimmed to the final list.

1	1GK	Jaroslav Netolička	(1954-03-03)3 March 1954 (aged 26)	11	Dukla Prague
2	2DF	Jozef Barmoš	(1954-08-28)28 August 1954 (aged 25)	28	Inter Bratislava
3	2DF	Ladislav Jurkemik	(1953-07-20)20 July 1953 (aged 26)	31	Inter Bratislava
4	2DF	Anton Ondruš (c)	(1950-03-27)27 March 1950 (aged 30)	54	Slovan Bratislava
5	2DF	Koloman Gögh	(1948-01-07)7 January 1948 (aged 32)	51	Slovan Bratislava
6	2DF	František Štambachr	(1953-02-13)13 February 1953 (aged 27)	15	Dukla Prague
7	3MF	Ján Kozák	(1954-04-17)17 April 1954 (aged 26)	34	Lokomotiva Košice
8	3MF	Antonín Panenka	(1948-12-02)2 December 1948 (aged 31)	43	Bohemians Praha
9	4FW	Miroslav Gajdůšek	(1951-09-20)20 September 1951 (aged 28)	45	Dukla Prague
10	4FW	Marián Masný	(1950-08-13)13 August 1950 (aged 29)	57	Slovan Bratislava
11	4FW	Zdeněk Nehoda	(1952-05-09)9 May 1952 (aged 28)	64	Dukla Prague
12	2DF	Rostislav Vojáček	(1949-02-23)23 February 1949 (aged 31)	24	Baník Ostrava
13	3MF	Werner Lička	(1954-02-15)15 February 1954 (aged 26)	2	Baník Ostrava
14	2DF	Jan Fiala	(1956-05-19)19 May 1956 (aged 24)	12	Dukla Prague
15	4FW	Ladislav Vízek	(1955-01-22)22 January 1955 (aged 25)	15	Dukla Prague
16	2DF	Oldřich Rott	(1951-05-26)26 May 1951 (aged 29)	3	Dukla Prague
17	3MF	Jaroslav Pollák	(1947-07-11)11 July 1947 (aged 32)	49	Sparta Prague
18	3MF	Jan Berger	(1955-11-27)27 November 1955 (aged 24)	1	Dukla Prague
19	2DF	Karol Dobiaš	(1947-12-18)18 December 1947 (aged 32)	67	Bohemians Prague
20	3MF	Petr Němec	(1957-06-07)7 June 1957 (aged 23)	0	Baník Ostrava
21	1GK	Stanislav Seman	(1952-08-08)8 August 1952 (aged 27)	1	Lokomotiva Košice
22	1GK	Dušan Kéketi	(1951-03-24)24 March 1951 (aged 29)	7	Spartak Trnava

Top row, from left: Ruzicka – masseur, Nehoda, Netolicka, Ondrus, Seman, Janecka, Kundrat – team doctor.

Middle row: Masny, Jurkemik, ?, Venglos – coach, Gogh, Radimec, Brumovsky – assistant coach.

First row: Vizek, Vojacek, Fiala, Gajdusek, Panenka, Barmos.

This is partial version of the squad called to the training camp and there is a bit of lesson in it: Janecka and Radimec did not make the final team. Both will be key players of the national team in the first half of the 1980s. 10 players from the 1976 team were selected. Most of the rest were well known already in 1976, some with many caps, but they were the second stringers: those, who did not make the champion squad, who were not fully trusted back then. Four years later they were no better for sure – some were already old (Vojacek – 31, Gajdusek – 28, Rott – newcomer to the team at 29). Frantisek Stambachr, 27, was of the same ilk – he was part of the 1976 squad, but deep reserve not expected to play at all. By now he had only 15 caps. The team had huge problem, readily admitted by Venglos – goalkeeping. This was the last and may be the most telling similarity with West Germany after 1974: after Ivo Viktor, who retired, there was nobody. The same was in West Germany – Sepp Maier played 'forever' and his contemporaries were doomed (Nigbur, Cleff, Franke). When Maier stepped down, they were too old too – and there was nobody else. The back-up of Ivo Viktor shared the fate of the German keepers: he was of similar age and when Viktor retired Alexander Vencel was already at the end of his career, playing his last days for a small club. There was nobody else... Once upon a time promising players aged in the dark shadow of the great goalkeeper and never really developed their potential: back in 1971-72 Dusan Keketi was young, bright talent, expected to become really strong keeper with time. By 1980 he was 29 years old with 7 matches for the national team and still third choice. Other keepers were tried during and especially after Viktor and none satisfied. There was no firm starter. Venglos settled for Netolicka perhaps because he had many years ahead of him to play and was part of the strong at the time Dukla (Prague) team. But he was no better than his reserves, not even than those who also played for the national team, but were not selected this time – Michalik (Banik Ostrava) and Hruska (Bohemians Prague). Stanislav Seman, the 2^nd goalie, had played for the national team only once so far... Venglos had no way of finding solution, honestly acknowledged the problem, and blamed his keeper eventually for costly mistake. And at the end the last similarity with West Germany, this one at the same time: Bonhof got injury too late to be replaced and the Germans went to Italy with 21 players. Czechoslovakia went with only 19. Dobias was unable to restore his form after injury and was left home. Nemec and Rott were also found out of shape too late and dropped. But the squads were already deposited and there was no way to make changes. Two champions of 1976 did not make the squad at all – Svehlik and Bicovsky. One may wonder what would have been the fate of West Germany, if Bonhof was fit and the team was shaped around him. The same wonder what if Dobias, Svehlik, and Bicovsky were at hand for Czechoslovakia. Very likely the results were not to be good, for with these players both teams would be firmly based on the old approach, which lead to failure. Failure was not in the books for the Czechoslovaks, though: they were considered too weak already by everybody, including their coach. Realistically, third in Group A. Happy to be at the finals, nothing more.