Even world’s best have bad days at the office

Jun 17 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

THERE’S one place I wouldn’t want to be going for my summer holidays this year and that’s the same resort as where Petr Cech will be off to now that his side have been knocked out of the European Championship finals.

The giant Czech goalkeeper might be one of the world’s very best players in his position but his mistake that enabled the Turks to equalise on Sunday night – just a couple of minutes before they went on to grab a winner and defeat the Czechs 3-2 – will linger long in Cech’s memory.

I feel sorry for the men between the sticks really because all of the world’s best goalkeepers have made howlers at some point.The difference for Cech was that his uncharacteristic error ended up putting his team out.

You could argue that some outstanding saves from Cech had previously kept his side in the game and in the tournament but you’ve got to take a little bit of rough with the smooth.

Following on from losing a penalty shoot-out in the Champions League final for club Chelsea against Manchester United, it hasn’t been the greatest of months for Cech and unfortunately for him it will seem like a long time before he is able to play a meaningful game and try and get the mistake out of his system.

Wherever he’s popping off to for his close season break I’d stay clear of him and the inevitable hangdog look that he’ll have on his face. The Turkey-Czech Republic game was just one of several entertaining games we’ve had so far during these finals and generally I think the excitement levels are much higher than in the World Cup two years ago or the European Championship s in 2004.

A lot of teams realise that they can beat each other and all the nations left in the tournament at the quarter-finals stage will fell they’ve got a chance.

I’d expect things to get even better now as we approach the knockout stage but a lot of this improvement is down to changes in the laws of the game that favour the forward player.

In the past, coaches might have named six or seven defensive-minded players in their side whereas now there might just be five.

As a former centre-half I feel there’s nothing wrong with this change at all and I welcome it so long as the art of tackling and defending don’t die out.