Czech Republic 3, Armenia 0 in World Cup qualifying

Associated Press Worldstream
October 13, 2004 Wednesday

YEREVAN, Armenia — Jan Koller scored two goals and his Dortmund
teammate Tomas Rosicky added another, lifting the Czech Republic to
an easy 3-0 victory over Armenia in their World Cup Group 1 qualifier
Wednesday.

The Czechs kept a clean sheet for a second straight game while scoring
more than once for the first time since their 3-0 victory over Denmark
in the Euro 2004 quarterfinals in June.

The win leaves Karel Bruckner’s team with six points from three games,
three points behind group leaders Finland and Romania but with a game
in hand. Armenia remains winless in four games. The Netherlands played
Finland in Amsterdam later Wednesday.

“We could’ve won by a larger margin, but perhaps that would be too much
to ask,” Bruckner said. “The match wasn’t boring. We never lost out
concentration and we only have ourselves to blame for not converting
more of the opportunities we created.”

The Czech Republic opened strongly, with Dortmund striker Koller
scoring three minutes into the game off a pass from Marek Heinz.

Edgar Manucharyan missed a clear chance to equalize seven minutes
later when his power shot from the right hit the crossbar of Petr
Cech’s goal.

Two minutes later, referee Jacek Granat disallowed a goal because of
an offside after Armen Shahgeldyan played one-two with Karen Aleksanyan
and beat Cech.

In the 30th minute, Dortmund midfielder Rosicky made it 2-0 after he
collected Tomas Uifalusi’s pass in the center and moved closer to the
Armenian box before hitting the target with a powerful drive from 25
meters (yards).

Zdenek Grygera missed a clear opportunity for the visitors two
minutes before the interval when Koller nodded down Marek Heinz’s
volley cross from the right, but the Ajax Amsterdam defender’s shot
was blocked by goalkeeper Apoula Bete.

The Czechs dominated the second half and Koller was close to scoring
again on a solo effort in the 68th minute. Goalkeeper Apoula Bete
blocked his close-range shot with a stunning save.

Koller made it 3-0 nine minutes later, firing home from the edge of
the box for his 32nd goal in 59 international matches.

Lineups:

Armenia – Apoula Bete; Yeghisne Melikyan, Karen Dokhoyan (Artur
Mkrtchian, 46), Sargis Hovsepyan, Harutyun Vardamian, Artur
Petrosyan, Hamlet Mkhitarian, Rafael Nazaryan, Armen Shahgeldyan
(Andrei Movsisian, 80), Edgar Manucharyan, Karen Aleksanyan (Albert
Sargsian, 65).

Czech Republic – Petr Cech; Zdenek Grygera, Rene Bolf, Marek
Jankulovski, Tomas Ujfalusi, Tomas Galasek (Radoslav Kovac, 55),
Tomas Rosicky, Stepan Vachousek (Jiri Jarosik, 74), Libor Sionko,
Marek Heinz, Jan Koller (Vratislav Lokvenc, 84).