Appearing for the first time in a major international competition, Slovakia have been striving to relive the glory years enjoyed by the former Czechoslovakia since going it alone in 1993.
While their team is hardly filled with household names, Slovakia can nonetheless rely on a well-organised collective with plenty of admirable qualities. Likewise, their continuing progress gives them good reason to be optimistic about their voyage to South Africa.
The road to South Africa
Fourth in their section in qualifying for the 1998 FIFA World Cup™ France, third on the road to Korea/Japan 2002 and runners-up ahead of Germany 2006, Slovakia continued their rise by sealing top spot in Group 3. Vladimir Weiss's side booked their historic place on 14 October 2009, upsetting a number of predictions that they would struggle to cope with a difficult pool.
Their passage was far from smooth, but slowly and surely Slovakia mounted their bid, losing only to closest challengers Slovenia. Their nearest rivals proved a real thorn in their side, downing them 2-1 in their second outing and, above all, prevailing 2-0 in Bratislva in the penultimate round of matches, yet Slovakia's desire to experience a FIFA World Cup finals shone through in the end. Needing to prevail in Poland in their final outing, they duly triumphed 1-0.
The star players
Solid at the back for Premier League heavyweights Liverpool, Martin Skrtel is a central figure for his country, while midfielder Marek Hamsik has both a knack of scoring goals for Napoli and the welcome habit of shining for the national side. The latter is unlikely to go unnoticed in South Africa and the same applies to Stanislav Sestak, who finished top scorer for Slovakia with six strikes in qualifying and is eager to continue in similar fashion.
The coach
Born in 1964, former Slovakian international Vladimir Weiss was appointed in June 2008, taking over from Jan Kocian after his predecessor failed to take the side through to UEFA EURO 2008.
Blessed with a strong personality, Weiss learnt the coaching ropes at Artmedia Bratislava, leading the unfancied Slovakian outfit into the UEFA Champions League group phase in 2005/06. The following season, he opted to boost his credentials with Saturn Moscow Oblast in Russia, before celebrating a triumphant return to Artmedia with the Slovakian league title a year after. All that remained was a tilt at leading the national team and, given his previous successes, who knows how far they can progress together?
Vladimir Weiss is also the son of... Vladimir Weiss, a former Czechoslovakian international. In fact, he is the father of Vladimir Weiss too, with his son plying his trade at Manchester City and often called up to demonstrate his worth in a national team shirt.
Previous FIFA World Cups
While this may be Slovakia's first appearance on the global stage, the country's footballing past is naturally tied up with that of the former Czechoslovakia, who participated in eight finals overall. Czechoslovakia even reached the final in 1934, losing 2-1 after extra time to Italy, and 1962, when they succumbed 3-1 to Brazil. They also advanced as far as the last eight in 1990.
Honours (as Czechoslovakia)
- 1 UEFA European Championship (1976)
- 1 Olympic Football Tournament (1980)
What they said
"We're very persistant: we don't give up until we've succeeded," Stanislav Sestak, striker.
- Source: Fifa.com
About the National Flag of Slovakia
White over blue over red tricolour with the coat of arms off-set to the hoist fimbriated white. The Album2000 gives construction details as (15~+5~+20+5~+15~):(27+63), that I shall show are quite correct, and even the ~ could be removed altogether. The construction of the flag is simply but efficiently described in the legislation on the State Symbols of the Slovak Republic ("Zákon o ¹tátnych symboloch Slovenskej republiky a ich pou¾ívaní", Zbierka zákonov è. 63/1993; relevant extract available, also Pascal Vagnat's translation present at FOTW). The size of the Coat of Arms is key here, and it is not expresly stated in the legislation (maybe it is in the annexes? can anyone confirm?). However, from several official images of the Coat of Arms I have seen, it seems that it fits well in square 4x5 (also, not that the width is meximal around the middle of the height).
To avoid any quotient in the construction sheet, and because of the requirement that the fimbriation around the shield is 1/100 of the flag length, one needs to make flag consisting of 600x900 units. The height of the Coat of Arms is half the hoist, i.e. 300, the width 4/5 of it, i.e. 240. The law determines that the distance of the Coat of Arms from top, bottom and hoist edge is equal, that would make it 150. The white fimbriation in the blue and red stripes is 9 units wide. As these units are exactly 10 times smaller then those used in Album, the analogy is obvious, however I decided to show different parts on my sheet. And as it is shown, there is no need for ~ in the sheet in the Album.
®eljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003
Vertical Flag Version
image by ®eljko Heimer 18 Jan 2003
A vertical flag/banner is also prescribed in the legislation mentioned above. This is understandably not included in Album (that concentrates primarly on naval usage, however wide). The height of the flag is prescribed as maximally triple the width, while minimum is not prescribed at all. I guess that 2:3 would somehow be reasonable minimum and that vertical flags would rarely reach that short sizes anyway. The vertical banner should always be hoisted hanging on a crossbar. Distance of the shield from left, top and right edges is still to be equal.
®eljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003
In fact, in front of the Slovak Embassy in Belgrade, a vertical 2:3 flag with rotated arms is humg from a crossbar, (looking a bit short).
Ivan Sarajcic, 29 Aug 2007
History of the Slovakian flagThe first Slovak flag was white-red bicolore and was waved on 23rd April 1848 in Brezová during a theatre performance. A petition signed on 10th May 1848 in Liptovský Sv. Mikula¹ demanded not only constitutional or educational rights for Slovaks but also permission for using red and white Slovak flags. This was rejected by the Hungarians as well as the other demands. In August 1848 the blue color was added and in 18th September 1848 in Velká nad Velièkou on the Hungarian-Moravian border the Slovak revolutionaries hoisted various Slovak and Slav flags combining red, white and blue in many variations. Some of them depicted the original Hungarian coat of arms, only the green colour of the three hills was replaced by blue. The present order of the three stripes of Slovak flag was established after 1868. These three colors were often used by the Slovak associations in the United States. They were also used on the Czechoslovak flag adopted on 30th March 1920, where the blue triangle at the hoist represented Slovakia. After the puppet Slovak Republic was established, the law of 23rd June 1939 enacted the white-blue-red tricolore as the state flag. The same flag was enacted after the Velvet Revolution on 1st March 1990 by the Slovak National Council. The constitution of September 1992 added the coat of arms because the flag could be mistaken for the one of Russia.
The present-day state flag of the Slovak Republic is described in article 9, paragraph 2 of the Slovak Constitution, which was enacted on 1st September 1992. It was hoisted for the first time on 3rd September 1992 at 20:22 CET in front of the Bratislava Castle. But its exact form was determined by law of 18th February 1993, enacted by the National Council of the Slovak Republic. According to this law, height of the shield with Slovak state coat of arms is equal to half of width of the flag. The shield is separated from the blue and red stripes by the white stripe. Its width is equal to the one hundredth of the flag's length.
Source: Ales Brozek - Lexikon vlajek a znaku sveta, Kartografie Praha 1998
Jan Kravcik, 6 June 2000
The Czechoslovak splitSlovakia adopted its triband with arms shifted to the hoist officially on 1 september 1992 and it was first hoisted two days later.
Mark Sensen, 2 July 1996
Before the separation of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, a resolution was passed by the Czechoslovak government that neither of the two "new" states could continue to use the red white and blue flag of Czechoslovakia. Upon separation, Slovakia adopted the White/Blue/Red flag with the shield of arms in the upper hoist. The "new" Czech Republic adopted the flag of former Czechoslovakia, in direct violation of the resolution mentioned above. Slovakia was ticked off over this, but the Czech folks said "The country that made that rule doesn't exist any more" and refused to change.
Nick Artimovich 31 October 1996
The Constitution of 1990 set up the Czech Lands and Slovakia as two equal nations. Each was to have its own arms, seal, flag and anthem, and these were laid down in laws of 1990. The Czech Republic adopted a greater and lesser coat of arms and the flag of white over red on 13 March 1990. The Slovak Republic legislation was dated 1 March 1990, and laid down the arms (almost identical with those of pre-Communist era), the flag (the plain tricolor), seal and anthem. The flag of the state was unchanged. As indicated before, the agreement was made by two countries upon separation not to adopt the previous state's emblems, but the Czech Republic adopted flag with blue triangle as its flag on 17 December 1992.
®eljko Heimer, 1 November 1996
Location of Slovakia on the World Map
World Cup 2010 Games where you can see the Slovak Team in action:
| Match 12 | 15/06/2010 13:30 | Rustenburg Stadium | Paraguay vs | New Zealand |
| Match 27 | 20/06/2010 13:30 | Mangaung/Bloemfontein Stadium | Slovakiavs | Paraguay |
| Match 41 | 24/06/2010 16:00 | Johannesburg JEP Stadium | Paraguay vs | Italy |
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Brazil
Cameroon
Chile
Côte d'Ivoire
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Honduras
Italy
Japan
Korea DPR
Korea Republic
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Paraguay
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Switzerland
United States
Uruguay
