5 Things to know about Bafana's next opponent, Czechia

With Bafana Bafana facing Czechia in their second match of Group A at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Thursday, KickOff looked at the five facts to know about the Central European nation.

Czechia enjoys a storied history of Czechoslovakia, from the early days of the World Cup in the 1930s, where they were runners up in 1934 and 1962 but they have not had such glory since independence from 1996 onwards.

As an independent nation, Czechia only qualified for the 2006 World Cup and were unable to get out of the group stages. The Czechs had a 20-year wait before qualifying again in the current edition.

Czechia did not book their spot in Mexico, Canada and the United States automatically, after they finished second in their group behind Croatia and had to fight their way through the UEFA play-offs.

Facing two knockout matches, Miroslav Koubek had to get past Republic of Ireland on penalties after the game was not decided in extra-time and eliminated Denmark for a place in the World Cup, once again via spot-kicks after a 2-2 draw.

The Czechs have only faced an African team once at the World Cup, in 2006, after they were in the same team as Ghana and suffered a 2-0 defeat after Asamoah Gyan scored within 68 seconds (The Black Stars' first ever World Cup goal) and Sulley Muntari sealed the win in the second stanza.

Czechia have faced South Africa only once in 2000 in a friendly international, where they narrowly won 2-1 and played to a goalless draw against Morocco in 2009 (also in a friendly).

The current Czech Republic squad is defined by physical strength, defensive resilience and clinical finishing and at the top of their attack they have Bayer Leverkusen striker Patrick Schick, who was the joint-top goal-scorer at the 2020 European Championship.

Looking to dominate aerial duels, midfielder Tomas Soucek of West Ham United is one of their well known weapons, alongside a host of other players who stand head and shoulders above many teams when it comes to height.

After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Czechia, as an independent nation debuted at an all-time low 67th in March 1994 but some of their best ever runs followed, as they have gone as high as second between 1999 and 2006 in their golden era.

Currently ranked 40th in the world, The Czechs experienced a decline from 2007 as they had not yet qualified for another World Cup until now, booted out of the top, with their modern low being 48th in 2017.