Participation of Slovakia's national football team in the FIFA World Cup
This is a record of
Slovakia's results at the
FIFA World Cup, including those of
Czechoslovakia which is considered as theirs and the
Czech Republic's predecessor by
FIFA. The FIFA World Cup is an international
association football competition contested by the
men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (
FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in
1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to
World War II.
The tournament consists of two parts, the
qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently takes place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) for about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the
2006 tournament final.[1]
Czechoslovakia has been one of the better performing national teams in the history of the World Cup, having ended twice as runners-up,
in 1934 and
in 1962. Between 1930 and 1994 they qualified for 8 out of 13 World Cups they played qualifiers for, and did not enter in two other World Cups.
After the political and peaceful split-up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the official successor football teams of the
Czech Republic and
Slovakia have been less successful at the World Cup than Czechoslovakia, qualifying only for one out of the seven tournaments held since (the
2010 FIFA World Cup) without surviving the group phase and got eliminated in the last 16 respectively.
Throughout the World Cup history,
Brazil became the team's historical rival. The two countries have met each other five times but the Czechs and Slovaks (always Czechoslovakia) never managed to win, with three victories for the Brazilian side and two draws.[2] Two other historical opponents in the finals were
(West) Germany and
Italy with three encounters each: Czechoslovakia won, drew and lost once against the Germans[3] and the matches against Italy all ended in a defeat.[4][5]
The
Netherlands and
Slovakia played on 28 June 2010 at the
Moses Mabhida Stadium in
Durban. The Netherlands won 2–1. The Netherlands' first goal was an excellent individual effort from
Arjen Robben in the 18th minute, taking on the Slovakian defence with the ball before scoring from 25 yards. The Dutch had chances to extend their lead in the second half; Arjen Robben cut inside on his left foot just like he did when he scored the first goal, but this time the slovak goalkeeper
Jan Mucha saved the shot going to his far post. The Slovaks also had 2 big opportunities to equalize but forced 2 great saves from
Maarten Stekelenburg. The Dutch however in the 84th minute sealed their win, with
Wesley Sneijder scoring off an assist from
Dirk Kuyt into an unguarded net after Kuyt got the ball past the Slovak keeper.
Róbert Vittek slotted a penalty kick late in stoppage time, but it was no more than a consolation goal for Slovakia. The penalty had been awarded for a trip on Vittek by the Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.[10] The Netherlands' win threatened to be overshadowed by
Robin van Persie responding angrily to being substituted by coach
Bert van Marwijk. Van Marwijk called a team meeting over the incident, and insisted later that there was no residual unrest in the squad.[11][12]
1 Considered a successor team by FIFA, or have competed under another name(s). 2 Have been member of multiple confederations. 3 Team and national federation no longer exist.