Ján Kozák (source: TASR)
Coach of the Slovak national football team Ján Kozák nominated 23 players for the opening match of the qualification to advance to the FIFA World Cup 2018 that will take place in Russia.
The match against England will be played at Trnava stadium on September 4, the TASR newswire reported.
Compared with the EURO championship in France, eight names are missing from the list. While goalkeeper Ján Mucha and defender Kornel Saláta are listed as backups, Milan Škriniar returned to the representation of players under 21 years old. Moreover, Patrik Hrošovský and Vladimír Weiss have health problems, Stanislav Šesták left the representation, and Adam Nemec does not play for any club.
In addition, Kozák does not count with Miroslav Stoch for the national team because of the troubles he has caused.
“There were many 30-year-olds in the cadre,” Kozák admitted, as quoted by TASR, adding that in the future there could be a generational problem.
As the match will take place shortly after the EURO championship, it is important that the best players will play for the national team, the coach added.
Among the new players in the representation are midfielders Jakub Holúbek and Jakub Považanec. Also midfielder František Kubík returned to the representation, SITA wrote.
Slovakia will play in the F group with Scotland, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta.
