Weekly news blitz, 10-16 December

Good day and welcome to the Czech Republic World Cup blog. My name is Os Davis and i’ll be contributing to these pages straight up through glory in World Cup 2010 (hopefully). Last time ’round, i wrote for the pages of the Poland blog, but since that one is now filled by the ever-capable Zibi, this denizen of Hungary has shifted focus a bit in the Central Europe region…

First up, we’ll start with a planned weekly feature: A weekly roundup of news all things Czech football. In the news this week:

In case you haven’t heard, Sevilla smoked Slavia Praha 3-0 in UEFA Cup pool play.

Roman Bednar stays hot for West Brom, contributing his fifth goal in as many games in a 4-2 victory over Albion, but gets overshadowed by Zoltán “the Mighty Magyar” Gera.

Going into today’s match, Tomas “Little Mozart” Rosicky proclaims Chelsea “boring” in the Guardian, says his lackluster-of-late Arsenal squad “have been very unhappy,” and is taken to task by the ‘paper for “not delivering the goods.”

Here, Chelsea’s Petr Cheh gets in his two korunies (app. 5.96 eurocents), mostly on Avram Grant.

Should Aberdeen fear Copenhagen’s Libor Sionko in Thursday’s Champions League match? Says the retired Ebbe Skovdahl: “He has done very well for Copenhagen, even though I know he was a failure at Rangers.”

All over the media were reports that Middlesborough – and therefore other Premier League clubs – are interested in taking Milan Baros (who “has failed to live up to expectations in France after joining the club last January” in the words of Sky Sports) off Lyon’s hands.

Speaking of scouting, this from The Daily Mail: “Birmingham City are trailing 23-year-old Czech international Michal Kadlec. Kadlec is a left-sided defender. Birmingham manager Alex McLeish travelled to Prague on Monday to make a personal check. Kadlec scored the third goal in Sparta Prague’s 3-1 win over Viktoria Plzen.”