Ok, so a little over 24 hours to it... maybe a time to try and jinx the disatrous historical dissapointment and devastating home streak...
How to start ?...
This beautiful and in nature stunning piece of country cursed with horrible, Horrible ! ... really Horrible politicians, I live in, named Slovakia
did qualify for a major competition (FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO) 3 times in its still relatively short 30 years new independence history.
1 of the 3 qualifications happened for the last EURO 2020, we did qualify for this all-over-the-continent Euro via Nations League Play-Offs defeating both Irelands, The Southern in Semifinal and the Northern in the Final, with both games played away...
but it is not what I was aiming here. The only other 2 times we advanced to the Final Tournament, we experienced in both times the same emotional rollercoaster pattern, I hope we will not re-experience again this time.
In both editions we had the chance to directly qualify during the penultimate matchround of the qualifiers, both times it was at home in front of full stadium and prepared celebrations and fireworks etc..etc.. but in both cases we mentally completelly failed and lost that game... yes, in both cases we managed to qualify, as in both cases we managed to win the last day matches, in both case away... so not in fromt of our sold out stadium and prepared celebrations...
1) For the World Cup 2010 (still the only WC we did qualify there... and we succeded to even progress to the Knock-out phase in this debut by beating the reigning world champions Italy to loss in the Round of 16 in Durban to the future finalist from the Netherlands by 1-2)
We had the chance to qualify directly in the penultimate match of our qualification´s group. At home against Slovenia: A win would have bee enough to celebrate the very first historic qualification for a major tournament..
The prepared celebrations and fiesta ended totally ruined by our flop and defeat 0-2 to SLO... Enormous disaster and dissappointment... I remember being extremely sad after the match, one of the rarest times I was devastated by sport (maybe except the Vancouver 2010 Ice Hockey Bronze Medal Match...)
However, thanks to all gods we somehow succeded to win in 4 days in the last game under the unforgettable Chorzow´s Blizzard
That own goal of Severin Gancarczyk that nobody even saw because of the strong snow storm was the golden moment of Slovak football untill that year and one of the most WTF in our sport history as well.
Sadly, not in front of our fans at home
2) For the EURO 2016 (the first Euro we did qualify, and eventually succeeded there by progressing to the Round of 16 as best 3rd ranked of the Group thanks the unforgettable 98 minutes 11 players parked bus against England in St. Etienne, when England played like 98.5 % of the game in our half... but eventually we still survived and got the 0-0 which qualified us to the next round)
We had the chance to qualify directly in the penultimate match of our qualification´s group. At home ,You see the pattern, against Belarus a team which was dead bottom of the group, A win was again enough to qualify officially to La France 2026, but once again after 6 years the prepared celebrations and Fiesta ended ruined just like in the previous time in 2009 by our flop and defeat 0-1 Despite an absolute domination like around 30 shots on Target I swear, but we faced that night a BLR goalkeeper who somehow decided to stood on his head .. in other side Belarus with the single attack..scored the winning goal...Another extrem dissappointement and complete disaster.... you see the pattern ?
However thanks to all gods we managed to win the next last match in Luxembourg mainly thanks a super inspired Marek Hamšík 2-4 and did qualify for our first EURO...
Sadly, not in front of our fans at home
3) Tomorrow evening, we received another chance... people say, third time is the charm... We will hoist Iceland, and this time even a simple draw will officially qualify us to the EURO in Deutschland 2024...
Once again everything is prepared, fireworks, stadium sold out, ... in one word Fiesta... let´s hope for everything on earth this time we will succeed and not have to pray and hope for success in 3 days during the next last game in Bosnia & Herzegovina again far of our fans (the match will be even behind closed doors as punishment for the local federation)