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 both 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 won, 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.
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Czechoslovakia 
1930 
1934 
1938 
1950 
1954 
1958 
1962 
1966 
1970 
1974 
1978 
1982 
1990 
1994 
Slovakia 
1998 
2002 
2010 
2014 
2018 
2022 
2034 
New Zealand 1 – 1 Slovakia 
Netherlands 2 – 1 Slovakia 
