The defending European champions, Team France, travel to Jihlava in the Czech Republic to face Team Czech Republic in the first round of the IFAF 2020 European Championship Group A qualification tournament Sunday, October 13.
This is the first time these two teams have faced each other. France won the 2018 European Championships, defeating Austria 28-14 in the final.
The last time the Czech national team took the field was in the Three Nations Cup a year ago when Team Hungary defeated Team Czech Republic 23-15 in the final to capture the Cup.
The Czech squad will feature 20 players from the Prague Black Panthers, who reached the Austrian Football League semifinals this year. while another 18 players come from the teams from the top league in the Czech Republic with the Ostrava Steelers, Brno Alligators and Usti nad Labem Blades having the largest contingents (four each) on the team. In addition, the team will be joined by the Kysilka brothers, Miroslav and Zbynek who played offensive line for German semifinalists, the Dresden Monarchs, this season. Starting quarterback for the team will be Pavel Mráz from the Blades.
Team Czech Republic head coach Sebastian Fandert, realizes his team is the huge underdog in this game, and relishes the role:
“The pressure is on France. This is a home game for us and for every player and coach this is a treat. We’ll put everything we have into it and I can promise a fight to the very end.”
Team France enters the game with a new head coach as hugely successful Patrick Esume, who led the French to the European title in 2018, has been replaced by Jean-Philippe Dinglor.
Dinglor has put together a roster which features veteran international running backs Stephen Yepmo and Jason Aguemon who both anchored France in 2018.
Team France Roster
