West Brom: Marek Cech backs Chris Wood to star for New Zealand
Jun 14 2010 by Christopher Lepkowski, Birmingham Mail
ALBION left-back Marek Cech has given club-mate Chris Wood a glowing tribute ahead of tomorrow’s World Cup head-to-head.
The duo will meet when Cech’s Slovakia take on New Zealand in their opening Group F fixture in Rustenburg.
Both players were key members of the Baggies’ promotion-winning squad.
And Cech believes Slovakia will need to be wary should Ricki Herbert decide to make the 18-year-old Albion’s youngest-ever representative in a World Cup finals game.
“Chris is a good young player,’’ said Cech. “He is only 18 and he has done well.
“He is very strong in the air and he can hold the ball up and touch it off for the midfield players.
“He is not so good at scoring goals yet but this is because he is very young and he needs to practise his finishing a little. But during the season for us he scored a very good goal against Doncaster. He chested it down and made a volley or a half-volley into the net.
“Looking personally, he is a very nice boy and he does everything in training. He is 100 per cent professional.
“Chris played some games at the beginning of the Championship (season) and some at the end. He did very well and has a big future ahead of him.
“We will need to see how he gets on but he has a lot of potential. If he plays against us tomorrow then we will need to be careful of him.”
Cech enjoyed his season under Roberto Di Matteo having come close to leaving during Tony Mowbray’s reign.
The ex-Porto man found himself sidelined in favour of an under-performing Paul Robinson during Albion’s last Premier League campaign.
But Robinson’s departure to Bolton and Mowbray’s move to Celtic brought Cech back into the picture, despite the arrival of Joe Mattock.
Despite interest from Rennes during the January window, Cech stayed at Albion, helping them to a record points haul.
He is still unsure of what next season will hold but, in the meantime, is looking forward to the World Cup following his promotion with Albion.
“The preparation for this World Cup was much better because I played games for West Brom,” added Cech.
“It was a very long and very tough season but all the time we were playing good football.
“We will see how it will be next season, whether I will be playing at West Bromwich or not because football life is upside down.
“One day you are up, one day you are down. I think it will be very good if we get success here in the World Cup – I will be more confident for the Premier League if we don’t go out at the group stage.
“We will see how realistic that will be after the first game because that will be the most important game.”
