After the Bulgarian football team lost 0-2 to Denmark at home on September 5 they now face the difficult task of playing the Czech Republic in Prague.

A victory is needed because the Danes have 19 points with only one round to go in World Cup qualifier matches. Bulgaria and the Czech Republic both have 17 points and the Czechs already beat the Bulgarian team 1-0 in Sofia.

Unfortunately even a victory in Prague will not guarantee a trip to South Korea and Japan for the World Cup finals. It is likely that they would need to play an additional deciding game to secure a place in the championship.

Based on the intricate management rules of FIFA, the world football governing body, the other competitor for the deciding game will be selected from the strong teams of Croatia, Belgium and Scotland.

Bulgaria's 2-0 victory against Malta and the 0-2 defeat by Denmark show that such hurdles can be overcome with great difficulty. The problem is not that the Czech Republic, Croatia, Belgium, Scotland are invincible, but that the Bulgarian team has some major flaws.

In both games it became obvious that most of the players were not in a good shape. Predrag Pazin and Krassimir Cholakov are not members of teams and do not play anywhere else. Others, like Stilian Petrov from Scotland's Celtic and Dimitar Berbatov from Germany's Bayern Leverkusen, have been recovering from injuries and lack the necessary training. To this can be added the obvious unwillingness of coach Stoicho Mladenov to attack with three forwards. Experts are amazed at his continued choice of two forwards of the same type - Dimitar Berbatov and Georgi Ivanov - when prominent wing forward players Martin Petrov from Germany's Wolfsburg and Svetoslav Todorov from London's West Ham can be seen on the reserve bench.

Mladenov's indecisiveness and extreme caution showed most clearly against Denmark, when the Danes were one goal ahead and he called off Georgi Ivanov, leaving the team with only two forward players.

This tactic will obviously not work against the Czechs in Prague. Experts think that Mladenov will have to take a chance and attack more. In the nine qualifiers his players have only managed to score 14 goals. The defence has let in nine goals. This demonstrates that the coach is playing too cautiously.

The problem is that only victories will do in the game against the Czech Republic and the possible deciding game. This means a more aggressive game with more constructive players is needed.

It has to be admitted that the greatest drawback of the Bulgarian team is that they have only one player of world class standard - 34-year-old Krassimir Balakov, who plays for Stuttgart. His teammates seem paralyzed when he is not playing. Even though he suffered an injury during the game against Malta he played for 15 minutes and the two goals were scored shortly after that.

The first half against Denmark drained him so much, that commentator Yordan Lechkov, Balakov's teammate from the Bulgarian team in 1994, exclaimed, "Krassi needs to run so much, in order to take over and organize the attacks, that there is left no time to think something up for the attack. If another footballer does not play next to him, who is able to be an equal partner, I do not expect anything good."

In the second half Balakov's powers were sapped, the Danes scored twice, and the Bulgarians failed to score. Dimitar Penev, who was the Bulgarian coach in 1994 and was declared Bulgaria's best twentieth century coach, was laconic. "In Prague we cannot win with fear or cautiousness. I hope that there will be someone who will give the forward players good passes. Balakov cannot be torn apart between the defence and the attack." The result will be seen on October 6 against the Czech Republic.