Arsenal's Tomas Rosicky starred as the Czech Republic beat the USA 3-0 in World Cup Group E.

Rosicky, who joined the Gunners for around £7million from Borussia Dortmund before the finals, netted two sublime goals in the showdown in Gelsenkirchen.

He took centre stage after Jan Koller headed an early opener to set the Czechs on the way to a comfortable win.

Karel Bruckner's side were without Aston Villa strike Milan Baros, who was ruled out through injury.

But that didn't seem to matter as they went ahead inside five minutes.

David Rozehnal picked out Zdenek Grygera with an excellent pass to the right touchline and when the full-back sent his cross into the USA box, there was Koller to thunder a header into the net.

The United States came within a inch of levelling through skipper Claudio Reyna.

Picking up Bobby Convey's inside pass outside the Czech box, Reyna took a stride forward before unleashing a shot which beat Petr Cech but came crashing back off the goalkeeper's right-hand post.

It looked like proving to be a pivotal moment too as nine minutes before the break, the Czech Republic doubled their lead in stunning fashion.

There appeared little danger when a loose ball fell to Rosicky 30 yards out, but he took a touch before rifling a shot into the top corner.

It was not all going the Czechs' way though and they were forced into a change two minutes before the break when Koller appeared to pull a hamstring as he chased a loose ball with Onyewu and had to be replaced by Vratislav Lokvenc.

The United States tried manfully to get back into the game after the break and lively second-half sub Eddie Johnson went close to pulling one back.

But the points were safe for the Czechs 14 minutes from time when Rosicky dinked a delightful finish over Kasey Keller to make it 3-0 from a Pavel Nedved pass.