By Sonia Oxley

WESTERBURG, Germany, Jun 7 (Reuters) Czech Republic today complained their World Cup training ground was not up to scratch.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech said the grass was too long for their first training session since arriving in Germany earlier in the day.

''It is too long and you could see the ball was slowing down on it,'' Cech told reporters. ''It really needs a cut.'' For coach Karel Brueckner, the lack of stop-netting behind the goals when he arrived to inspect the ground was particularly annoying because he had asked for them specifically.

''We were assured they would be prepared,'' he said before the netting was hurriedly erected in time for training.

Ground officials were unavailable for comment.

The Czechs face United States on June 12 in their opening Group E game. Italy and Ghana are the other teams in the section.

REUTERS SI HT2330