Austria-Poland: Preview And A Poll Bonanza. It’s A Matter Of Life And Death Now.

So there it is. As a matter of tradition our second tournament game is the one that we must win, or at least can’t lose (depending on CRO-GER result). This time, fortunately, we won’t have to face the likes of Portugal or Germany. This time we’ll play against an opponent that we can defeat: Austria.

We’re in for ninety minutes of pure, physical fight. Everybody watching Austria-Croatia game is aware that what Austrians lack in football skills they make up in ambition and fitness. We know that we’re this tiny bit better in terms of skills, but in order to win we must keep up with them in terms of physical preparation. We need eleven gladiators who will have the power to finish off the opponent. We need eleven disciplined soldiers who’ll know when to pull the trigger. We need a leader on the bench in Leo. We need a win. Here’s how our army presents itself before the ultimate-truth game:

Goalkeepers:
There won’t be any surprises here. Artie Boruc did well against Germans and he’ll surely start against Austrians. What’s more interesting, we learned today about the true reasons behind Tomasz Kuszczak’s “injury”. The ManUtd keeper accuses our coach, Frank Hoek, of too intensive training sessions. It’s hard to believe as we haven’t heard any complaints from Boruc or Fabianski. Moreover, even if they were hard, Frank Hoek is a guy who worked in FC Barcelona and Ajax and we can’t doubt that he knows best what our keepers need. The common view is that Kuszczak couldn’t accept the decision that he’s a third choice keeper. After it was obvious to him he started to disregard traininig sessions and stopped performing, which is described by Gazeta’s Michal Szadkowski on his blog. Kuszczak made a mistake against Macedonia, whereas Fabianski performed well against Albania, hence Leo’s decision was well grounded. Kuszczak is just a victim of his overgrown ambition. It’s just a shame that he couldn’t sacrifice it for the well being of the team. Do you imagine him complaining about ManUtd goalie coach? Yeah, me neither.

Defenders:
The biggest question is: will Pawel Golanski play after his deadly mistake against Germans? And if not, who’s going to replace him? As far as I see it, there are three options of how our defence will look like. First option: Golanski plays, along with all three defenders that played against Germany, no changes. Leo is able to give a player second chance (remember Kuba?), especially that Golo didn’t play that bad until he decided it’s time make the headlines. Second option: Jakub Wawrzyniak is a natural backup for Golanski as a left back. He was very close to playing against Germany and now he’ll be given a chance in the wake of Golanski’s mistake in the first match. Third option: a one with Michal Zewlakow as a left back. As Austria is a very physical team we need as many well built players as possible. Enter Mariusz Jop, whose main attributes are aerial ability and aggressiveness.

Midfield: The answer to the most important question is quite simple: it is Roger who is going to replace the injured Maciej Zurawski in our starting eleven (73% of Poland Euro Blog readers voted in favour of him). Rogerski, along with Mariusz Lewandowski, was our best player in the first Euro match. As we need goals against Austria, who could be a better provider than the Legia playmaker? What’s best about Roger is that he looks completely relaxed and confident on the pitch. I’m sure that he won’t escape the responsibility of organising our attack, as was the case with Zuraw. The bigger problem is Lewandowski’s minor injury. Leo is not yet sure if Lewy’s going to be ready to play. If not, we’re in deep shit. The only defensive midfielders we’re left with are Rafal Murawski and Michal Pazdan, who have never played on this level before. I really hope that this info about Lewy’s injury is there only to mislead the Austrians.

Attackers:
There is one possible change in our attack. It doesn’t mean that Ebi Smolarek will be benched. As we need more powerful and tall players upfront for this match Marek Saganowski or Tomasz Zahorski may be given a chance at the expence of one of the wingers: Krzynek or Lobo. In this case Smolarek would play on the wing. As it is unimaginable to play without Krzynowek, Lobodzinski can start on the bench. As much as he played well against Gemans, he didn’t look fully ready in terms of stamina. Lobo even admitted after the game that there were times when he was unable to catch his breath.

I already feel a thrill before the game. It’s a make or break situation. If we can’t compete with Austria it means that we don’t deserve to be here. And I’d like to feel after the Euros that we were a part of it. Come on Bialo Czerwoni, kick some Austrian asses!

Ps: Did I break a record in a number of polls in one post?