Backups Of The Backups. Poland-Moldova Preview.

February 6th, 2011 | by: tomasz | Comments(10)

It’s hard for me to advertise the game against Moldova for you. To be honest, I don’t think it will have any significance in our Euro 2012 preparation. After Peszko, Grosicki and Paweł Brożek moved away from the Ekstraklasa and Polonia Warsaw players were prohibited to join the national team there aren’t many players left in the squad that are close to playing for the actual national team. In fact, the players that we’ll see against Moldova aren’t even backup options for the starting lineup. They are backups for the backups.

Here are the players that will try to impress Smuda against Moldova:

Goalkeepers: Grzegorz Sandomierski will get his second, and possibly last, game in the national team. In the real world, he’s the nr 5 choice keeper at best for Smuda (after Fabiański, Tytoń, Szczęsny and Kuszczak). Sebastian Małkowski will sit on the bench.

Defenders: In this formation we’ve got the only player with realistic chances of performing in Euro 2012: Grzegorz Wojtkowiak. However, I think that Lech’s games against Sporting Braga will be a much more important test for him than competing against largely anonymous Moldovan players. Another Lech player, Hubert Wołąkiewicz, will try to do his best at left back. It’s clear that Smuda treats him as a possible alternative for all positions in defence. I’m happy that Marcin Kikut will finally get a chance to play at his designated position: right back. He may become an interesting option there as he showed in Lech’s Europa League games. The player I don’t think will ever improve to become an international, Śląsk’s Piotr Celeban, will partner Wojtkowiak in the middle of the defense.

Midfielders: Apart from Łukasz Fabiański, Tomasz Bandrowski is the most unlucky Polish player of late. He missed Lech’s great cup run and got injured in a single international game he played in the second part of 2010. Now, when he recovered from his previous injury, he twisted his knee in the training session before the Moldova game. As a result, we’ll have to watch the largely unimpressing Dawid Plizga in the midlle (who is, by the way, a natural winger). Ariel Borysiuk and Janusz Gol will join Plizga in the centre of the field. I regard the Legia player as a quite talented one, but his progress is not as fast as many expected. He remains too cautious, even for a defensive midfielder. Maybe he’ll make a step forward with this international friendly. The local Zagłębie Lubin star, Szymon Pawłowski, and the young newcomer, Michał Kucharczyk, will play on the wings. Pawłowski stopped progressing some time ago and all we can expect from him is a tolerable, but not a breathtaking performance. The Legia striker is fast, confident and very hard working, but I don’t think his performances in the Ekstraklasa so far validate this call up.

Strikers: Dawid Nowak will start, as long as he doesn’t strain any muscle in his body before the game. There is absolutely nobody on the bench who could replace him.

Poland-Moldova, 20:30 CET
Poland: Sandomierski – Kikut, Celeban, Wojtkowiak, Wołąkiewicz – Gol, Borysiuk, Plizga, Kucharczyk, Pawłowski – Nowak

Highlights: Kamil Grosicki scored his first goal for Sivasspor