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Poland
Euro 2012 Starts Now. Poland vs. Romania Preview.
Comments(30)
The football part of the operation Euro 2012 will start on Saturday. Franz Smuda, a man chosen to lead us to success in 2012, is going to debut as the manager of the Bialo Czerwoni in a game against Romania. The expectations are high, the players will do everything to show the famous Smuda offensive style. After all, as the coach said “each player will get two chances from me: the first and the last one”.
Smuda makes no secret of his starting lineup. The same eleven was chosen in each of the training sessions to play as the starters. Our squad tomorrow will look as follows: Kuszczak- Kowalczyk, Zewlakow, Kokoszka, Piotr Brozek- Blaszczykowski, Dudka, Obraniak, Kosowski- Jelen, R.Lewandowski or Kuszczak- Kowalczyk, Zewlakow, Kokoszka, Piotr Brozek- Kosowski, Dudka, Obraniak- Blaszczykowski, R.Lewandowski- Jelen. The names are the same but the formation is different. It still remains unknown whether Smuda chooses the classic 4-4-2 tactics or the Christmas tree 4-3-2-1 he successfully used at Lech last season. You may find it difficult to imagine Kosowski playing more in the centre or R.Lewandowski playing on the wing, but remember that in Lech’s games against Udinese the natural winger Jakub Wilk played in the middle and Lewy attacked from the left wing leaving Hernan Rengifo as the sole striker. In my opinion, Smuda may try both formations as he’s got two friendlies at his disposal. In both cases the approach looks very offensive as we’ve got only one defensive midfielder in the squad (Dudka) and most of the squad consists of creative offensive players (even the left back Piotr Brozek is said to be better in offense than defense, he started his career as a striker alongside his twin brother Pawel). Smuda’s main tactical idea is to quickly exchange short passes and gain ground in this manner. We are also supposed to employ pressing on the whole pitch and instantly fight back for the ball just after we’ve lost it. It’s no surprise as high pressing was always the key to Smuda’s success in the Ekstraklasa. The team must be effective but nice to watch at the same time. The players are to have fun on the pitch but treat each friendly game as the World Cup final. Smuda demands full commitment and he won’t be reluctant to dismiss the players who don’t share his philosophy. The fight for the place in the Euro 2012 squad starts now and players are aware of it. I haven’t read an interview where they wouldn’t say that playing in 2012 for Poland is their dream. Now they must show Smuda and the fans that they know how to make their dreams come true.
Let’s have a look at the squad in more detail:
Goalkeepers: Tomasz Kuszczak is the nr 1 for the upcoming two games, but he’ll have to fight hard against Lukasz Fabianski in the future. Smuda officially announced that the Arsenal keeper will be brought back to the squad as soon as he recovers from the injury. Wojciech Szczesny should earn his first cap this week since our new manager wants to give at least fifteen minutes playing time to each player that took part in the training camp. Szczesny grabbed the Polish sports’ headlines in the last couple of days after he claimed that he and Kuszczak are being mistreated in England. Basically, our youngster stated that he’s much better than Vito Mannone and Kuszczak is much better than Ben Foster and they both should get much more playing time. Szczesny is one of the most confident\loud-mouthed players I ever encountered, but in all honesty he doesn’t have a lot to be boastful about at the moment. After all, he’s only Arsenal’s nr 4, not a position that gives you a platform to judge other players. Our other loudmouth, Artur Boruc, won’t return to the team unless he loses some weight. Knowing Artie’s attitude and lifestyle I think we may wait some time to see the return of the King Artur.
Defenders: Our defense has gone through a complete renovation. Michal Zewlakow returns to become a tutor for the younger players and reclaim his captain armband. Adam Kokoszka will partner him in the starting lineup in the game against Romania. I’m very happy as it will be the first time I’ve seen Kokos since Euro 2008. I don’t watch Serie B and I’m dying to see if the young centre back has made any progress in the last year and a half. The Ekstraklasa’s most talented centre backs, Kamil Glik and Maciej Sadlok, will watch the game from the bench, but should be given their first caps by Smuda no later than in the mid-week game. Maciej Kowalczyk and Piotr Brozek will be our new pair of full backs. Boenisch (sorry for the bad spelling in the last post) aside, I think they’re currently our only wing backs not thoroughly tested by the former coaches. If they too fail to impress (as was with Gancarczyk and Rzezniczak) I don’t know who are we left with.
Midfielders: As I wrote earlier, we don’t know yet how exactly our midfield will look like. One major change from the previous games is that Ludovic Obraniak will play in the middle. Watching Ludo’s games on the wing I think that’s a good decision; he was sometimes a bit too slow for a winger but has got great vision and passing ability for a central midfielder. Dariusz Dudka returns to the team as our only defensive midfielder. Dudka is constantly complaining about his situation at Auxerre where he’s being thrown from one position to the other. Smuda sees him only in midfield, a decision that was greeted with a sigh of relief by the player. Dudka is a technically raw player, the most I expect of him is to win back the ball and pass it to the nearest teammate. Kamil Kosowski returns to the team as well due to impressive performances in the Champions League. I don’t know exactly what’s Smuda’s plan regarding Kosiarka (he’s not the youngest of players), but I know that the APOEL player is always fun to watch due to his balls out attitude. I’m also waiting to see Radoslaw Majewski getting some playing time since the reports coming from England were really positive about him. Legia’s Maciej Rybus and Slask’s Janusz Gancarczyk should be given their first caps in one of the two friendlies.
Strikers: Ireneusz Jelen is supposed to be the main striker of Smuda’s team. Jelonek is currently in great form for Auxerre; a kind of form that even sparked rumours about Juventus obtaining him (someone had to be really bored if you ask me). However, Jelen’s transfer in the winter or summer window is not entirely out of the question. There is supposed to be a gentlemanly agreement between him and Auxerre’s board to let him go for as little as 2M. I think that’s a bargain price for a guy who scored 14 goals in Ligue 1 last season. If it wasn’t for this agreement Jelen wouldn’t have signed a new contract with Auxerre. Provided he plays well this season, he can be sure to receive some really interesting offers. Robert Lewandowski may also be on the move next year. In a recent interview he stated that there’s nothing more to learn for him in the Ekstraklasa and that he has to move in order to develop as a player. Well put by Lewy, he can’t make the same mistakes Zurawski and Brozek made some time ago. I think Lech will have no other option but to sell their best striker in the summer. Wisla’s Patryk Malecki will be another player given a chance to debut in the national team by Franz Smuda.
I would like to hear from you, what do you think about Smuda’s choices?
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 30 comments.
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hey tomasz the editor, can i please get your email address or can u write to me. i have a question to ask you
Posted from 
United States
@popers4
I actually like it that smuda calls up guys who are the best at the moment, not thinking too much about their age in 2012. look, if a young player isn’t good enough now to play to make the nt, then he won’t learn to play in the few international games in the year. so it’s no use to bring in players who only may make the euro squad if they deelop well. let them deelop and then call them up.
on the other end there are players like kosa, who is at the top of his game now, and it is not very likely he will keep his form in the next 3 years, but then again he might, and it would be silly to write him off just beacause he will p r o b a b l y be too old for the euros.
besides, it’s worth keeping t h e b e s t players available even long before the tournament, because young players who are just earning the international experience need to have somebody to learn from and to compete with, to raise their level of performance.
Posted from 
Poland
i would prefer patryk malecki instead of Kosa
Posted from 
United Kingdom
Hey Guys, any links to live feeds to watch the game? Thx
Posted from United States
why is everyone forgetting about kuba?
Bad bad bad… Give me Janczyk and Smolarek instead both Lewandowski
Our team is terrible. Robert Lewandowski is awful and Jelen did not do much either. We are lucky it was not 2 or 3-0. Even though this is a Friendly, no one had any energy for the game. I can see that the protest is still in effect. I would not waste my money to see Poland play football like this. Hopefully we will not get embarassed by Canada because this result here is making me really doubtful for a result against them.
ummm wow not a good performance. Kuba is a shadow of the player that I remember, he doesn’t beat anyone with his dribble or speed anymore. Jelen looked ok but got very poor service, Obraniak was at least trying very hard he needs more support. Kosowski looked really good, I hope he keeps seeing call-ups as long as he plays like that. Kokos wasnt good in defence, I guess Kowalczyk was ok, Piotr Brozek at least tried getting forward. Dudka I thought played well I think he is most comfortable in midfield he is a good ball winner and has more speed than Lewy, and he does distribute well. Zewlakow should be done, he has no fire to give to the team as captain and doesn’t even defend that well. Our set piece play is very poor, not just today but in the last couple of matches altogether. We at least tried to go forward and attack as a team most of the time so at least I really liked that. We need to spank Canada on Wednesday to build some badly needed confidence.
The thing is our defensive selection for the future is not looking good. I hope our team does better against canada.
They missed too many opportunities by shooting the ball way over the net, hmm. Its like the didn’t want to score. It looked like they wanted to play hard enough to not look bad but not win the game. But that could just be the conspiracy theorist in me talking.
Peszko missed 2 great chances for goals, goals that perhaps a Brozek or Smolarek would score. Any news on Smolarek, if he is going to join a club? We need him. If our defense sucks so bad, let’s get Augustyn in. Although he is on the bench, he still plays occasionally in Serie A. Any idea on who we are going to play in 2010 in terms of friendlies. I agree that scheduling good quality opponents is very critical.
@ian: Smolarek apparently is still not doing anything http://www.polishsoca.com/newswire/national-team/1935-smuda-where-is-smolarek-you-tell-me
perhaps he will find a club this winter
Smolarek scoring on Peszko’s chance maybe, Brozek would have fudged em just like Peszko trust me. And Augustyn might be joining Kokoszka in the Serie B cause his club is in the relegation zone. I think when Kuba regains his previous form, so will the team. It seems the teams performance follows Kuba’s, he’s our talisman. If Kuba didn’t get injured b4 Euro 2008, who knows what would have happened.
I don’t want to think about Euro 2008 anymore. Its over with. They blew a great opportunity right off the bat to put one in the back of the net with less than a minute on Germany, and from there on the whole tournament went downhill. Kuba may have helped but they team showed what their merit was for that tournament against Austria and not even close to Croatia’s subs.
This team is just maddening. Admittedly though, I didn’t get a chance to see this game. Still, it sounds like their typical performance of lacking an identity and not finishing opportunities.
the overall performance was poor but I’m more optimistic then after the lost qualifiers. the new formation can work. especially in the first half, we had quite a lot players in the forward, and had a few chances, shots on goal. smuda should hang on to it in his further work.
the pitch was sooooo bad I can’t imagine how snybody could decide to play there. I really want to see the new team on a grassy pitch before I formulate any final opinion.
kosa played well, it shows he is experienced, didn’t lose the ball, had some precise crosses. małecki also did well, which surprised me pleasantly. I still am not sure he’s an international level.
peszko definitely isn’t and I don’t want smuda to waste a spot in the nt for this guy. those two chances he had…man, he shitted himself all over. thank you peszko, see you in the ekstraklasa.
we were horrible in passing accuracy. kokoszka gave the ball to the opponent seven million, eight hundred thousand and thirty six times, not pressed by anyone. unbelievable. I guess franz realised yesterday how crappy players he has. especially defense looks shit. there is this sadlok from ruch chorzów. give him a chance. kokosza and żewłakow should be disposed of as soon as we find any replacement. but will we…
Posted from Poland
We do not have many defensive options. Give Augustyn a chance and please call up sebastian Boenisch. I hate this guy but he is a lot better than Brozek. Kokoszka needs to leave as does Zewlakow. But, I would rather have Zewlakow in than Kokoszka. I thought Kowalczyk played really well yesterday. He is the one defensive brightspot for our future. Also, is there any news on the French/Polish defenders who want to play for us. And guys, quit with the defense for a while we have not scored a goal in 370 minuties!!!!
Phil, we can’t quit with the defense. We haven’t scored in a while is right. But its been even longer since we’ve had a shutout. A 0-0 draw is disappointing but not as demoralizing as another loss because we can’t score. Only bright side is this was Smuda’s first game. I’m sure he’s seen things some of you have seen, and probably some none of us saw. He’s gonna make a difference, maybe not enough to right the ship, but he’s going to coach. I doubt the team will continue to play this way under him. They’re gonna get used to his style and they’re gonna score. Sounds like they had their chances, just blew them. That’s something the team was lacking under Beenhakker. I’m sure adjustments will start to show that the boys can play a solid game, even if we continue to lose.
Smuda has to be careful how he handles the young players. Guys like Kokoszka and Augustyn cannot be looking over their shoulders the whole game and worry that if they make a mistake they will get pulled. They will never perform well unless they get comfortable. Most times that is what makes or breaks a footballer. Smuda must show that he has confidence in them. Like it or not but they are the future. So a little careful handling of their development and we can possibly see a quality co-cohesive unit form. Then these guys will actually earn their call-ups. If Smuda shows a little faith A back line of Kowalczyk, Kokoszka, Augustyn (Sadlok), and Rzezniczak will not look as bad if they learn to play together. The defense is only as strong as its weakest link.
I see a pattern with the fans and the media. We like to throw out names that sound good. It does not matter is they deserve a call up or not. But as soon as we see them play one game and make a few mistakes, we question the decision to put them in and we start looking for another savior. That is the equivalent of throwing crap against the wall and hoping some will stick. That has been the philosophy of the PZPN for generations and look where that has gotten us. Its time we try some new things, a different approach, because what has been going on has clearly not been working.
I am curious to see Radoslaw Majewski play against Canada. We’ll get a better look to see how much he has grown as a player.
One more thing, have you guys noticed that the commentators question every single play during the game. It seems like every time a player made a bad pass or the wrong decision, we heard the dude say what he “should” have done. Anyone could sound like they know what they are talking about after the fact. It sounds like they know better then maybe they should lace up the old boots and give it a crack. That is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to Polish football. The know it all egotistical do nothing attitude. If everyone seems to be the football expert then someone explain to me why Polish football is such a joke. Just a lot of talk and no action. The PZPN and anyone around Polish football should be ashamed for letting the quality of the youth system and coaching get to such a dismal state. Patryk Malecki was right when he said that half of the U21 cannot play. That is just sad, our talented kids go to waste because they are not coached and developed properly. Guys like Jan Tomaszewski have a lot of good ideas but as far as I am concerned it is all just hot air.
Does anyone know how much money a football federation gets for qualifying to the world cup? The PZPN has been uniquely quite on that front. I wonder why.
Smolarek to CSKA Sofia?
http://www.se.pl/sport/pilka-nozna/polacy-za-granica/tylko-na-sepl-smolarek-w-cska-sofia_118679.html
Kokoszka had some real terrible brain farts, but overall I actually liked the way he played. His positioning was solid and he showed some authority back there. I would like to see him get another opportunity.
Sofia???? Jesus Christ, did he even try in Holland? He’s better than half of the strikers there.
Posted from 
Netherlands
Smolarek is not going to CSKA Sofia. He wants to much money.
Posted from United States
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35 year old winger??? i wish him all the best but i dont think he can keep his pace and speed until 2012…anyway even Kosa said that national call up came a bit too late,he knows he won’t be able to keep his good form for so long.
Posted from
United Kingdom