Just End The Winless Streak. Ecuador-Poland Preview.

October 12th, 2010 | by: tomasz | Comments(15)

We won our last game on the 3rd of March this year (2:0 against Bulgaria). It’s high time we improve this statistics. A good opportunity is our friendly game against Ecuador staged in Montreal, Canada. Both teams aren’t using their strongest lineups.

Jakub Błaszczykowski and Adam Matuszczyk, both our top performers against the USA, had to leave North America as they have an important Bundesliga clash on Friday. Smuda decided to release the players in the name of establishing good relationship with their German coaches. Fortunately, other two players from Dortmund (Piszczek and Lewandowski) are available to Franz. I’m not a great expert in Ecuadorian football, but it seems that they also won’t be displaying their strongest lineup. The only two players I know from our opponent’s team are Christian Benitez (used to play for Birmingham, now a top scorer in Mexico) and Christian Noboa (Murawski’s teammate at Rubin). Others often have only three or four caps to their name, which means that we’ll be facing a rather inexperienced team. At the same time, Smuda will also give a chance to some rookies.

Goalkeepers: Smuda is starting to be a real admirer of Przemysław Tytoń. He says that our goalie plays great in Holland and proved ready to be a member of the national team, both in terms of skills and character. Franz even says that Tytoń is a possible choice for a nr1 blouse in 2012. Well, it’s time he confirms those credentials; Tytoń should play 90 minutes against Ecuador.

Defenders: As expected, Dariusz Pietrasiak didn’t turn out to be a solution to our defensive problems. Smuda realizes that as he says that Pietrasiak made mistakes, but it doesn’t mean that I’m crossing him out for good. He’ll probably be in the squad, somewhere on the backups list so that I can always pick him. So, don’t expect Pietrasiak to play an important role in the team in the near future. Palermo’s Kamil Glik will get a chance to redeem himself for an awful performance against Cameroon in the summer. Other than that, there won’t be any further changes to our defensive line.

Midfielders: Our midfield worked well against the USA, so Smuda won’t change much for Ecuador. Apart from the one forced change, that is finding a replacement for Adam Matuszczyk. There are two options possible, depending on whether Smuda chooses a more defensive or a more offensive approach. If he is sure that we’re going to control the game he may opt for Radosław Majewski. However, it’s more possible that he won’t change our usual approach and will pick a typical defensive midfielder. Surprisingly, Franz used Lechia’s Hubert Wołąkiewicz on this position during the last training sessions. Wołąkiewicz plays in defense for Lechia this term (centre back or left back), but he often operated in the midfield in previous seasons. That may be a surprising choice from Smuda, and a one that also shows that it’s too early for Bartosz Salamon to be given his first start for Poland. Nevertheless, Smuda describes the Foggia midfielder as an extremely talented player and the future of Polish football. Rafał Murawski and Adrian Mierzejewski will complete our midfield.

Attackers: Similarly to the game against the USA, Ludovic Obraniak will start on the left wing. At least theoretically, as he should be moving towards the centre throughout the game. This may once again create an advantage for us in the middle of the field. Robert Lewandowski will be Smuda’s choice of a lone striker; hopefully this time he’ll be more effective in front of goal. Our biggest problem will be to find a replacement for Kuba Błaszczykowski. It’s most likely that Ebi Smolarek will start alongside Ludo and Lewy. Smuda praises Ebi publicly saying that the Polonia striker has changed a lot since the last games; both in terms of fitness and approach. It will be a very important test for Ebi, a one that will show whether he can fit into Smuda’s tactical plan as a winger. Kamil Grosicki and Andrzej Niedzielan are other options, but Ebi is the closest to being picked at the moment.

Time to finally get a win as I’ve already forgotten this feeling. I hope we build on our performance against the USA, even though we miss two crucial players. A win in good fashion would raise the morale and reinstall the belief in the team among fans. Let’s end the North American trip in high spirits.

Ecuador-Poland, Montreal, 4 p.m. local time, 10 p.m. Polish time
Poland: Tytoń – Ł.Mierzejewski, Glik, Zewłakow, Piszczek – Wołąkiewicz (Majewski), Murawski, A.Mierzejewski – Obraniak, Smolarek, Lewandowski