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Poland-Canada Preview. Time To End The Goal Drought.
Comments(19)
Poland will have to compete against Canada without the injured Kuba Blaszczykowski and Ireneusz Jelen. The game is a perfect occasion to finally score a goal, the first in five games. Franz Smuda is also going to use it to test players who are, at the moment, considered backups for the starters in the national team. Except to see youngsters like Szczesny, Sadlok, Glik or Rybus on the pitch today.
The encounter with Canada can’t exactly be called an another episode in a legendary rivalry. As a result, it’s not really drawing much attention, not only in the whole of Poland, but even in the city of Bydgoszcz where the match is going to take place. Only 5 000 tickets have been sold so far; a proof that the team has very little public support at the moment. To change that we should defeat Canada by the largest margin possible. Smuda encourages players to treat each game like the most important one in their lives. The players really need to follow this approach if they want to play in front of sold out crowds next year. Who’s going to fight for the better future of the national team today?
Tomasz Kuszczak will start in goal for the second time in a row. The ManUtd keeper is a clear number one in Smuda’s books, at least until the return of the currently injured Lukasz Fabianski. Today will be a great day for Wojciech Szczesny (pictured) who is going to replace Kuszczak after the break. It’s a really rare occasion that a 19 year old fourth choice keeper at his club gets to debut in the national team. However, the young Szczesny is considered an enormous talent by Smuda, who wants to give him his first cap as soon as possible. Szczesny is making no secret of the fact that he wants to seriously compete for the spot in the 2012 squad. Three changes will be made in the defensive line. After a very unimpressive performance on Saturday Adam Kokoszka is going to be relegated to the bench. 20 year old Maciej Sadlok will have an opportunity today to overtake the Empoli defender in Smuda’s rankings. He can’t really do much worse than Kokos, but if he does there is always 21 year old Kamil Glik waiting to make a good impression on our new coach. Both youngsters are to learn the moves from Michal Zewlakow, a player without whom it’s really hard to imagine our defensive line at the moment. Smuda will also replace both full backs for the game against Canada. Not because Piotr Brozek and Marcin Kowalczyk were so horrible, but because he wants to form his opinion on all the four wing backs that were called up. Expect Jakub Rzezniczak and Seweryn Gancarczyk to start today.
Kamil Kosowski and Ludovic Obraniak, our best players in the game against Romania, retain their places in the starting lineup. This time around, however, Ludo won’t have the help of a defensive midfielder in the middle (though Dariusz Dudka wasn’t that much of a help last time around). It’s going to be the first time since I can’t remember when that we’re going to play without a typical defensive midfielder. Radoslaw Majewski is being prepared to perform this role, something that none of the fans would even dream of half a year ago. Smuda claims that Maja has really toughen up in England and that he may be a perfect replacement for Rafal Murawski in the future (Muras is Smuda’s first choice for the DM spot). Smuda also complemented the Nottingham Forest player on his positive approach in the training sessions; apparently Majewski is eager to do just anything to be a part of Smuda’s plans. Franz refrained from criticizing Slawomir Peszko for the last game, maybe he knew that he’d have to count on the Lech midfielder in the game against Canada. Since Blaszczu is injured, Peszko has a chance to silence the critique that he received for his inability to convert the goalscoring opportunities on Saturday. Finally, in all probability it’s going to be Maciej Rybus, not Patryk Malecki, that will partner Robert Lewandowski upfront. The Legia youngster just made a better impression on Smuda against Romania. Personally, I don’t think there is much difference between the players, I hope to see them both getting 45 minutes playing time.
“2010 is for selection, 2011 for competing against strong opponents and 2012 for perfecting the strategy” said Franz Smuda in a recent interview. If that’s so, then we’re in for a phase where results won’t be the most important outcome of the games. Expect to see many new faces in the upcoming friendlies, majority of whom will probably only get Smuda’s “first and last chance”.
don’t worry lad. here in Canada they don’t even have games on the teli……since most people watch shit like poker on TSN. there will be no support on either side………fans in Polska are right not to watch this shit game as a “D class team” will take on a bunch on b class players from an barely average euro leagaue….cant’t wait to miss it!
Posted from 
Canada
I am watching it live on a free internet feed (just go the ATDHE.NET to find a link). 1-0 for Poland thanks to a goal by Rybus in the 1st half. Canada has had some chances too, and are trying to exploit the weak Polish defence which keeps on making dumb mistakes. Also, seems like way more than 5,000 fans are at the game….guess the boycott is dying.
Posted from Canada
1-0 win. The goal was great. I guess that shows whoever was telling me before that Rybus can’t play is wrong haha. Obraniak, Rybus, Lewandowski, Sadlok, and Kosowski were all good. I thought Dudka and Peszko both played tremendously well. I know Dudka is left-footed, but i swear he hit all those long shots he took with his right foot. as long as they’re on target i guess haha. Janusz Ganarzyk is intriguing to me, i liked what he put out on the field. his speed is an asset for sure. Majewski didnt start after you said he would, but he played well in the 15 or so minutes he was on. I think Kowalzyck is a keeper, he is our best right back now in my opinion. The left back slot is still a problem spot though. Would’ve been better if we could have scored some more goals, Smuda left the pitch pretty quickly after the whistle i wonder if he was upset? But I’d still say it was an ok perfomance, much better than against Romania.
Posted from 
United States
I’m happy for Rybus, I only watched like five minutes so i’ll save my comments after I watch the full game. From what i’ve read, people are disapointed in Robert Lewandowski.
The result against Romania would have been different if they played Canada first. After that goal all of a sudden looked like footballers again. So I guess confidence is the biggest hurdle Smuda needs figure out next time around.
Did Majewski come off unscathed? We really need him on saturday against Boro! YOU REDS!
Posted from 
United Kingdom
will roger never play again?
donde esta roger?
Posted from United States
Anyone have a link for highlights? Nice to finally win a game…
Nice to hear they won a game. But against Canada, I was hoping for more goals. I agree with Marcin0 that the team needs to get some confidence. We don’t have to be able to beat everyone in the world. We should be confident that we belong on the pitch together. I’m tired of calling Polish players weak. Its not possible that an entire country couldn’t have even one world class player. Hopefully good things are to come.
Nice cross by Obraniak, and who’s 11?? Kosowski??, to head the ball on to Rybus for the score. That whole play looked like quality football, especially for Rybus to spin around and just put it in the back of the net. Hopefully there’s more of that to come.
http://www.livegoals.com/free-video-highlights/poland-vs-canada-18-11-2009.php
anyone know where I can watch the full game? I missed it becuase of biology lab… how gay.
This was a good win – we beat a team that is ranked higher than us.
Canada is #53 we are #56 (stick with the positive thoughts).
FIFA ranking is a joke how can Poland be #56 & the Czech’s who did just as poorly in the same group are ranked #15.
For the people who say the ranking is based on previous performances, how is Israel ranked ranked #26 when in the past 15 years they did not qualify for any major tournament & took 4th place in a weaker group than Poland’s.
I did not see anyone mention the great game the U23 team had (joking).
They lost 2:1 to a team from England. Before you say well England is pretty good, the England U23 team was made up of guys playing in the
5TH DIVISION or lower. How sad is that.
The U23 team is supposed to be a training ground for potential NT players.
Well known guys like Piotr Polczak, Michał Pazdan,Dawid Janczyk played in this game and they lost to a bunch of amatuers.
The EK is weak & can not produce good talent. We do not have a bunch of players playing in the best leagues in Europe. So where does Smuda look for talent?
It will take a long time for the NT team to be strong again.
Posted from United States
adrian – does biology lab like other biology labs?
The full match is available at fbtz.com/forum/ I tried to post the links directly but my post was flagged as spam…
Piotr Polczak is not a potential NT player, he is terrible and is Stefan Majewski’s love child. He got called up to the senior team when Majewski was coach and look whose the coach of the U-23 currently. ‘Nuff said. I think that Smuda might favor his old Lech boys (R Lewy, Mura, Peszko)even when they do bad just like Majewski with Polczak. I have no problem with that cause I’m a Lech fan boy and these guys are the future(well Lewandihno is, Peszko is more of a back up for Kuba if he ever regains his previous amazing form. Don’t think we’ll be seeing Wilk around though.
can you email me the link, because everything is private on the chat zaraza
I’ve sent you the download links.
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Only 5000 tickets sold? Ouch! That should give Canada a boost!
Posted from
United Kingdom