Comments on: Poland-Germany 0:2. No Miracle.

By: Pawel

Pawel — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:53:46 +0000

Too much hype that came into this game. Germany is an excellent team in the tournament to see your weaknesses. So we have ours still. Thats it. Take it as it is. But lets fix what we can and keep doing wat we doing right, then BEAT Austria and Croatia. Because we can! Polska Do Boju!

By: dmac

dmac — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:51:14 +0000

Roger was by far the best player on the Polish team. He was creative, his passes were crisp, and he was able to beat the Germans with his moves. It is sad that we do not have any player on this team of his caliber that was born in Poland. Do they discourage creativeness and fancy play when you are a child in Poland? We lack that skill to drive forward with a combination of speed and ball control. Roger was much more noticeable than Zurawski and Smolarek combined.

Krzynowek is an example of the lack of creative skill. I mean, I felt that overall we had some creative passes here and there, but individually many of these players are lacking any sort of creativity in their footing. For Krzynowek, it is fine that he has a booming shot. But he lacks that dynamism that would actually put some fear into the opponents. Taking long range low percentage shots will not do much, although you may get lucky every so often.

I have to agree with “bronx,” I think it would be beneficial for our future to put some of the young hopefuls into our lineup instead of these old, uncreative lugs, and expose them to some National football at an early age like with the case of other talented players that play for other teams.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:16:50 +0000

I must say Poland’s defense looked quite weak in the first half, I was not surprised at all by the outcome. I was pleased to see Roger play well, and am almost glad that Zurawski got injured. I think he is too slow and lumbering these days, similar to Australia’s striker Mark Viduka, both of them hardly ever score for their national sides. Krzynowek didn’t play that badly in the first half, but was shutdown by Lahm in the second. Germany was also too quick for the Poles, and their pace was too quick for the defense to get back in time. Smolarek didn’t have much to do really as there were not many opportunities for him. He did score when he had the chance though…. if only. There is still a good chance of qualifying, we have to beat Austria if there is any hope. And hopefully Leo starts with Roger. Good luck to the Biało Czerwoni!

By: gregorio

gregorio — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:34:30 +0000

@tomasz

with janas the situation was a bit surreal, we fought tooth and nails for the draw, when we needed a win. but still, it was a close shave and we would have mess the situation to the germans, who were the hosts, so really were fired up for the game. now, it wasn’t a close shave, the germans were unthreatened except for 10 mins. so emotionally, the previous game was much much more exciting. i’m about what wołowski also wrote today about the game.
despite all this, i appreciate the change of philosophy introduced by leo, if we are to count in europe, we can’t just clear the ball from the box. but…so what? the effect is the same.

ok, enough of this whinning. we’ve got something to prove, so let’s do it!

@raz, @tomasz

i agree about podolski. he’s pissing me off. much more respect to klose’s clear statement, though him i don’t like either.

By: tomasz

tomasz — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 18:17:26 +0000

@kizak
Leo said today that they didn’t plan on playing the offside traps so high so I don’t know what the players were thinking. I said it before the tournament that we don’t have a lot of creative players, we never had in the last years. That’s why Kuba was so important to the team. Krzynowek may have taken one shot too many, but remember about the Portugal away game, he has to take those chances. I also think that it was Leo’s decision to shoot as much as possible as they were counting on Lehmann’s poor form.
@Raz
Those offsides were so minimal that they were really hard to call. I hope that the players are not concentrating on those calls but on how to improve their performance and beat Austria. I totally agree with regard to Podolski. I respect his decision to play for Germany, he had the right to do this, but this doesn’t mean that I have to symphatize with him.
@bronx
I mean that they are exposed to a high level football in the league. Remember that the national team doesn’t play a lot of matches and it’s hard for a coach to risk playing an unproven player in the qualifiers. It’s different with friendlies, but those matches are usually played not on 100%. That’s why I want Polish players to go abroad at a young age.

By: bronx

bronx — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:24:03 +0000

@ Tomasz your Comment about young players in other countries being exposed to high level football a lot earlier is exactly the reason we should be putting our young players on the international stage. This will generate interest from big clubs which will then help their developement even more once signed by these clubs as they will then be training with better coaches and better players. Could you honestly say that if Podolski chose to play for Poland that he would be our first choice striker? The answer – no, he would still be behind Zurawski.

By: polishprincess

polishprincess — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:00:32 +0000

Have faith, everyone. WE CAN DO IT. We will beat Austria and beat Croatia into the ground. Don’t worry about Zurawski. He didn’t do much yesterday, we don’t need him, hope he gets well soon though. Roger will come out of the gate strong during our next game and hopefully Leo will have more faith in our young players. WE CAN DO IT!!!

By: Raz

Raz — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:54:42 +0000

watched the game again today and definitely feel like Poland got the rough end of the offsides calls. both the first german goal and the smolarek non goal were pretty much the same situations. i’d say they were both offsides but you gotta call it consistently if you’re gonna call one onsides. officiating was shit in the croatia game too. that said, Poland blew it in the opening minutes by not capitalizing on that chance. that would have completely changes the game. but, Poland looks pretty strong, should be an interesting group with Croatia looking like they’re playing below their form and Austria playing above theirs.

and one more thought, i really wish podolski stopped acting like he’s so respectful. if you can’t celebrate your goals you’re not playing on the right side if you ask me. i’m an immigrant too and your heart never really leaves your homeland. it’s your roots, your family name, especially when your family still lives there. if you made the decision based on money then live with it and stick to it. and who let him put on a polish jersey after that game. he does not deserve that honor.

By: kizak

kizak — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:47:08 +0000

Way too aggressive on the offsides trap. If you don’t know how to run it then don’t because you will always be burned. In my opinion Leo’s genius took a slight step backwards for me. You can’t play 4-5-1 and try to run a dutch offsides trap at the same time. The 5 players in the middle were useless.
Where was Ebi the entire game? Zurawski did nothing, he got hurt, but that will allow us to put Roger up top. If you are playing with one striker he better be fast. The should play 4-4-2 with Ebi and Roger up front receiving the counterattack, non of our midfielders are creative enough to dribble and pass through the midfield, play the long balls to some fast strikers instead.
Jacek Krzynowek I thing has been reading too much of his press thinking he has a much better shot than he did, absolutely right, that first chance (even though it was very early) was the chance and he blew it, that was a huge mistake, just strike it hard to the low corner with the side of the foot, horrible shot. I was reading some press and it said that our team didn’t seem fit, I actually thought they were pretty fit (except for Golanski, who should never be put on the field again, he was way overmatched) and I believe that will really help us against Croatia who were walking in their second half. If everything hold according to the script then if we beat Croatia we are through, Jeszcze Nic Sie Nie Stalo.

By: tomasz

tomasz — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:10:37 +0000

@Tomek
I agree, let’s wait until the second game of the tournament before making any final assumptions.