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Poland-San Marino 10:0. Turns Out We’ve Got Some Character After All.

April 2nd, 2009 | By: tomasz | 18 Comments »

It just shows why football is the most popular sport in the world. After one of Poland’s worst performances in history on Saturday came our biggest ever victory on Wednesday. We are still in competition for the place in 2010 World Cup finals, but what’s more important, the players proved that they really care about the qualification and their coach Leo Beenhakker.

Poland-San Marino 10:0 (Boguski 1′, 27′, Smolarek 18′, 72′, 81′, R.Lewandowski 43′, Jelen 51′, Marani 60′ (og), M.Lewandowski 63′, Saganowski 88′)
Poland: Lukasz Fabianski – Marcin Wasilewski, Bartosz Bosacki, Dariusz Dudka, Jacek Krzynowek -Ireneusz Jelen (71′ Jakub Blaszczykowski), Rafal Boguski (80′ Marek Saganowski), Mariusz Lewandowski, Roger Guerreiro, Euzebiusz Smolarek – Robert Lewandowski (65′ Lukasz Sosin)

Leo received a lot of fair criticism after the game against Northern Ireland, so this time he should receive some praise as he made really good decisions regarding our starting lineup. Artur Boruc was dropped for the more trustworthy (at least at the moment) Lukasz Fabianski. Jacek Krzynowek played as a left back strengthening our offensive power. Roger dropped back to the midfield and Rafal Boguski played a link up role between the midfield and an attacker. Ebi Smolarek was picked to play on the left wing, the position on which he had his best games for the Bialo Czerwoni. Finally, Robert Lewandowki swapped places with Ireneusz Jelen, with the latter one playing on the right wing. Those changes brought positive effects after only twenty three seconds when Rafal Boguski has become the quickest ever goalscorer for the national team in history. I won’t bore you with describing each an every goal as you’ll be able to watch them in the highlights section. Generally, from the beginning we played like we were supposed to: confident, fast and offensive. M.Lewandowski and Roger distributed the ball, Boguski dropped back for it, Ebi and Jelen virtually played as additional strikers. Krzynowek didn’t have to do much defending as he fulfilled the role of a left winger throughout most of the game. R.Lewandowski did great as a sole striker; he was able to keep possession and create chances for either Boguski or Jelen. His assist for the third goal is world class What I think was most important about this game is the fact that the players showed true commitment. The things they said on Monday about supporting Leo one hundred percent and backing him up were true; they fought for each lost ball, they weren’t satisfied with only three or four goals, the kept the pace of play for the whole ninety minutes. If this game was supposed to be a sign of players’ trust in Leo it served its role. Even the guys who aren’t on best terms with the manager (Jelen, Ebi) had a great game and played like their families’ lives depended on it. This team doesn’t want to be dissolved right now, they still want to play with each other, they want to play under Leo. There is still light at the end of the tunnel. The building of a team for Euro 2012 was postponed until the end of recent qualifiers (or maybe even 2010 finals), we’re still in for competitive games in 2009.

Player ratings (1-10):

Lukasz Fabianski 6: had one shot to save in the added time. Confident outside five meter box or even the penalty box. No problems with accurate kicking of the ball.
Marcin Wasilewski 7: no problems in defense, lack of good offensive runs in the first half when the left wing was more active. Changed his attitude in the second half and earned two assists. Should have scored after a corner.
Dariusz Dudka 6: no fatal mistakes, but surprisingly inaccurate in his passing.
Barosz Bosacki 7: a nice game for Bosy, dealt easily with San Marino’s attacks.
Jacek Krzynowek 8: an engine behind our attacks, especially in the first half. Great assist for Ebi’s first.
Mariusz Lewandowski 8: controlled the game in the middle of the field, wise distribution of the ball. Useful in the offense: hit the bar, had a good shot saved and finally scored after a great shot.
Roger Guerreiro 6: as Lewy, wise distribution of the ball, but he was sometimes too inaccurate, went for difficult passes went it wasn’t needed.
Ireneusz Jelen 7: used his pace to great effect against San Marino defenders, proved that he can be a backup for Kuba Blaszczykowski on the right wing.
Ebi Smolarek 9: would’ve been a 10, but one of “his” goals was actually an own goal. Nevertheless, a hattrick, a confident performance and an exceptional bicycle kick. A player with a nose for goals.
Rafal Boguski 8: two goals, involved in the game throughout his whole eighty minutes, a lot of opening passes. Felt great as a link up player.
Robert Lewandowski 9: one goal, three assists. An all around striker.
Lukasz Sosin 6: had his goal taken away from him for offside. His future in the team remains a mystery.
Kuba Blaszczykowski 7: a shot/assist for Ebi’s goal, looked better and better with every minute on the field.
Marek Saganowski 7: as always, he wanted to be everywhere near the penalty area. The biggest winner of the international week, won his place in the team.

Conclusions:

- the fight for WC 2010 is still on. We’re three points behind Northern Ireland (we’ve got a game in hand) and two points behind sensational Slovakia (they’ve got a game in hand). We have two points advantage over the Czech Republic. Our next games are against N.Ireland (home) and Slovenia (away). We’re capable of winning both of them which would bring us really close to the play off spot at least.
- players really want Leo Beenhakker to stay, they celebrated the first goal together with him.
- this game extended Leo’s run as Polish national team coach, there’s no possibility of firing him at the moment. Now he’s got a chance to leave Poland as the first coach since Antoni Piechniczek (1986) that advanced with the Bialo Czerwoni to two big tournaments in a row.
- Ireneusz Jelen proved useful to the team, either as a striker or right winger.
- Robert Lewandowski is a striker, full stop.
- there is still some fire left in Jacek Krzynowek, but I’ll repeat what I wrote last time: we finally need to find a replacement for Krzyniu.
- Ebi should always be at least on the bench, we can’t resign from his goalscoring talent.
- once again Rafal Boguski proved himself against an inferior opponent, time to be as good against the big boys.

We’re in for a drought in terms of national team games. As far as I know, next friendlies are arranged for July in South Africa (we’ll play against the hosts and maybe Spain). Next qualifying games are in five months time (what the hell am I going to write about?). The emotions provided by the team in the last games should last for a bit, but I know I’ll be hungry for more as early as May. For the time being, let’s concentrate on the Bialo Czerwoni at club level, the Lech Poznan vs. Wisla Krakow game is on Sunday.

Highlights: Which goal is your favourite? Mine has to be Ebi’s bicycle kick..

Tags: Beenhakker, Blaszczykowski, Boguski, Bosacki, Dudka, Fabianski, Group A, Jelen, Krzynowek, Lewandowski, Poland, Robert Lewandowski, Roger, Saganowski, San Marino, Smolarek, sosin, Wasilewski

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Comments

By Tomek | April 2nd, 2009 at 10:26 am

I’m pleasantly surprised, though it isn’t that meaningful. Still, there’s lots of work to do in the national team.

Posted from Netherlands

By adas | April 2nd, 2009 at 11:02 am

Yeah, but it was nice to see the team play as though they enjoyed it. Its a bit of a break from all the pressure and frustration it looked like they were dealing with in the previous games.

By MarcinO | April 2nd, 2009 at 11:48 am

I’m not any less pissed over the Northern Ireland game. I have one question, where was this hard work and concentration on Saturday. They should be able to out work anyone if they want a chance to compete with the upper echelon nations. Its no surprise that the defence was stable without Zewlakow there. I wonder if this performance had anything to do with Mariusz Lewandowski wearing the captain’s arm band.

Swapping Robert Lewandowski with Jelen should have been done on Saturday. Robert looked the part playing his natural position. Jelen could have played anywhere on the field and he would have run circles around the opposition.

I don’t think Krzynowek as a left back would work against stronger opposition because they essentially played with three defenders. Plus he’s old, I was surprised that he was able to last the full 90.

It was nice the hear the “Leo” chants at the stadium. Its showed that the fans knew Leo was not at fault for Saturday’s debacle.

By pnewman | April 2nd, 2009 at 11:59 am

sorry mate but Piechniczek did not advance with Polska to two big tournaments in a row. Nobody did. Piechniczek, however, did advanced to two big tournaments as the only coach in our history (unless you count olympics as a big football tournament).

Posted from Poland

By pnewman | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:05 pm

and Smolarek scored four. that was no own goal in this match unless you classified our late equaliser against Portugal in Lisbon as their goalkeeper’s own goal and not Krzynowek’s one.

Posted from Poland

By drewsky | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Ya hit the nail on the head Tomasz when you said the players showed they really care about their coach and qualifying.Poland should not dwell on the loss to Northern Ireland because it is not healthy and because Northern Ireland should not be underestimated,along with Poland they have also defeated Sweden,England and Spain at home in the last few years and their qualifying campaign for Euro was also very solid.Poland still has a ton of work to do to get where we all want them to be (which is on top)and they are going to have to start with their DEFENSE.

Go Polska

Posted from United States

By drewsky | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:32 pm

Besides Ebi’s awesome goal I thought the 4th goal scored by a R.Lewandowski header from a feed by Roger after a pass from Krynowek was exceptional.

Go Polska

Posted from United States

By janusz | April 2nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm

So good to see Ebi in action again! A natural born goal-scorer..
Despite the fantastic score, there were many more opportunites for the team
that were wasted. That will need to be addressed.
To the team from Northern Ireland:
Come to Poland in September. We’ll have a real
field to offer but no Boruc for you to tease.
Perhaps a different result?

Posted from Canada

By a | April 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm

“Poldi” bitch slapped zee Kapitän:

http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/sport-news/football/world-football/2009/04/02/michael-ballack-slapped-by-lukas-podolski/poldi-hits-out-at-captain-during-2-0-win-over-wales.html

By tomasz | April 2nd, 2009 at 2:58 pm

@pnewman
You’re right about Piechniczek, he qualified for two World Cups in a row. As for Smolarek, I read today that FIFA considers one of the goals an own one.
@drewsky
R.Lewandowski showed great skill with his goal, a really difficult header. I also liked M.Lewandowski’s shot.

By dmac | April 2nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Okay, so I will give credit where credit is due: good job Krzynowek. The guy played the best game I’ve ever seen him play. I still want to see him replaced with someone younger (who will have a future impact, like in 2010 and 2012), but he played great. It was probably because the competition wasn’t as strong, but good job nonetheless.

In one of my earlier posts I said that Beenhakker should be fired if the result of the San Marino match would have been around 2-0 (like the last time we played them not too long ago). But that didn’t happen. I am very happy with the 10-0 result; the team played great and it seemed that they cared. Caring is a very important sign that acts like a vote of confidence for the coach.

- Jelen was incredibly quick. Is he always that quick? I hope he plays like that against stronger competition.

- Smolarek had a great game, but again like Krzynowek, I would like to see him phased out.

- R. Lewandowski had some great passes and played with confidence.

- M. Lewandowski – I don’t know how I feel about him… he had a good goal but there is something that I don’t like about him I think.

- I really like Boguski for some reason. I liked the emotion he scored after the first goal and he seems like a good guy.

I am also happy that Poland did not stop with the onslaught of goals. For the first time, I feel like we actually had this “finish him!” mentality where we showed no mercy. I like that. I always think that Poles are often times too nice, that we try to be too respectful and that takes us away from the competitiveness of the game. I don’t know if that is true in reality, but that is my observation (not necessarily talking about the national team but Poles in general). So I am very glad that we kept up the attack.

In terms of strategy I am finally pleased that we didn’t sit back! We attacked and attacked, moved the ball beautifully up with long, skilled passes (which I didn’t think we could really do) and made ourselves available. That was great, please lets play that way again.

There were also a few more chances that we could have capitalized on. I am not sure, maybe it was Jelen, but one guy scored his first goal and could have had another one 15 seconds later but the ball was shot way over the net–the announcer said that the ball hopped on him. So lets work on finishing these chances, somehow.

Another thing that we need to work on, which was made painfully obvious during this game, are our set pieces. We need to work vigorously on corners and set pieces, please. We could improve tremendously as a team if we could score on corner opportunities.

Lastly, it was great to see Podolski slap Ballack. That is the ultimate sign of disrespect for the German captain. It is a great picture to see… Podolski must have had some of his Polish blood flare up a little.

Posted from United States

By paradowski | April 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Thanks tomasz – great article and for the 10 goals to watch. I didn’t get to see the game. About the goals, wow! 9th goal sure was awesome, incredible timing and control by Ebi.
And as drewsky and you mentioned, R. Lewandowski’s long distance header from the mid-box was great (like a shot)! And M. Lewandowski’s shot also great. I enjoyed every goal of course.
I’m glad M. Lewandowski wore the captains band. And wonderful to here about the “Leo” chants and all the show of support for Beenhakker – very positive.

By paradowski | April 2nd, 2009 at 9:53 pm

The 2nd goal is also a really fun one to watch many times. All the touches by six players (including the throw-in) were efficient and masterful. A great self sacrificing assist by Krzynowek and Smolarek too goes to the ground to get the shot off. But the best might be celebration, even with Ebi looking too protective of his goal. I think ‘you’ couldn’t take that one for granted with the defender right there – I’m sure it’s a natural reaction for Robert to try to knock it in. And you have to like Jelen’s cool reaction to set things right. It was only the second goal and naturally it was a subdued celebration, but it’s like they know things can are starting to click. cool group, would make a good picture.

By Hieronim | April 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 am

is the new Nike kit for sale anywhere online yet?

By paradowski | April 3rd, 2009 at 6:19 pm

@ dmac: What is not to like about M. Lewandowski? Mariusz’s quick “one-two ” to get the play started on that 2nd goal shows some of what he does so well. I think he’s “the big cat” (I’m a biologist, so I mean that complementary for ~ athletic movement, spring action, cool tempered but battling where it counts. He makes a great captain and a good one to build a team around.

Posted from United States

By kacinski | April 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

hey, do you guys know when the Polish nike jersey will be availabe online???

By Hieronim | April 5th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

wow has anyone seen Krzynowek’s goal against Werder?? they got beat pretty bad but it was the best goal I’ve seen from him in a while.

By dmac | April 5th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

@paradowski

I am not really sure what I don’t like about him. I will admit though that I haven’t payed too much attention to him.

Posted from United States

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