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

By: dmac

dmac — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:32:11 +0000

@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.

By: Hieronim

Hieronim — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:25:43 +0000

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: kacinski

kacinski — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:30:40 +0000

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

By: paradowski

paradowski — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:19:08 +0000

@ 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.

By: Hieronim

Hieronim — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:05:24 +0000

is the new Nike kit for sale anywhere online yet?

By: paradowski

paradowski — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:53:27 +0000

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: paradowski

paradowski — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:04:45 +0000

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: dmac

dmac — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:03:38 +0000

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.

By: tomasz

tomasz — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:58:15 +0000

@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: a

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:55:59 +0000

“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