Poland-Slovenia 1:1. Has Leo Lost It?

I am Ukrainian, and I can say that our performance against Belarus in Lviv was just as poor and aimless. We only won thanks to a 90th minute Shevchenko penalty. It seems to be a problem with our Eastern European/Slavic football mentality. We’re so used to being worse than the rest, we don’t even want to try to prove that idea wrong. (Then again, look at Croatia. They have certainly become a world football power).
When we qualify, everyone treats it as a shock. When we don’t everyone says “well that was expected.” Ok, maybe we can’t vie with Italy and Spain, but aren’t we at least as good as teams like Scotland and Croatia?

Suppose, then, that we don’t have the quality. Let us take an example from the Turks. How do they do it? Is their blood a few centigrade hotter than ours?…

Posted from  United States

I’m agree with you Sasha, good comments. Tomasz, as usual, great analysis of the match and the actual situation.

Posted from  Canada

Er… all the countries mentioned above (Ukraine-Belarus and Poland-Slovenia) are Slavic. “Slavic” mentality, if such a thing exists, either shouldn’t play a role here or cancel itself out.

Posted from  United States

i think a big problem is the players attitudes as a whole, some of them have negative mindsets and are losers and it is built into their heads so they should be weeded out of the side such as Zurawski, Jop, Krzynowek, etc. THEN you have the idiots like Boruc, Dudka, and Majewski who are the rising stars and they decide to act immature. THEN on top of that you have d-bags that let their egos get the best of them in the form of Matusiak, Jelen, etc. THEN you have the players that aren’t even confident in themselves because they aren’t even starters for the club they are at like Smolarek, Saganowski, and i think even the older Lewandowski is having some issues at Shaktar

its pathetic to have all these different mindsets that don’t contribute the slightest bit for the side. the older ones needed to be weeded out sort of like what Spain did with Raul, etc and it let to some success because young players want that fresh blood and aren’t tainted yet by losing. the immature players i can forgive if they shape up. the players that aren’t starters for their clubs i feel bad for because i want to give them a second chance once they start starting for their clubs. AND the ones with the ego’s have burned to many bridges to deserve anything and have a lot of maturing to do before anything can be done if at all with them

Posted from  United States

ALSO, i’m with Greg, it shouldn’t play a role in this match… all that is, is an excuse.

Posted from  United States

In this match, we have to blame the coach, if all players play bad, and Leo has tried a lot of players, we can’t believe that it is because we don’t have good players. It is easy to say that Wichniarek, Jelen, Matusiak, Kuszczak, Boruc, Dudka, Majewski, Smolarek, Saganowski, Krzynowek,Lewandowski are immature, not confident, out of shape, or not willing to contribute, but Polish’s teams has been allways challenging the top 30 international teams, so why we can’t beat a team which is 79th? Because each players decide to stop playing?
Too many heroes has become zeroes in recent times, why?
Tomasz has answered to it:
“…Our manager is no longer worshipped by the players. They no longer respect him that much (see what happened in Ukraine). They lost trust in Leo after Euro failure. We don’t have a team at the moment…”

Posted from  Canada

I’d say that Roger did better then a 4, he was more of a 5. But all I can say is that if somehow Leo makes us loose to San Marino then there is no point to even consider him as coach, as a matter of fact I cant even remember the last time Poland actually won a game.

The so called problem with our Eastern European/Slavic football mentality is total bullshit. It is propaganda and don’t believe it.

My biggest problem with these so called professional footballers is that after the 20th minute they all seemed gassed. This leads them to stupid mistakes and dumb passes due to eventual mental fatigue. How can you not be in form to run a full 90. It all goes down to commitment and heart, in this case, a lack of. Our midfield and defence, due to lack of fitness make poor decisions giving the impression that they can play at all. I’m fairly new to football but could read offensive attacks as plays develop better than these clowns.

As I mentioned previously, anyone over 30 should not be on the team. They did nothing to show that a monkey could not do what they do. I understand that we don’t have a big talent pool to choose from, but why waste money and time on these old geezers who will not learn and get better. Robert Lewandowski should have started the game and Saganowski should have been the insurance.

How are they supposed to score goals without a striker???

Mariusz Lewandowski must be the worst of the sad bunch. I will not break if I see him cross the street.

I really enjoyed how Blasczykowski played in this game, even if the goals didn’t agree with him this time, he played far off more aggressive and impressive than usual. If it’s physically possible for him (without getting injured) I would love to see him play like this for BVB. During the pre-season and season Blaszczu HAD scored for BVB but his plays were pretty quite compared to the way he played in this game. He really stood out in this game,he showed more aggression, character, and passion. I hope to see more games like this (with the Goal God agreeing with me )and rewarded with goals from Kuba.

The Poles coach really needs a new and affective approach to things.

Remember, Poland didnt have the best of starts for the Euro qualifying aswell, Ive always wanted to know why that was, was it Leo trying out different things because he was the new coach at the time? Do you think it is a similar case this time aswell?

Posted from  United Kingdom

Not just the Croats but also the Czechs have regularly done much better than the size of their population (10mil is not that much) would lead one to expect, so no, I don’t buy into the theory of EE/Slavic losing mentality.

For Poland I think it really boils down to the mediocre basic technical ability of most of our players. It’s hard to have a sound mentality when we give up possession so easily with careless passes or poor control, when stringing even three forward passes together is a feat… We need to have a more serious focus on football from a very early age, and we need to stop making excuses, putting all the blame on insufficient infrastructure because a lot of equally poor or poorer EE countries manage to consistently churn out excellent players..

Posted from  Canada

I totally agree with Brian and to some extent with the conclusion Tomasz made. the part i’m slightly more optimistic about is that even though most of our players have problems with mentality there still are some who don’t and can be salutory to our team.

i count on lewandowski and i regret he hadn’t got his chance, leo should’ve bring him on the pitch. lewy jr. has already had 2 debuts this season and he didn’t blow any of them. he is on the rise and an appearance in the nt could’ve been still greater boost for him.

but it’s true that one lewandowski would p r o b a b l y have not made the difference. ok, what about another young blood, wojtkowiak? we know he can and likes to play offensively, and what may be just as important, he’d be on the pitch with his fellows from lech. maybe murawski in such company would play better? from the bench, peszko could enter the game (i don’t believe in bandrowski). i’d simply implement whole formation from lech into the nt. together they’d feel more confident and they already have some schemes worked out, and we know they can play really good paced football. as soon as majewski returns to the team, i bet he would find common ground with the kolejorz-group.

i know all this involves much risk, but risk is necessary in our situation, we’re too much in apathy to take safe solutions. and, after the terrible performance, we have little to lose anyway.
i do believe that wihout radical actions we’re fucked up.

last, a reference to Witold’s comment. leo h a s lost his magic spell among our players, but i don’t think the right conclusion is firing him. i believe it’s time to reestabilish the realation players-coach on new basis. we all know now leo isn’t miracle-worker. it seems it’s like with a child that finds out his heroes are also human and not that perfect at all. now our players must rely more on themselves and aprecite that, anyway, leo still is a good coach whose experience can be helpful for them to develop, instead of despairing after the magic that’s lost.
otherwise i can’t imagine how we can brake through the frustrating pattern of blowing every single big tournamnt we take part in.

Posted from  Poland

When will we get a Cristiano Ronaldo or a Lukasz (Lukas German name) Podolski? Is Zeyn … S-Latef any good. Is Michal Janota up to the challenge? More money needs to be spent on the youth system and education of the players! When you are a Polish footballer playing for Europe and Poland to not get greedy over the money or anything that has to do with ads or commercials. Play simply for the sport of soccer and devote your skills and your time to be the best player possible and helping out the youth that want to be footballers as well! When money takes control of your life you become like America. There is too much American influence in Poland with Burger King and the way of life. The people of Poland are Americanizing and the President of Poland Lech Kaczynski signs deals with Condolezza Rice like nothing without thinking of the impacts it can result from. Poland was the only country to defeat Russia and we are letting Slovenia draw us! What is going on! Americanization that is what is going on. Following the American way of life and having no responsibility for yourself. The Poland National Team along with Leo need Peter Moller Tran Norweski for the conentration and well-being of the team.

Posted from  United States

Pawel, i wish our footballers had some more of the american attitude towards sport…

Posted from  Poland

@ Gregorio: Sure, I don’t think that the only solution is to firing Leo, it is maybe the worst, but I’m sure that he has to change the way that he works with his players, because we are going in the wrong way…
@ Greg : When I’m saying that I’m agree with the comment of Sasha, It is the attitude of the team and the fans of the countries like USA,France, Portugal, Italy,Denmark, Irish, Scots, England who are proud of their team even if they have not done anything good lately, unlike the Canadians, Polish, Ukrainian,Belgian, Swiss who always seem loose by default, but it’s just a feeling, not a science, and I don’t think that we have to talk about it anymore

Posted from  Canada

Pawel,

Michal Janota is our best hope at the moment. He’s starting to get some playing time for Feyenoord and appears to be highly rated by the fans.

Tomasz Kupisz regularly makes the bench for Wigan and has scored a goal in the Carling Cup. Appears to be highly rated by the fans.

Jaroslaw Fojut – Regularly makes the bench for Bolton. Will he break through? Hard to say but if not, he reportedly has lots of offers from Championship sides impressed by his performances for Luton.

Bartosz Salamon – Often on the bench for Brescia and has already made one appearance in Serie B. Only 17.

About Zeyn, he hasn’t really developed as expected. Moved to some club in the English second division but doesn’t even make the bench…

I totally agree that there is too much American influence in Poland. Why can’t Poles just be proud of who they are instead of constantly trying to copy every other nation?!

Posted from  Canada

So i waited a whole day without watching the news or visiting the blog until Satanta carried the match and i could watch it for myself. And as you guys have already prolifically documented, past the first twenty five minutes it wasn’t entirely worth it. I’m happy Fabian had a decent game, and that yes we do in fact have a quality back up to Boruc. And speaking of Boruc, despite the problems he may be having, i can’t wait to have him back in the squad, he’s an amazing player and can organize the defense, i think, better then Fabian. Also, Kuba had a good game. You can see the talent in him, the determination as well. Unfortunately, beyond him, there wasn’t much to speak of. Even Rogers average step-overs and ball play looked bright in comparison to the misdirected though balls and upfield lobs from the rest of the mid.f. Krzynowek should be an impact sub. because he clearly cannot play a full game while maintaining any dangerous effectiveness. Oh yes, and as many have mentioned, playing without a striker seems rather insane, i mean, really, i’d rather see Ebi up there. I like Leo. He has a pedigree and sound tactical knowhow, despite the fact that everything has proven to the contrary in the last few months. His honeymoon period, much like Cappelos’, is coming to an abrupt end. If he has any notions about how he can improve the situation he should really implement them asap, because i’m not certain he has as much time as he deserves.

Oh, on that note, with no foreshadowing intended, out of pure curiosity; Since there have been a few conversations about who could replace Leo in the eventuality that he may ‘leave’, no ones’ mentioned Piotr Nowak. Is he just too inexperienced? do you guys think he would be interested? He seems to be doing a reasonable job in the states.

Anyway, if we don’t win on Wed. then i’m off to homehardware to buy some rope.

Ah, also, IT COULD HAVE BEEN MUUUUUUUCH WORSE: Netherlands 1-2 Australia, Austria 3-1 France, Romania 0-3 Lithuania, so i mean, a draw was generous for us.

I think the challenge is that our youth are not encouraged to take football seriously. Polish parents in general don’t believe in their kids making money in football. From a young age these kids are not fully committed to become the best they can be, they don‘t believe that there is a future in it. Another reason is that we don’t have enough kids playing.

I believe that Wisla Krakow or some bigger clubs need to create proper scouting systems along with some kind of youth teams for these kids to properly develop. I’m talking about scouting kids from their early teens. If you look at the English Premiership, the bigger clubs allocate their resources and set up training academies that produce quality footballers. These youth teams teach kids proper tactics and help develop their skills. However, money is required to provide the facilities and not to mention quality coaching.