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

By: tomasz

tomasz — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:42:10 +0000

As for American sportsmen mentality, I like it. They are always playing to win and are not afraid of anyone. They’re always full of confidence, even when not justified.
As for our youth training, you may ask how was it that we had so much success in the 70s and 80s. Boniek once said that as youngsters they had nothing better to do than play football. They trained for their clubs, but at the same time they played after school with their friends. It was the best pastime activity available. Today, as Poland has economically developed, children have other things to do like computers, tv programmes or even other sports available (martial arts, rollerskates etc.). They will no longer train themselves as far as football is concerned. Other developed countries (Holland, Germany, France, even the Czechs) dealt with it by creating a well organised youth training programme. We may no longer count on the fact that we’ll be given a football prodigy by accident, we have to grow it. Polish clubs are slowly realising it, whereas I wouldn’t say the same about our FA. Maybe that’s why we’re are a 40M nation without even a single football star renowned around the world.

By: MarcinO

MarcinO — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:14:13 +0000

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.

By: M. Zurawski

M. Zurawski — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:03:18 +0000

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.

By: M. Zurawski

M. Zurawski — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:51:36 +0000

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.

By: zaraza

zaraza — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:31:57 +0000

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?!

By: Witold

Witold — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:03:19 +0000

@ 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

By: gregorio

gregorio — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:35:21 +0000

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

By: Pawel (drugi Cristiano Ronaldo i Franz Beckenbauer) i Polski Goral

Pawel (drugi Cristiano Ronaldo i Franz Beckenbauer) i Polski Goral — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:28:24 +0000

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.

By: gregorio

gregorio — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:22:44 +0000

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.

By: zaraza

zaraza — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:05:17 +0000

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..