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Polish Euro Summary a.k.a. Euro Champs Are Every Four Years And We Blew It.

June 18th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 10 Comments »

Another tournament, another disappointment. We should be used to the fact that our players usually prove not talented enough to compete with the best. Somehow, before every tournament we are sure that this is the perfect time and place to finally impress. And after every tournament, we’re bought back to reality.

I would like to start with judging individual players’ performances:

Winners:
Artur Boruc: always performs best in the crucial matches. If it wasn’t for him we’d certainly lose more than 4 goals. Earned respect around the world; considered by professionals to be one of the top keepers in Europe.
Roger Guerreiro: started the tournament as a substitute, but proved early on that he’s our best outfield player. The only one that was able to create something interesting and unexpected in front of opponent’s goal.

Average performers:
Michal Zewlakow: our best defender in the Euros and probably a future leader our defensive line.
Mariusz Lewandowski: was quite good in the first game, average in the second and really bad in the third.
Marek Saganowski: did his best, which is, sadly, not enough on this level.
Dariusz Dudka: expected to be one of our worst players, but in fact played on a similar level as in qualifiers.
Adam Kokoszka, Lukasz Piszczek, Rafal Murawski, Tomasz Zahorski, Jakub Wawrzyniak: can’t call them losers because they were never expected to lead this team. They were expected to provide some help from the bench, however it was made hard for them as our leaders failed to perform.

Losers:
Maciej Zurawski: one of the biggest disappoinments in the team for the third time in a row. Lack of character and winner’s mentality is his biggest flaw. Roger exposed all Magic’s weaknesses when he replaced him against Germans.
Jacek Krzynowek: meant to be a leader, but was in such a poor form that tried shots from every possible position for lack of better ideas.
Pawel Golanski: that mistake against Germans will always be associated with him.
Marcin Wasilewski: was to provide a physical presence but provided only smiles on strikers’ faces.
Jacek Bak: where was his leadership? As an individual, he didn’t play that horrible, but he’s responsible for the whole defence. Sad he had to end his international career in such a way.
Mariusz Jop: possibly the worst defender that I’ve seen in Swissaustria.
Ebi Smolarek: posed no threat whatsoever as a lone striker. Definitely not his position. To make matters worse, Racing Santander would be happy to sell him.
Wojciech Lobodzinski: before Euros he was regarded as a player on a similar level to Kuba Blaszczykowski by a lot of people. Average against Germans and simply pathetic against Croatia, where he had 3rd div-like problems with first touch.

Reasons for our failure:
-lack of winners’ mentality. The only players that presented a real desire to win were Boruc and Roger. Others treated participation in Euros as a sort of punishment. They looked scared in every game. Leo’s motivational skills didn’t pass the test.
-physical preparation. One of our chances was to outclass others in terms of speed, stamina and perseverance. It didn’t happen.
-lack of quality. We simply don’t have enough quality players. Still, everybody expected that we can perform above our abilities as in some qualifying games.
-injuries. Kuba Blaszczykowski was to make his name in those Euros. Maciej Zurawski, even after his performance against Germans, would still be the best option from the bench.
-Leo’s post Austria game interview. He said that we were already out of Euros. Not the best way to motivate the team before the last game.
-the secrecy surrounding Kuszczak’s injury. Was it really an injury or did he just fake it because he didn’t like his role in the team? All in all, it wasn’t good for the team’s morale.
-lack of speed, especially as far as strikers are concerned. I know that Leo wanted attackers able to keep the ball, but one or two pacy strikers would bring more options and variety to our attacking game.
-no in-form Radoslaw Matusiak. We desperetaly needed a player of his abilities for the position of a lone striker, but Radomatu wasn’t able to find his form before Euros.
-a certain English referee.

We can talk about Leo’s personal choices in terms of squad, but contrary to some of the journalists (Mati Borek and Roko Kolton) I don’t see this as a reason for our failure. We can discuss names like Wichniarek, Janczyk, Gancarczyk, Brozek, Jelen, Sikora, Majewski, Glowacki, Zienczuk, Kowalczyk, Rasiak, Radomski, Kazmierczak or Iwanski, but I ask you if you remember any of those players changing a course of an international-level game, or at least performing great in a one. For every of these players I can give you a clear and valid reason why they weren’t called up. Surely, some of them should play for the national team in the future, but for now, we didn’t have a player outside of the squad that would guarantee a better performance.

Let’s look towards the future. With or without Leo? That’s a topic for the next note (but you already know my opinion if you read comments).

Tags: Bak, Beenhakker, boruc, Dudka, Golanski, Group A, Jop, Krzynowek, Lewandowski, Lobodzinski, Poland, Roger, Saganowski, Smolarek, Wasilewski, Zewlakow, zurawski

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Comments

By al | June 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

a very good summary apart from the dig at the ref AGAIN.why blame him for the failings in your team.the facts are 1 goal in 3 games scored by a guy who the last time i was in poland there was uproar regarding his polish nationality.roger you are not polish! remember.you qualified and tried your best.look forward and not back.at least you dont have to qualify next time. the penalty or not whichever side your on at the end made no difference,germany still would have gone through you went out when you lost to the germans.

By adas | June 18th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

It is hard to look forward when the team seems to be falling apart. Coming out of the qualifiers, Poland appeared to be on the move up. Nothing went right at the tournament. Beenhakker may still be popular in Poland for all I know, but I doubt he’s viewed as the savior he once was. The players looked sad and beaten. Only Boruc played with fire in his heart. He was the only one who looked confident. Even after the penalty against Austria, he put his hands up to calm down the team. I believe he even felt absolutely certain that he would stop the shot. I doubt he was nervous. That’s what a team leader needs to do, but how do you lead the team from goal? He can’t score goals, and he kept himself motivated for the game against Croatia. He could’ve said “screw it, we can’t get throught”. Instead he fought hard and held the Croatians to just the one goal. If Poland is ever to compete internationally, they have to come out with some anger. They have to realized that you cannot lay down and play like pushovers just because the other team feels that way even before the game starts. The games are played on the field, but with Poland they are lost in their hearts before the whistle is even blown. My only fear is that a younger generation is raised to react this way. No one is going to give Poland respect if they don’t go out and take it.

By al | June 18th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

i watched poland qualify whilst in a bar in wroclaw (i think it was belgium) and the passion the showed that night seemed to be missing in the euro games.for what reason? maybe they thought they could not qualify from the group.i could not recognise anything in this tournament from the team i saw that night.with one exception and that being artur borucs.

By gregorio | June 18th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

“Others treated participation in Euros as a sort of punishment.”

exactly. they participated in the greatest sport feast, a celebration of the game that is to bring joy to millons. even if they didn’t feel strong, they could have try to have some fun, and give it to the supporters. This total lack of enthusiasm may be characteristic to a generation of poles in general, i mean those born in 70s. in fact, the odlest looked worst in this respect. look what krzynówek did on the pitch, or żuraw, and how they reacted afterwards. total apathy. we need young blood also for more enthusiasm. and this should be an important criterion: how much a player enjoy the game. roger is a master that can teach our guys.
and this is also the way not to get petrified with stress and preassure: have fun. we were fucking boring. i don’t want this to happen again. that’s why i count on majewski, błaszczykowski, murawski, even on wawrzyniak. who doesn’t understand that sport is also about fun, should be out of the team.

Posted from Poland

By bronx | June 18th, 2008 at 5:49 pm

Fair enough except for the bit about why the other players were not called up which is bull shit, we should have took Janczyk, Matusiak and Krol with us. In this tournament i would sooner Poland had lost with their youth team who are still learning and can improve rather than losing anyway with our shit “veterans” playing who are’nt going to improve and are the slowest team in the whole competition. Matusiak and Janczyk up front with Roger feeding them and Smolarek on the wing or as a third striker if needs be would be much better than Zurawski and Saganowski (even though he’s a battler) and smolarek. i would even have opted for Rasiak at a push, at least he has a physical presence.

Posted from Poland

By Witold Gan | June 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm

I agree with Bronx for Janczyk, and Krol, we should have took them with us, and also Rasiak. Two year ago Zurawski was in top form, and did nothing, since that time the Celtics saw his decreasing form and let him go, why we didn’t see that? Saganowski didn’t play on a regulerly base in a team which play on the second division, why we didn’t see that? Why Wichniarek wasn’t there? He perform on premier division in Bundesliga on a regularly base and we told that he play worst than Zurawski and Saganowski? No, I think really that Beenhaker have made some very strange decision, and if Poland have win we are now talking about his genius, but we loose, we had performed worst than 2002 and 2006, hey guy we have made a fabulous 1-1 with Austria and we lost against team B of croatia, can we really think that it is only because Beenhaker didn’t find anyone in Poland other than the new Poles Roger… I don’t buy that!!! I was in Olympic Stadium of Montreal last year on each games of our Polish team, and we have a lot of marvoulous players, this team made me so happy, so proud, and everyone of my canadian friends told me how fantastic was Janczyk, how this team work hard a beats Brazil, how they play well against the best team argentina, and in all of these game, Janczyk play as a lonely striker, I need to see again a Polish Striker with that talent, and don’t tell me anymore about Zurawski,Matusiak, we need to play with the players who play well now and not last year. Now I will turn the page, and I hope that we will go with our youngs prospects and only with the senior players that play well on top level . Tomasz as you see I’m totally desagree with you on your analysis of the Beenhaker work and the player that could be better, but I really enjoy all of your work, and never missed one day to see what you wrote. Do you will have a blog after the Euro? Let me know,I’m addict now!

Posted from Canada

By dmac | June 18th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

All of you guys bring up a lot of good points about the young players, like “In this tournament i would sooner Poland had lost with their youth team who are still learning and can improve rather than losing anyway with our shit “veterans” playing who are’nt going to improve and are the slowest team in the whole competition.” Witold, you bring up an interesting perspective on Beenhakker as well.

And tomasz, thank you for all the work you did to cover the Euros! You really put in a lot work and dedication to make this such a great place for readers to go to to find out about the team in English. I look forward to reading more of your work. Your effort doesn’t go unnoticed… I see you have a lot of fans here, including myself.

Posted from United States

By tomasz | June 19th, 2008 at 3:15 am

@al
I listed the penalty call as the last reason as it wasn’t decisive. We shouldn’t look outside the team for reasons because then we’ll never be able to progress. Still, you don’t know how the game against Croatia would look like if we had won the previous game. That’s why I briefly mentioned it.
@adas
From what I’ve learned, most of the fans want Leo to stay. I don’t think we have any other option as there’s not enough time before WC qualifiers. At the same time, he’s no longer viewed as a saviour but just as a good coach. You’re right about mentality, of course. I hope that younger players will follow Boruc’s example, not Zurawski and Krzynowek’s.
@gregorio
I totally agree with you, why do they evn play if they don’t enjoy it. Zurawski’s smile when giving interviews after he learned about the injury tells a lot now. At the same time, I heard that Polish youth coaches scream at and critisize players when they take risks. They play in order not to make a mistake and not to have fun.
@bronx, Witold Gan, dmac
Here’s why I think those players you listed wouldn’t have made a drastic change:
Janczyk: I can see that he’s earned a lot of fans after last year’s youth world cup. I agree, he’s the most talented Polish striker that emerged in the last couple of years. At the same time, you forget one important thing: he played against 20 year olds. There is a huge gap in level between youth and professional football. Still, I think Leo would’ve taken him if it wasn’t for injury. He didn’t play a lot this year and I don’t know if he was really prepared. Let’s wait and see if he can impress against adults for CSKA.
Wichniarek: the same discussion took place after 2002. Result? Wichniarek played 3 games in a row under Boniek which ended in a draw against Belgium. unconvincing win against San Marino and a shameful loss against Latvia. Suddenly, all Wichniarek fans were silenced. The fact is, that he never really performed in the national team, he didn’t play in any of our best games in the last 10 years. He plays regularly for Bundesliga, but he scores only against weaker teams. He’s also listed by Kicker as one of the worst players in terms of notes. His troublemaker character wouldn’t enhance our team spirit as well. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s a good player for Polish standard, I just don’t consider him a saviour of the national team.
Rasiak: give me a break, how many times did he fail already? He wasn’t able to earn a contract at Bolton, where fans described him as a ’slow motion’ player.
Krol: once again our youth team member. He plays for real madrid reserves, how many times did you see him in the last season? I didn’t manage to, so I won’t make any judgements on him. From what I’ve seen, he has potential, but to say that he’d strengthen the national team is a bit far fetched. A one for the future, but a bit more distant one.
Matusiak: everybody watching his performances for Wisla knew that he was totally out of shape. He proved it in Macedonia friendly. I just hope he finds his form in Holland this season.

The blog will go on, don’t worry.

Posted from Poland

By adas | June 19th, 2008 at 7:55 am

Just a quick note. I don’t remember where I read it, but I did read it. Apparantly a former national team member was found to have hung himself just before the Austria game. A couple of the older players played with him from what I understand. Perhaps this was a blow to the psyche of some of the players. Just a thought.

By gregorio | June 19th, 2008 at 9:35 am

@adas

it was adam ledwoń; a sad case. but he played for the NT some 10 years ago, bąk could have played with him and that would be about it. the rest joined the team later, as far as i can tell.
i expected our gyus to play with black arm-bands after the suicide, but they didn’t. wonder why…

Posted from Poland

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