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Salut Monsieur Obraniak! Poland-Greece Preview.

August 11th, 2009 | By: tomasz | 22 Comments »

I have no idea if the title of this post is even grammatical, but that’s exactly what most of the fans of the Bialo Czerwoni feel before the game against Greece. Welcome Ludovic Obraniak! The Lille player is the main reason why this friendly is grabbing a lot of attention in Poland. Tommorrow we’ll check for the first time whether it was all worth the wait.

Ludo landed in Poland yesterday, he’s visited the land of his grandfather for the first time ever. He was very friendly towards the journalists and fans alike. As expected, he said that our team is strong, we’ve got quality players and that we’ve still got a chance to advance to the next year’s World Cup. I’d be surprised if he’d said otherwise. What I liked about him, apart from the ever present smile, is the fact that he wants to play with the nr 10 on his back (his favourite number). That shows his serious intentions and lack of any kind of inferiority complex (he has to be a bit nervous as he speaks no Polish whatsoever). The nr 10 is free at the moment (Lukasz Gargula is injured, Sagan chooses different numbers everytime) and I’d like Obraniak to get it. Usually Polish players are scared of this number as none of them wants to be considered the leader of the team or the main playmaker. I like it that Ludo is not bothered by that and is confident about his skills.

Obraniak aside, let’s see what kind of players we may see against Greece in the starting lineup:

Goalkeepers: Artur Boruc makes a comeback after a disastrous performance against Northern Ireland. It looks as if he’s coming back to shape and left his personal problems behind. He’s one of the best Celtic players in the preseason friendlies. Lukasz Fabianski is out for a month, Lukasz Zaluska is our backup goalie this time.

Defenders: Two things are clear: our captain Michal Zewlakow is the first choice centre back, whereas Marcin Wasilewski has no real competition at the right back position. In the wake of Bartosz Bosacki’s injury I think Dariusz Dudka stands the biggest chance to replace him and play alongside Zewlak. Unless Leo finally gives a proper chance to Tomasz Jodlowiec, though it seems unlikely as he failed to do that even in less important friendlies. As always, the left back position is the biggest question mark. Marcin Komorowski is the only natural left back in the squad….Even writing that sentence hurts. I feel less confident about Komorowski than I felt about Jakub Wawrzyniak, which says a lot. I hope to see Jacek Krzynowek as our left back to see if he can manage to play there against some serious competition.

Midfielders: Mariusz Lewandowski is our starting defensive midfielder and Kuba Blaszczykowski occupies the right wing whenever he’s healthy. They’re both crucial players in the team and I can’t imagine our starting lineup without them. Roger should play in the spot behind the striker, even though he doesn’t always start for Legia. Still, as long as he’s motivated enough I’m confident he’ll do ok. I know that he disappears for large fragments of the games, but you can always count on some surprising shot or opening pass from him. What about Obraniak? I feel that he’ll be included in the starting lineup, even if only to sing the national anthem (or at least mime it). That would be a signal of intent from Leo, a sign that he considers Obraniak a rightful member of the team. I expect Ludo to start on the left wing and see Rafal Murawski in the middle of the field. The other option is playing Obraniak alongside M.Lewandowski in the centre and picking Ebi Smolarek to start on the wing. I think it all depends which of the two players who haven’t seen much of the ball in the last month, Ebi and Muras, is in a better shape. My bet is Murawski.

Attackers: Robert Lewandowski looks a bit better than Pawel Brozek at the start of the season. He’s also a more physical player, a one that we may need for the Northern Ireland qualifier. Personally, I’d like to see both strikers, each playing a half. Leo picking Marek Saganowski would mean that he’s seriously considered to start against the Irish.

Possible starting eleven: Boruc- Wasilewski, Zewlakow, Dudka, Krzynowek- M.Lewandowski, Murawski- Obraniak, Roger, Blaszczykowski- R.Lewandowski

What’s the importance of the game against Greece? For me it’s to see what we can expect from Obraniak. Can we call it a dress rehearsal before the qualifiers? Not really; remember how well we played against Ireland and a moderate game against Wales? Well, it didn’t have much to do with the way we played in Belfast. I think we can expect all kinds of performances from the Bialo Czerwoni these days.

Other news: Ebi Smolarek was released by Racing Santander. I think things turned out good for him, at least in the sporting sense. I know it would be nice to see Ebi on Premiership or La Liga pitches, but he proved not good enough. I expect him to get offers from France, Holland or Germany, but he may also end up in Greece or Austria. He’s not the hot item he was two years ago.

A small reminder of what Ludovic Obraniak is capable of

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Comments

By JANKOWSKI | August 11th, 2009 at 11:51 am

The title is fine, you can say also : BIENVENUE M.OBRANIAK (Witamy).
The whole community of Polonia in France is very proud for Obraniak. So many Polish migrants or their sons play for France in the past : Kopa,Wisniewski, Lech, Cisowski,Stopyra… that the reverse is normal.
I am sure that he is the perfect replacement for Krzywonek : very strong left foot (also for free kicks),very strong physical abilities and a good pace.For a mildfield, he has good scoring statistics. And the motivation at maximum !!!
The problem of the language should be solved by Leo.

By zaraza | August 11th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

I can’t wait to finally see Obraniak play for us, I have no doubt he’ll be one of the team’s strong points but the Polish media needs to back off a little, they’re putting too much pressure on him.. I don’t think the language barrier should be a problem, Zewlakow’s fluent in French and is reportedly helping him settle in.

Krychowiak’s manager says:
“There’s no discussion of Krychowiak returning to Poland. The club doesn’t want to let him go and the player himself is not really interested. Bordeaux has a long season ahead and will need a squad of 25 players. Grzegorz was with the first team in pre-season and the coach is counting on him.”
http://miasta.gazeta.pl/trojmiasto/1,35617,6918755,Arka_bez_szans_na_Krychowiaka.html

Actually Krychowiak wasn’t really involved in Bordeaux’ pre-season… He trained with the senior squad for about a week then got sent back to the reserves. Just how is the coach counting on Krychowiak when he wasn’t even named in the 26-player first team?
http://www.girondins.com/matches/encyclopedie/equipes/2010/11.shtml

Szarmach needs to face reality. The fact that Krychowiak didn’t make the 26-player squad says it all… He has no chance and needs to go on loan. If not, then he doesn’t belong with the NT. Beenhakker is making a mockery of the NT by calling him up…

Posted from Canada

By Mateusz | August 11th, 2009 at 6:01 pm

Thanks for that clip..

One thing i noticed was he is equally as comfortable scoring or at least hitting a very powerful shot with both his left and right foot. T
hat is a brilliant skill to have as a footballer. And the way he seems to pop up at the end of the box and finish those opportunities. He reminds me very much of a Pavel Nedved style player.

Posted from Australia

By Radek | August 12th, 2009 at 9:04 am

bend it like Obraniak!

Posted from Canada

By Radek | August 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am

so Obraniak is not in the starting 11….and Leo’s love affair with Smolarek continues…

Posted from Canada

By tomasz | August 12th, 2009 at 10:44 am

Our starting lineup: Artur Boruc – Marcin Wasilewski, Michal Zewlakow, Dariusz Dudka, Jacek Krzynowek – Jakub Blaszczykowski, Mariusz Lewandowski, Rafal Murawski, Roger, Euzebiusz Smolarek – Robert Lewandowski

Obraniak has to wait for his turn.

By Casimir | August 12th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

ugh.. 4-5-1 against greece. Whatever, I guess that’s the formation we’ll be playing in qualifiers so its best to practice it in a game setting. If Greece plays like they did in Euro and how they usually do with packing everyone into defense its going to be a really boring match. Hopefully, it’ll be entertaining, and positive for our side. Polska do boju!

By Casimir | August 12th, 2009 at 12:46 pm

Sorry for the quick double post, but Leo can have his love affair with Smolarek. Even when he’s sitting on the bench at club he puts in fine performances for our NT. Conversely, he’s not even with a club at the moment so he shouldn’t be starting.

By dmac | August 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Hey guys the game is on now, for those who want to see it:

http://www.justin.tv/lukkaszewski27/popout

Posted from United States

By drewsky | August 12th, 2009 at 2:18 pm

thanks dmac,go Poland

Posted from United States

By Casimir | August 12th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

The bandwagon wheels are gonna be churning now lol

By Radek | August 12th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

What a debut for Obraniak, comes in at the start of 2nd half, and scores 2 goals!

Posted from Canada

By Mike | August 12th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

So guys, Poland’s in 4th place in their qualifying group. What do they have to do to get in the World Cup? Sorry for the question, I’m following soccer from Canada

By Jadczak | August 12th, 2009 at 5:57 pm

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm debut victory, just like lewandowski, tastes good.

By a | August 12th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Roger is a joker. http://mundialowo.blox.pl/2009/08/video-Roger-K-mac-Guerreiro.html

Incredible debut for Ludowik(?)Obraniak.

By Casimir | August 12th, 2009 at 7:51 pm

Mike -

We dropped to fourth since we’ve played one less game than N. Ireland and Slovenia. Even a tie in the next match would put us back into third, where we were though that wouldn’t necessarily help us. If Poland wins the next two games (against N. Ireland and Slovenia) that’ll be six points and put us into first or second with a game under the other teams still. There’s no reason to panic about being fourth at this point.

By Mike | August 12th, 2009 at 8:15 pm

Thanks Casimir. I hope they let loose Obraniak in the next couple of games

By adas | August 12th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

Just to clarify, did Obraniak score both goals? because I’ve read that the first goal went to Wasilewski. It may have come off of Obraniak, but I guess it was awarded to Marcin. Anyone know for sure?

By Rydzynski | August 12th, 2009 at 10:21 pm

@ Adas

The first goal was a Wasilewski shot that hit a defender and then slightly hit Obraniak. It is hard to tell because Wasilewski did work to score the goal, nice turnaround shot from a corner, but without it touching Obraniak it may not have been a goal. I don’t know how else to explain it, they both had a role in how it played out.

By Paradowski | August 12th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

thanks dmac!!, got to see the second half! Nice team work overall by the Bialo Czerwoni, and especially, wow, the second goal. Great flip pass by Blaszczykowski – he would also get an Assist in hockey , prefect assist then by Brozek and ‘just like the highlights’ finish by Obraniak! They played great team ball – great start for Ludo, wish I could have seen Smolarek in action. Generally it was a joy just to see Leo’s substitutions. Surprisingly I didn’t notice Murawski until he came out, he must have done okay though right? As cool as it was to see the Bialo Czerwoni, i also noticed how cool the Greek NT is — they dealt with or ‘put up with’ the Polish fervor and angst quite friendly. That is how friendlies, and all football really, should be.

By SD | August 13th, 2009 at 2:02 am

So the brazlian Filipe Luís Kasmirski was called up for the estonian game but the NT doesn’t really need strikers as much as defenders. Im sure that Laurent Koscielny would be a step up from Dudka so the PNZP should really try and get him after seeing the Obraniak success. Sebastian Boenisch wouldn’t be bad either besides for the fact that hes a tool.

By SD | August 13th, 2009 at 2:12 am

Woops my bad Filipe is a left winger or defender.We got the midfield under control but that LB spot is shaky. Must have mixed him up with Aquafresca…

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