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Slovakia-Poland 2:1. Artur, Why?
Comments(18)On Saturday I learnt once again why I love football. Yesterday I learnt once again why I sometimes hate it. This was the most suckers-like Bialo Czerwoni loss I have ever seen. In a game between two average teams that looked like to be decided by a single goal Slovaks came on top after a disastrous mistake by Artur Boruc. The qualifying campaign has just been restarted.
Slovakia-Poland 2:1 (Sestak 85′, 86′- Smolarek 70′)
Poland: Boruc – Wasilewski, Zewlakow, Dudka, Wojtkowiak – Blaszczykowski, M. Lewandowski, Murawski (65. Gargula), Roger (88. Robert Lewandowski), Smolarek – Paweł Brozek (84. Krzynowek)
Even though there was only one change in the team that beat the Czech Republic, our play looked much worse than on Saturday. The muddy pitch, Slovak’s high pressure and closing down Kuba Blaszczykowski are to blame. We tried to play the same way we did on Saturday, but the diagonal passes weren’t as accurate. Moreover, this time Murawski was almost excluded from the game as he didn’t drop back for the ball as often as he should. As a result, M.Lewandowski was our sole playmaker, which, needless to say, couldn’t have ended well. Roger had some nice opening passes, but at the same time he lost the ball much too often. I already mentioned Blaszczykowski, who was covered by 2-3 players everytime he got the ball and was unable to dribble past so many opponents. Fortunately, the Slovaks are not a team of the highest class and the game was quite even nevertheless. By even I mean boring. Slovaks’ main weapon were wings, where they gained advantage using simple one-touch passes. Both our wing backs (Wasilewski and Wojtkowiak) were too slow to keep up with pacy Slovakian wingers. The Lech defender especially needs to develop in order to play in Poland’s starting lineup. Still, the Slovaks didn’t know what to do after they won a duel on the wing and most of their efforts ended with harmless shots or crosses. We had two very good opportunities in the first half, one wasted by Ebi (great play with Brozek) and the other one by Blaszczykowski (after nice passes from Roger and then Murawski).
Second half was very similar to the first one. A conviction grew that this game is going to be decided by a single goal. Both teams had their half-chances, but were too poor to come up with a clear one. Then came the 70th minute. Finally, a great play by Kuba Blaszczykowski, who chipped the ball in the box, ideally for Pawel Brozek to shot. But wait a minute; to everyone’s surprise Brozek decided to pass the ball to Ebi, who had an empty net in front of him. This was just another sign of how much has Brozek matured in the last months. We controlled the next 15 minutes, Slovaks didn’t have a single idea of how to harm us. Since they couldn’t do it, we decided to harm ourselves. The scale of Boruc’s mistake can only be compared to what Paul Robinson did against Croatia. I felt so confident that he’ll catch the ball, it was such a safe play. We’ll never learn why Artie didn’t catch it, why it hit his foot and landed in front of Sestak to score. If that was unlucky, then wait for the next minute. Dudka deflected a harmless shot, the ball hit the post and Sestak was the fastest to react. What the hell happened? To make matters worse, Robert Lewandowski didn’t convert a one-on-one situation in the last minute of the game. Final whistle. Disbelief. Irritation. Aggression. I felt like somebody hit me with a hammer. The qualifying campaign starts all over again.
Player ratings:
Artur Boruc 3: a mistake that proved to be disastrous. Dealt with crosses well, had problems with accurate goal kicks.
Marcin Wasilewski 4: didn’t let in as many crosses as Wojtkowiak, but once almost lost the ball just outside our penalty box.
Michal Zewlakow 5: central defenders didn’t have much problems with Slovakian strikers. Cleared the crosses well, a solid performance.
Dariusz Dudka 4: quite a good performance, until the goals for Slovaks, in which he was involved in.
Grzegorz Wojtkowiak 3: created a path for Slovaks to attack through. Let in far too many crosses and gave away too many free kicks.
Mariusz Lewandowski 5: distributed the ball, with various effects. Tried to establish a tempo of our play.
Rafal Murawski 4: seems that he played too close to the Slovakian goal and, therefore, didn’t have the ball as often as he should. Nice pass to Blaszczykowski in the first half.
Roger Guerreiro 4: lacked precision and lost possession too often. Still managed to create 2-3 opportunities.
Ebi Smolarek 6: Sometimes lacked communication with teammates, but still took part in our best play in the first half (one-two with Brozek) and scored a goal.
Jakub Blaszczykowski 5: a disappointing performance from Kuba, didn’t know what to do when covered by at least two Slovaks. Nice chip to Brozek in the 70th minute.
Pawel Brozek 5: one dangerous shot in the first half, provided the goal for Ebi. Should’ve kept possession longer, especially in the first half.
Lukasz Gargula 6: very good possession play from the Belchatow player, earned a number of free kicks.
Jacek Krzynowek: unlucky to enter the field just a minute before we lost the goals, but is not to blame for them.
Robert Lewandowski: could have become a national hero in the last minute.
Conclusions:
- we can no longer claim that the goalie position is the one we don’t have to worry about.
- Jakub Blaszczykowski is not yet good enough to deliver when covered by three players.
- Grzegorz Wojtkowiak is another player who’s not an answer to our problems at left back. A call up for Piotr Brozek please.
- Pawel Brozek doesn’t lose his head in the penalty box.
- we need Rafal Murawski on the ball, not running without it.
- Lukasz Gargula can still offer something to the team.
- we’re unable to play two great games in a row, don’t expect consistency on a high level from the Bialo Czerwoni.
Highlights:
Should this loss spark once again a discussion about firing Leo? Yes, he made some mistakes during the match (why was Wojtkowiak so long on the field? why did Leo wait so long with a second substitute?), but the most fatal mistakes were the ones he couldn’t account for. We’ve got a whole winter to develop as a team now. On Saturday we saw the potential we have; yesterday we saw the flaws we have to eliminate. The route to South Africa is still open.
Other news: Yes, it’s confirmed; I’ll have internet at home from the beginning of November. Hail the consumer friendly Polish internet providers. Expect more posts starting next month. I’ll also be able to join discussions that you carry out under the posts.
I always hated Wojtkowiak, he is just way too physical to be playing for our NT he just loves to give away penalties. Even I agree about Piotr Brozek and I hate him with a passion. That done with the situation isn’t bad at all Slovakia still hasn’t played Czech Republic so we’ll get our number one spot back after the next matchday. Also during Euro qualifying we lost 2 games and still finished first. So essentially we still should have a one loss buffer which we can save for Czech or some other ass game. There is a nice break now for Leo to really search for some new players in our defense (full backs for sure, I still like Wawrzyniak though). But maybe the game finally help Smolarek to really want to play well in other games. We can just wait for January to roll around so Blaszczykowski can move to Liverpool and really learn to play world class football which he still has plenty of time to do, so don’t get pissed about one loss just think about what the future holds for our NT.
Still, if Poland can start scoring more goals, this kind of thing wouldn’t be as damaging. I was surprised to see Ebi score the first goal of the game. Looking at the score online, I wasn’t sure how to take that.
Really, all Poles should stop whining! : We lost to an even opponent AWAY.
I’m still positive Poland will qualify. They’ll probably trash Slovakia at home with 3-0, thus nullifying this result.
Really, stop whining: We’re still 2nd in the group, so it’s really not bad at all. We will qualify.
After the game against Czechs, I’m now very confident, we was just unlucky against Slovaks. But I’m very happy to see that Smolarek-Brozek-Kuba are involved in ours last 3 goals, it songs good, we will be stronger in march!
^My point exactly.
the whole polish team is just bunch of shit you won’t qualify just face the fact.
^We will, you’ll see. And were far from a bunch of shit, we were able
to qualify for two World cups in a row, plus the European tournament.
Were far from a great team, but were no shit. From wich country are you, smartass?
@ss
Cute, you call yourself “ss”. I bet the ss raped your mother and fisted your father. You are the result of a brown stain on the mattress.
Let me guess, you are an angry little kid who is a tough guy behind his computer. Here is a suggestion for you, why don’t you just crawl back to the hole you came from and just die. Trust me, its best for everyone.
Fist yourself.
The fact that Polska lost this game in two insane minutes is scandalous. This group on paper is easier than our Euro 08 qualifiers. However much it hurts, the fact is we do not possess the quality that is essential to succeed at this level. We should have been virtually beyond the reach of our rivals. Instead the group is wide open. I remain optimistic as I do not see us losing another game in this campaign. Our Czech cousins have traditionally a mental block when playing us and I believe we shall avoid defeat in Prague in our penultimate game. Gramy Dalej……….. as for the pierdol who signs himself SS………ICH WAL KONIA GNOJU!!
Posted from 
United Kingdom
^It happens with every team at some point. Have you seen the Czech Republic and Croatia vs Turkey at EURO 2008? They both went down the same way.
That’s why I don’t see it as a big deal. I would of course if Poland missed out South Africa because of it, bit they still have plenty of chances.
Let’s be optimistic for now.
^ I agree with the optimistic view, although it is tough that March – April… 09 is a long time to wait for redemption. Yet, maybe time is needed for our side to improve the defense.
Do you think that the reported and possible injury of Boruc (groin) had anything to do with the misplay to set up Sestak’s first goal?
Posted from 
United States
yes it is a long time and probably take that long to get out of our system. Boruc is the best we have but his howler is inexcusable and demonstrated lack of concentration. We’re back to square one but as I said I don’t honestly believe we shall lose again in this campaign. Belfast here we come!!!!!!! Gramy dalej
Posted from United Kingdom
Well, here we go again. It is very clear that Leo is not a true leader nor is he an independent thinker (then again the stiffs at PZPN are paying his salary). He he influenced by these old boring farts at PZPN who forbidden him to utilize Wichniarek and Jelen. Had Wichniarek (or Jelen for that matter) partnered Brozek and three Slovaks were trying to cover Kuba, well, this game would have been no problem for us at all. I just hope that Boniek will take the presidency over and does away with the PZPN stiffs once and foe all. As for Beenhakker, in my view, still a big question mark. I hope he is not going to cost us World Cup 2010. Cheers.
Posted from 
Australia
Rome wasnt built in ia day.Leo is a Godseend he has brought us to the next millinium have some belief.
Posted from United States
In what way did he bring us into the next millenium? I find it painful to watch Poland play, neither our results nor our style of play has improved under Leo. We’ve lost to Armenia, Finland, Slovakia, tied Slovenia and Austria (something even the Faroe Islands, a “country” of 50,000 people, has managed to do) and we constantly revert to aimlessly kicking the ball up the pitch instead of trying to play passing football.. I have no idea why some people idolize him so much.. To clarify, I’m certainly not saying he’s shit but I just don’t feel he’s earned his reputation as the guy who’s dragging Polish football into the 21st century. I think there’s too much hyperbole on both sides of the Leo debate. He’s just a decent coach who’s gotten very mixed results so far.
Posted from 
Canada
^I agree, I don’t think he’s so much better than Polish coaches.
I think guys like Smuda are perfectly able to manage it.
Also IMO it’s wrong that someone from a different nationality manages a national team.
Posted from 
Netherlands
Leo is not completely biased and single minded as the other boring old farts were. He is trying to develop the team by constantly bringing in new players and that’s an advantage. There is a need to merge and integrate youth with experience though and I just can’t accept that players like Wichniarek, Jelen, and Radomski are not embraced. He should also bring Janota to the fold ASAP and Janczyk may yet turn to the good as well.
Posted from Australia
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The team is only as strong as its weakest link on any given day… seems like that weak link moves around but pretty much starts with the left back. The offense is looking stronger albeit highly dependent on Kuba. The Slovaks will lose at some point but this means we need to win going forward.
Posted from
United States