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So, is Pawel Golanski axed or not?

April 3rd, 2008 | By: tomasz | 10 Comments »

The closer it is to Leo announcing his 30 man first draft squad for the Euros the more speculation there is about which players won’t make it. After Pawel Brozek and Lukasz Piszczek were severely citicised by the press (and myself) for the USA friendly Pawel Golanski seems to be the next player on the ‘threatened’ list.

Golanski is a right back from Steaua Bucharest. He was a part of the team in the qualifiers and a backup player for Marcin Wasilewski for the most of the campaign. However, he still managed to put in a great performance against Portugal in Chorzow when he literally demolished Cristiano Ronaldo (you could see the tears on C-Ron’s cute baby face). He found it hard to settle in Romania (and to convince the psychotic Steaua owner Gigi Becali) but this year he’s a first team regular for Steaua. Hence, he got a call up from Leo for the last game. To my surprise, he wasn’t given a chance to present his current form (I couldn’t wait for Wasyl to leave the field). As a result, the fans of Bialo-Czerwoni are still in the dark about the player’s current abilities. Moreover, his absence in the USA game was enough for Przeglad Sportowy to write that Leo crossed his name out from the list of the Euro candidates. We can learn from the article that Golanski didn’t impress in the training sessions and that’s why he won’t be given more chances. Today, however, I read an interview with our right back where he expressed his huge surprise about being left out of the squad. He says that the sessions consisted only of jogging around the field and couldn’t have given Leo the grounds to dismiss him.

I was just as surprised as Golanski about him potentially being axed. We haven’t got a hundred right backs ready to replace him, have we? Wasilewski was hopeless in the last friendly and, in the light of Bronowicki’s recent performances, we’ll need Zewlakow on the left flank. Who are we left with then? Marcin Baszczynski? He’s doing well for Wisla but was never Leo’s favourite. In all honesty, his time in the national team has passed. Marcin Kus? Plagued by injuries lately. Also, he never played in a major international game. He’s technically raw in my opinion. Adam Kokoszka? A right back is not his natural position, he only plays there when Wisla has problems with injuries. He’s the U21 central defender and was also tested on this position by Leo in the first team. Marcin Kowalczyk from Dynamo Moscow is an interesting player, but he’s never got even a single call up from Beenhakker. I don’t think our menago will risk just before the tournament. After what I saw in the last U21 game I wouldn’t consider Jakub Rzezniczak a national team material. Grzegorz Bartczak didn’t show anything worth discussing in the game against the Foreign Stars. Hmmm…..maybe Leo is thinking about converting Kuba Blaszczykowski into a right back? I can’t tell what’s on our gaffer’s mind. It’s good that he’ll announce the shortlist shortly and end this needless speculation. No, wait a minute, what am I going to write about then?

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Comments

By Witold Gan | April 3rd, 2008 at 7:03 pm

I’m from Quebec, I’m not fluent in english, but since I discovered your site, I never missed a day without read your article, you do a very great job, thank you very much it is a real pleasure to read you!

I’m really affraid that once again our team do not perform as well as they did in qualification, why every time that we are near the competition we discover that we have all this holes, where is the team which beat Portugal, which end first in qualification because all that they do was perfect… Now we don’t have a real international striker (as in 2002,as in 2006, as …),Raziak? Zurawski? no I don’t think so… and now what about our defence? Only one seems to be in a really good shape is our Goalers, Boruc, Kuszczak, and Fabianski, too bad that we need only one in a game…
My favorite player is Smolarek, a real good offensive midfielder, and all our hopes, for now is on him, but the other teams know that also, and if they have only to watch a guy, we never could strike a goal…
In Montreal, in 2007, I saw all the game that Janczyk has played, and he really impressed me, he is the first player that I never see that could put a goal with 3 or 4 guys who allways watch him, but U21 is not the same level, but… Could Ben gives him a chance to ?

Posted from Canada

By deyna199 | April 4th, 2008 at 2:32 am

judging players after one game is a really bad thing to do. it really clouts your judgement.

i doubt Golanski has been crossed off, the media always make mistakes. and for me it seems like sometimes they just like to write stuff for the sake of it. its kind of ridiculous. the only guys i can see beenhakker really disappointed in is piszczek and brozek, who have shown nothing in every opportunity they have been given. the rest of the players, no matter how shitty they played against the states, showed a lot in qualifiers. and i really think beenhakker is at that level where he recognizes that. he cannot exactly drop the entire team right…and their ratio of good games vs bad games is high, and that is why we qualified.

no matter who we bring in as defenders, none of them are truly a level above who they are replacing. they are all capable of bad and good games. wasilewski worries me because he is very agressive (red against bayern, elbowing vs czechs, and dirty play against usa). i would hate to see him be the villain against germany by getting a red. also bak is very slow. anyways, hopefully they play much better come tournament time.

as far as rzezniczak goes, hes not ready yet, but dont judge the guy after one game against the english. he was captain of the u21 team for a reason and was easily one of our best players in qualifiers, consistently the best on defense. kokoszka on the other hand had some real nightmares on d in u21 qualifiers….out of any player born 1986 and above jakub has the most professional football experience, (21 and has like 85 games in the ek) there is a reason for that, the kid has a lot of talent (watch our home games against russia, spain, and a friendly against holland away at the u21 level, its hard to miss his stellar play)…..also he missed legias last game before the u21 game, not sure if he was carrying a knock, but trust me, that was an uncharacteristic game for him….big time.

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Witold, Janczyk has a chance to make the team probably….but despite his great form at the u20s he still has everything to prove at the senior level. youth football is not the same as senior mens football, and lots of cant miss prospects end up not being able to score at this level. Janczyk however has had some good games at the senior level, but he needs to score more consistenly and make more consistent appearances for his club.

By tomasz | April 4th, 2008 at 3:58 am

@ Witold

Thanks for the support, I really appreciate it. I know what you’re feeling, I also don’t want the history to repeat itself. Maybe it’s the problem of the mentality of our players, maybe the sole participation in the Euro Champs is enough for them. I don’t want to believe that the level is to high for our team, we’ve already showed big potential against Portugal, Serbia or the Czech Republic. I wrote in one of my last posts that attack seems to be our biggest problem. Smolarek won’t play as a striker, Leo sees him as a left winger. The same applies to Zurawski, who is considered a link between the midfield and attack. We’re not left with much attacking options. I think that Janczyk was seriously considered for the Euros (not because of his great form but because of the lack of alternatives) but now he’s injured and his form is in doubt. What gives me hope is that Leo is much more experienced in terms of big tournaments than Engel and Janas were. He managed Holland and Trynidad in the World Cups and hopefully he’ll use this experience to make our performance the best possible.

@ deyna199

You’re right about not judging a player after one game. I haven’t been able to watch much U21 games, hopefully he does as well in them as you’re saying. I know Rzezniczak from the Polish league, both Widzew and Legia, and, young as he is, he never really entirely convinced me. For a central defender he lacks physicality, but he can still improve there. For a right back he’s not dynamic and agile enough as far as I’m concerned. He was also tried as a defensive midfielder. What I like about him is his elegant style of play and confidence. He made a lot of progress, otherwise he wouldn’t play in Legia’s first team. If he’s a national team material we’ll have to wait and see. I just hope you’re right about his potential.

I have the same feelings about Wasyl. Maybe you watched the Anderlecht-Bayern game were his emotions got the better of him. He received the first card for an unnecessary tackle and the second one for some shoving in the box with Toni. That was just lame. He’s regularly collecting yellow cards in the Belgian league. Some resemblance to Sobolewski? I don’t want even to think about it. On the other hand, there are no players ready to replace him and Leo won’t risk trying somebody new. You’re right, we’re not Holland or Spain, we don’t have 15 players for each position.

If not necesserily Janczyk, Brozek and Piszczek which strikers do you think should earn call ups for the Euros?

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 | April 4th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Rzezniczak is a wait and see….for the u21s he always played as a cb, except against the English. and was very pacy and had no problem shutting down guys like Babel against Holland. So many last ditch efforts covering for his other defenders and solid headed clearances. He looked very very good for that level, and showed promise over a series of games…..

he was really young when he started playing for widzew so its hard to judge at that age…mistakes are going to happen and he was weaker physically a few years back….As a rb i dont really see us getting the best out of him, because as you say he is not really the best attacker. but i mean i think they are just breaking him in at legia. i feel at some stage he will revert back to cb and his potential will show. I really feel this guy has a lot of upside…give the kid the benefit of the doubt, or at least dont write him off at 21

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Regarding Wasyl, i mean i totally agree. i dont have a problem starting him, but as soon as he gets frustrated and gets a yellow i would pull him off. half-time, the 20th minutes, i dont care, but once he gets into that he will end up burning us. if beenhakker misses this i will be disappointed……against germany i would expect 3-5 yellows from our team.

zewlakow could start ahead of him, but i think it all depends on radomski’s form. i still feel it will be wasyl-zewlakow-bak-brono…..we’ll see where they take us i guess….

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our strike force is really weak. aside from Smolarek there really isnt any solid options.

there are arguments in favour for and against any of the following guys:

Matusiak, Zurawski, Zahorski, Janczyk, Wichniarek.

they all have their faults though. and all have something like either a decent club strike rate, good past nt goals to game ratio, potential, etc….that they are living off. but no one that stands out. everyone has their bias, but the point is that none of them fill me with much confidence at present if Smolarek goes down. I would actually expect a mid to be more likely to score.

its sad. right now all those guys are a long way behind Smolarek in my mind.

If anyone of the following 3 players is fucked: Kuba, Krzynek, Smolarek….–> i cant see any miracles happening…..those 3 guys are really the basis of all of our attacks. other guys can fill in and play blinders, but i mean those 3 guys have been solid all throughout qualifying.

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its shitty we have no classy strikers coming through at present, we only have a few that have potential…..but at least we have some good young mids like Majewski and Grosicki. In the future we may end up having lots of attackers, but no set strikers…..

I love Janczyk, but aside from putting in a good shift he must score more. at the u21 level he played like 6-7 something games and couldnt convert once….so many chances, always worked hard as hell, but very unlucky. my bias would be towards him to come, but i would understand if he was left off…..he needs more rounding, but i would want to bring him for just the experience…..dont think it will happen.

beenhakker said 3 strikers are coming. so if smolarek is listed as a striker, and so is zurawski….then i see matusiak probably coming.

By tomasz | April 5th, 2008 at 5:16 am

There is still time for Rzezniczak, I agree. We need new, young central defenders; Bak is going to retire after the Euros, Jop, Zewlak and Radomski aren’t the youngest either. We should look after players like Rzezniczak, Kokoszka, Pazdan or Polczak and it’s good that Leo is monitoring their progress.
As for Wasyl, his style of play requires good backup wing backs, both on the left and the right side. Zewlakow is the best cover for him in case of a yellow card. But then, we’ll need somebody to cover the left back position. Bronowicki is in deep shit, he played horribly in the USA game and hasn’t started for Red Star in their last 3-4 games. I agree that Radomski’s form is the key here, but I think it’s Brono who’s gonna be benched in that case. I would go for Wasyl,Radomski,Bak,Zewlak defensive lineup. And it’s a shame that we don’t know much about Golanski’s form, I still think he should’ve been given a chance in Cracow.
The strikers: I also heard that Leo is taking three strikers with him. However, I think that both Ebi and Zuraw are not treated by Leo as genuine strikers. The former may occupy the winger position and the latter plays as an AMC. That’s why I think he’ll take 3 attackers apart from them. I agree that Matusiak is the closest to being called up. He never really disappoints in the nt and his goal ratio is impressive. I also think that Leo will take Zahorski, mainly for his height, heading skills and the ability to play on the wings. I would opt for Janczyk as the third choice, but now he’s injured and he won’t play much before the tournament. Maybe Leo will surprise us with Wichniarek?

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 | April 5th, 2008 at 10:27 am

good post, ummm. i agree with evertying about the defense.

in terms of attackers, well yah, it depends who he lists as strikers.

23 players are going, 3 have to be gks.

so its going to be 8 defenders, 9 mids, 3 strikers.

at least that is my opinion.

the thing that makes me think zahorski will be on the bubble is that beenhakker usually makes him play wing. and if we have 9 mids already…

By Alek | April 7th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

Well obviously Golanski is going. Outside of Wasilewski the only worthwile right backs we have are Golanski and Kuba, but putting Kuba as a defence would just smash out offensive potential. Rzezniczak wouldnt even be that bad of a choice, he started the season on an great run and is always in the starting squad for Legia no questions asked. Yes I do see that his lack of experiance on the international level is a problem but hell everyone has to start sometime right?

By tomasz | April 8th, 2008 at 4:06 am

Leo tested Kokoszka and Kus ahead of Rzezniczak so, probably, he doesn’t think Jakub is ready. Still, as you’ve written I’d feel much more confident with Golanski on the field than any possible backups.

Posted from Poland

By zob79 | April 27th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

Well guys, I’m from Romania, a Steaua fan who hasn’t missed one game in all season, so I can be very objective regarding Pawel’s performance. He had a pretty disappointing first part of the season, mainly because he was not physically fit, but this year he rocks! He’s been a regular in EVERY match played by Steaua in 2008, and had above average ratings in almost all matches. I don’t know other polish right-backs, so I can’t compare Pawel with them, but having seen the sheer quality of Pawel’s play this spring, I think he would be a starter in many good European national teams. The rest…it’s up to Leo
Best regards,
Catalin

Posted from Romania

By tomasz | April 28th, 2008 at 6:44 am

Thanks Catalin for a first hand report. The only Steaua games I saw Golanski in were the ones against Zaglebie Lubin. He didn’t play in any of the CL games as far as I remember. What you write is just what I heard, after settling down he started to impress in Romania. The key to Golanski’s good form is fitness, in 2007 he was plagued by injuries and didn’t perform well. I just hope that the latest injury won’t have any negative effects on his game.

Posted from Poland

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