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Squad Watch- Week 5.

March 24th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 6 Comments »

Here you are, another portion of info about Polish eagles’ performances over the weekend. Probably they were a little bit in the shadow of the Premiership’s Grand Slam Sunday, but for Polish fans Lukasz Piszczek’s 22 minutes for Hertha are more important than Mascherano’s idiocy or Chelsea’s late comeback (Ok, I admit, I watched the games and they were simply great).

This is how Leo’s candidates performed; this time without the notes from Przeglad Sprtowy since it’s Easter Monday and I would have to wait till tomorrow for the paper:

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow)- 90 minutes against Gretna
Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)- not in the squad against Chelsea
Wojciech Kowalewski (Korona Kielce)- not in the squad against Jagiellonia, injury
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd)- on the bench against Liverpool
Sebastian Przyrowski (Groclin Grodzisk)- 90 minutes against Cracovia

Defenders:

Jacek Bak (Austria Vienna)- 90 minutes against SV Ried
Grzegorz Bronowicki (Red Star Belgrade)- not in the squad against Napredak
Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucarest)- 90 minutes against UT Arad
Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow)- 90 minutes against Zenit St Petersburg
Adam Kokoszka (Wisla Cracow)- not in the squad against Odra, injury
Marcin Kus (Korona Kielce)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia
Tomasz Lisowski (Widzew Lodz)- 90 minutes against Legia
Arkadiusz Radomski (Austria Vienna)- 90 minutes against SV Ried
Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht)- 90 minutes against AA Gent
Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes and an assist against Widzew
Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)- on the bench against Levadiakos

Midfielders:

Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)- not in the squad against Karlsruhe, injury
Dariusz Dudka (Wisla Cracow)- 56 minutes against Odra
Lukasz Gargula (GKS Belchatow)- 90 minutes against Lech
Michal Golinski (Zaglebie Lubin)- 90 minutes against Ruch
Przemysław Kazmierczak (FC Porto)- FC Porto didn’t play this weekend
Kamil Kosowski (Cadiz)- 59 minutes against Las Palmas
Jacek Krzynowek (VFL Wolfsburg)- on the bench against HSV
Mariusz Lewandowski (Shachtar Donieck)- on the bench against Tavriya Symferopol
Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Cracow)- 74 minutes against Odra
Radoslaw Majewski (Groclin Grodzisk)- 90 minutes against Cracovia
Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan)- not in the squad against GKS Belchatow, injury
Michal Pazdan (Gornik Zabrze)- 90 minutes against Polonia Bytom
Roger (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Widzew
Marek Zienczuk (Wisla Cracow)- 90 minutes against Odra

Attackers:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Cracow)- 90 minutes against Odra
Dawid Janczyk (CSKA Moscow)- 45 minutes against Krylya Sovietov
Radosław Matusiak (Wisla Cracow)- 11 minutes against Odra
Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin)- 22 minutes against Schalke
Grzegorz Rasiak (Bolton)- on the bench against Man City
Marek Saganowski (Southampton)- not in the squad against Coventry
Ebi Smolarek (Racing Santander)- 90 minutes and a goal against Recreativo
Artur Wichniarek (Arminia Bielefeld)- 90 minutes against Werder
Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze)- 90 minutes against Polonia Bytom
Maciej Zurawski (Larissa)- 90 minutes and an assist against Aris

Summary: To be honest, there isn’t much to report. It was a rather quiet weekend on the side of the Polish players. Nevertheless, Ebi Smolarek managed to score his fourth Primera Division goal. He put the ball in the empty net in the 90th minute after Recreativo’s goalie left his post to help with a corner. It’s also important that Ebi played the whole ninety minutes after being only a substitute in the mid-week’s Copa del Rey semi-final. He has definitely grown to become one of the most significant Santander’s players, but sometimes doesn’t start because of the manager’s squad rotation system. Arkadiusz Radomski played his first game for Austria Vienna after the winter break. Maybe the Austria officials have finally understood that they are not a European powerhouse and can’t leave such an experienced player out of the squad. Or maybe they’re just plagued by injuries, I don’t know, I’m not an expert on Austrian football. Mariusz Jop also featured for the first time in FC Moscow’s squad under the new management. They lost the game against Zenit, hopefully not because of Jop’s mistakes. Dawid Janczyk got the first start for CSKA Moscow this season, unfortunately he was substituted after the break and his main rival, Jo, scored in the second half. It seems that Pawel Golanski established himself in the Steaua team as he now plays in every single game and is a part of an impressive winning streak. No goal this time for Magic, but he rescued a point for Larissa with a nice assist. Mariusz Lewandowski unexpectedly returned to Shachtar’s bench after scoring in mid-week’s Ukrainian Cup game. It was another jobless weekend for Jacek Krzynowek. There weren’t any impressive performances in the Polish league, apart from Tomasz Hajto’s incredible strike.

Highlights: Ebi shows nerves of steal for Santander, Zurawski’s assist, Wawrzyniak’s assist, Hajto’s 60 metres strike.

Tags: Group A

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Comments

By gregorio | March 25th, 2008 at 7:56 am

Good to see the news about Jop and Radomski, we really do need them in a good shape in Austria as an option for the defensive formation.
Ebi has to be the man in the Euro, so his recent performance is comforting, especially if Zuraw isn’t going to lead our team. I saw him in the weekend and he still lacks the flair, if you ask me. Even though he seems to come up tp the Larisa’s management expectations (not substituted in a difficult situation for his team and helped to draw the game).

By drewsky | March 25th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

The fixture for the U-21 squad should be very difficult,the English side has only been defeated once in 3 years.Poland has a ways to go still but it’s gettin there.
little by little
Go Polska

Posted from United States

By tomasz | March 25th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

A couple of thoughts on the U21 since I won’t have time to write a note about it. First, Radoslaw Majewski: the guy has enormous potential and great skills, for me he and Johnson were the best on the field in terms of technical skills. Sometimes he was too individual on the pitch and made one dribble too many. Now he must find a coach who’ll teach him how to play a bit faster and make better choices. Second, Dawid Janczyk: hard fought battle on his account. I have an impression that he developed in terms of first touch and physical strength. I big prospect, no doubt. Third, Szymon Pawlowski: have the skills and pace to run at defenders. He isn’t yet good enough for the A team, but one can spot a lot of potential in his play. Other than that, the GK and defenders looked a bit shaky. They especially had problems with bringing the ball upfield, there were a lot of unnecessary mistakes and lost possession. Rzezniczak was humiliated by Johnson. The defensive midfielders couldn’t hold onto the ball and organize the play, however Glik seems an interesting player. Kuklis is good on the ball, but he lacks pace and physical strength. All in all, I like what I saw in the game, that was a really close encounter and I’m sure that some of the players will become important members of the first team in the future.

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 from Polishsoccer.com | March 25th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

good result for us, 0-0 in england at any level is good…..trust me….and it wasnt really our best team either……grosicki, bialkowski….although i think england had more of a b-team than us of course….

Tyton is okay for a youth player, but out of all the games i have seen he has been a real bobbler. I dont really expect him to make it at the international level for us, but he can probably have adecent club career.

Pawlowski was good, and its not the first time he has played well at the u21 level. he also plays regularly for his club.

Majewski obviously has lots of skill, we know that. but in this game he lost a few too many balls, although some of his passing and trickery was still good. i have seen him play better and be more influential though.

one of the cbs was pretty good, or both i dunno, it was hard to make out. koka and polczak…..but one of them is hella fast, and some great clearing headers too. i think the best english chances came off tyton’s bobbles, so i wouldnt say they looked shaky. and of course england are no joke so they are going to create chances…..

rzezniczak was poor in the first half and i was disappointed, he didnt play for his club this past week though, so i dunno if it was injury, sickness, form, etc….but he has looked much much better before. most of the time he was our best player in u21 qualifying. trust me..

janczyk put in another hard shift, but his scoring record for the u21s has been quite poor unlike at the u20s and u19s. in fact, i bet if he scored in our games at home against spain and russia where he had some really good chances, in russia away too, than we could of been in the driver seat for uefa u21 qualifying. that was really the difference to be honest, and bialkowski’s red card at home against spain.

still some good talent there.
——————————–

Grosicki is the player that was missing for me though, him and some of the other 88s should be a solid foundation for the next u21 team. plus he had great chemistry with pawlowski and majewski….although it isnt going to be easy again as we will be in pot 3.

By drewsky | March 26th, 2008 at 6:12 am

Poland had many moments in the game when there team speed and passing were impressive.Janczyk looks like he may be ready soon.The goalie’s foot strength was an asset.Poland played like a team that is good to see.Keep up the good work all.Now today it’s the United States National Team for Poland.

Go Polska

Posted from United States

By tomasz | March 26th, 2008 at 7:02 am

From what I saw, I prefer Janczyk to Piszczek. He is also physically stronger than Brozek. However, as deyna pointed out, his goalscoring record ought to be better. He also didn’t have any clear chance yesterday, though he gave English defenders a run for their money. As for Majewski, I think it’s natural he’ll lose possession because the position he’s playing requires risk. It’s just a matter of knowing when to dribble and when to make a long pass. But the potential is there, it just waits to be formed. I would also like to see Krzysztof Krol from real on the left back position, I remember him as an interesting player from the Canadian youth championships.

Posted from Poland

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