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Squad Watch- Week 8. Matusiak’s Off The Mark For Wisla, The Return Of Kuba.

April 14th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 6 Comments »

This was the last weekend to impress Leo Beenhakker before he announces the thirty names shortlist for the Euro 2008. Leo is surely pleased that Radoslaw Matusiak finally managed to score his first goal for Wisla Cracow and Kuba Blaszczykowski returned from injury to play against Bayern Munich.

Let’s have a look on Bialo Czerwoni’s performances this weekend:

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow)- 90 minutes against Motherwell
Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)- on the bench against ManUtd
Wojciech Kowalewski (Korona Kielce)- 90 minutes against Cracovia, note 4
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd)- on the bench against Arsenal
Sebastian Przyrowski (Groclin Grodzisk)- 90 minutes against Zaglebie, note 7

Defenders:

Jacek Bak (Austria Vienna)- 90 minutes against Altach
Grzegorz Bronowicki (Red Star Belgrade)- 90 minutes against Bezanija
Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucarest)- 87 minutes against Gloria
Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow)- 90 minutes against Amkar Perm
Adam Kokoszka (Wisla Cracow)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 6
Marcin Kus (Korona Kielce)- not in the squad against Cracovia
Tomasz Lisowski (Widzew Lodz)- 82 minutes against LKS Lodz, note 4
Arkadiusz Radomski (Austria Vienna)- 90 minutes against Altach
Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht)- 90 minutes against Germinal Beershot
Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw)- not in the squad againsr Lech
Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)- 90 minutes and a goal against Skoda Xanthi

Midfielders:

Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)- 17 minutes against Bayern
Dariusz Dudka (Wisla Cracow)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 6
Lukasz Gargula (GKS Belchatow)- 90 minutes against Polonia Bytom, note 5
Michal Golinski (Zaglebie Lubin)- not in the squad against Groclin
Kamil Grosicki (FC Sion)- on the bench against Basel
Przemysław Kazmierczak (FC Porto)- 90 minutes and an assist against Vitoria Setubal
Kamil Kosowski (Cadiz)- 29 minutes against Albacete
Jacek Krzynowek (VFL Wolfsburg)- on the bench in the suspended game against Nurnberg
Mariusz Lewandowski (Shachtar Donieck)- on the bench against Dnipro
Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Cracow)- not in the squad against Jagiellonia
Radoslaw Majewski (Groclin Grodzisk)- 76 minutes and two assists against Zaglebie, note 7
Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Legia, note 7
Michal Pazdan (Gornik Zabrze)- 90 minutes against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, note 6
Roger (Legia Warsaw)- 87 minutes against Lech, note 5
Marek Zienczuk (Wisla Cracow)- 78 minutes and a goal against Jagiellonia, note 7

Attackers:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Cracow)- not in the squad against Jagiellonia, wedding
Dawid Janczyk (CSKA Moscow)- not in the squad against Spartak Nalchik, injury
Radosław Matusiak (Wisla Cracow)- 90 minutes and a goal against Jagiellonia, note 8
Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin)- 85 minutes against VFL Bochum
Grzegorz Rasiak (Bolton)- on the bench against Wesr Ham
Marek Saganowski (Southampton)- 15 minutes against Charlton
Ebi Smolarek (Racing Santander)- 21 minutes against Valencia
Artur Wichniarek (Arminia Bielefeld)- 90 minutes against Energie
Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze)- 90 minutes and a goal against Zaglebie Sosnowiec, note 7
Maciej Zurawski (Larissa)- 23 minutes against Ergotelis

Summary: The thing is Radoslaw Matusiak will almost certainly go to the Euros. He’s one of Leo’s favourites and he hasn’t disappointed in the qualifying campaign. It’s just a matter in what kind of form he’ll travel to Austria. That’s why it’s such a huge boost for him and the Polish fans that he scored his first goal after the return to the Polish league. It was a tough year for Radomatu, he didn’t manage to impress in both Palermo and Heerenven (proving once again that you can’t judge the player’s true skills by the standards of the Polish league). He moved to Wisla in the winter but wasn’t prepared physically and, therefore, lost the competition for a place in the first eleven with Brozek and Boguski. This weekend, as Brozek exchanged his wedding vows (congratulations), Matusiak was finally given a chance to show what he’s capable of. And he delivered; still not in great form but looking better every week. Wisla is now plannng to extend his loan until winter; a great idea in my opinion as he’ll help in the CL qualifiers and should come back after holidays in an even better shape.
The other good news is that Jakub Blaszczykowski played his first game for Dortmund after injury. Borussia received a heavy beating from Bayern but, nevertheless, it’s good that Kuba can finally put the footbal boots on and compete with the best. Now everybody in Dortmund awaits the German Cup final against the star-packed Minich team. Let’s hope Kuba will impress in this game and become Dortmund’s favourite, just like Ebi was.
I never thought I’ll be able to write that: Michal Zewlakow SCORED A GOAL!!! for Olympiakos. Wow, I don’t even know how to comment on that. What’s even better, he celebrated with a nice summersault, Klose style. Zewlak is one of those players we can always count on. Olympiakos are no European pushovers; Michal is a regular there so Leo shouldn’t be afraid of his lack of form in June.
Both Mariusz Jop and Marcin Wasilewski returned to their teams’ squads after bans. FC Moscow are playing horrible this year, but I don’t care as long as Jop is performing on regular basis. He’s just this sort of player that can be great when he’s in shape and can be crap when he doesn’t play for his club. Tomasz Zahorski and Radoslaw Majewski continue to impress in the Polish league. Zahor kept his cold blood and scored after a pretty placed shot. Majewski proved that he’s been watching Ronaldinho closely when he delivered a no-look pass for Groclin’s opening goal. Other than that, no real highlights to report on (I’ve grown accustomed to the picture of Krzynowek and Lewandowski on the bench). I’m just waiting for Wednesday and Leo’s list of thirty Euro hopefuls.

Highlights: Zewlak scores his first ever for Olympiakos, Mtusiak’s debut goal for Wisla, Zienczuk scores once again this season, Majewski’s two assists, Zahorski’s 9th of the season, Kaz’s assist for Porto.

Tags: Beenhakker, Blaszczykowski, Boguski, Brozek, Group A, Jop, Kazmierczak, Krzynowek, Lewandowski, Majewski, Matusiak, Poland, Squad Watch, Wasilewski, Wisla, Zahorski, Zewlakow, Zienczuk

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Comments

By gregorio | April 14th, 2008 at 9:10 am

yeah, I also was impressed as much as surpised with Żewłakow’s goal and the celebration(!!!), who would have thought… but on the whole, our defenders played much this weekend (Brona, Goliński, Jop) and they are very likely to play still more before the season ends. What is also good, not many of them played really the whole season through, so exhaustion shouldn’t be our problem in June (Żewłakow will have the time to rest, as he himself claims).
It’s great Radomatu finally found the net after such a long long time, I can see him quite helpful in Austria if he just keeps progressing. the same with Kuba, who hopefully will play the few games Bundesliga has left to go.
And after the season, Leo will work on them for a few weeks, and we’ll be really ‘courageous and dangerous’ (what crappy slogans this year, indeed!), at least on the pitch.
On the less optimistic side, I don’t get it why Żuraw sat on the bench, especially after such a favourable opinion on him expressed by his coach.

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 | April 14th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

nice summary

By tomasz | April 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Zewlakow’s celebration was the best part of the weekend. It couldn’t have been accidental, he had a lot of time to plan it. It would be great if he can repeat in the Germany’s game and show Klose how it’s done (it wasn’t, however, good enough to compete with the likes of Aghahowa or Nani).
Bronowicki played after a longer break. He competes for a place in the team with Anjelkovic. I saw Red Star three times this season and I think the Serb is better than Brono. Hopefully, Grzegorz will still get some more games before the end of the season. Golanski is having great press in Romania. He is supposedly regarded as the best right back in the Romanian league and the best in Steaua since Ogararu (now Ajax). I don’t know, however, if Steaua’s great results are not caused by their owner’s huge bank account. Radomatu will now get even more games under his belt, as far as I remember Wisla are still playing in both cup competitions so there will be playing time for everybody (don’t forget Niedzielan). I don’t know what’s with Zuraw, maybe he isn’t prepared to play week in week out. Luckily, his replacement, Bakayoko, didn’t score.
I also very much believe in Leo’s ability to prepare the individual players’ form during the training camp. Remeber how well physically was Trynidad prepared? I know that it was partially due to their natural abilities but Leo must have put his hand to it.

Posted from Poland

By deyna199 | April 14th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

Normally our players are physically drained by years end, and in 2006 they somewhat used that excuse for the way they played. I cannot see them really being physically drained this time around though….I mean most of them play only 90 minutes a week if they are lucky.

I think Leo can prepare them well physically as he will have lots of time with them. But I am more worried about the mentality of our players, it wouldnt exactly surprise me if they wet the bed at the tourney.

By tomasz | April 15th, 2008 at 10:13 am

If they bring up the lack of physical strength as an excuse once again nobody will believe them. They’ll have lots of time to prepare and Leo, as an experienced coach, won’t waste it. As you mentioned deyna, we don’t have players in the premiership or in big CL teams that play 60-70 games a season. The only problem is mentality; I think that the result of the game against the germans will be crucial here.

Posted from Poland

By We’ve Got A Problem With Matusiak. - Poland | April 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am

[...] Matusiak. April 30th, 2008 | By: tomasz | No Comments » More than two weeks ago I wrote an article about Radoslaw Matusiak’s first goal for Wisla. Little did I know that it’ll probably [...]

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