To Ebi Or Not To Ebi?

I’d rather see krzyniu on the bench and ebi on the left wing. but it’s true that smolarek is hardly any good as the ST so far. maybe sagan should play from the start again.

POLSKA! POLSKA!

Posted from  Poland

Ebi’s instincts lie in being in the right place at the right time. If you look at his goals in qualifying or the German league, the ball falls at his feet. There is rare talent in that, but he is not as strong at getting the ball behind the defense and surging forward, which is what he has been asked to do in the Euros (much like Torres for Spain). My opinion is he should be on the field but in a different position, and frankly I wish it had been so since the first game.

Posted from  United States

Kryznowek should be in bench, several years I saw him without
progress, sometimes too selfish and no speedy threat for
rivals, Ebi is good at least he can run back and forth,he’s
different from others Pole.

Posted from  Taiwan

Ebi won’t start. Meh

Does anyone know why all the articles on the net point out that Austria has to beat Germany for us to advance? Can’t we advance if Germany draws?

Posted from  United States

I’m not sure about this, but I think that if we have the same number of points, the germans would advance since they beat Poland.

36 minutes into the match and I want to say that I do not think that Krzynowek should play for the National Team again. This guy wastes so many corners and lobs due to his inaccuracy. And his typical low percentage shot from far away will hardly ever beat the keeper.

Posted from  United States

Krzynowek’s problem is he wastes his shots from too far out the box. Poland needs to play down the wings and press inside the box, and everytime Krzynowek touches the ball he’s thinking about blasting it in. Goals like the one against Portugal don’t come by too often. Pressing in the box gives players a better chance to score like Roger did against Austria.

Would it be fair to compare Polish national soccer to the Boston Red Sox prior to 2004?

We should’ve Ebi’d. Leo’s gonna get murdered by the press for the squad he put out today, and you know what? It’s his fault and it’s kind of not his fault. I felt once we lost Kuba we were done but come on, don’t mess with Ebi. And why sit Bak? This should’ve been the last game of his career. Instead he’ll have fond memories of playing Austria. Why bring in Kokoszka? And finally I would’ve liked to see Gargula given a chance and Piszczek too as he recovered from that mild injury.

@adas - maybe. Poland can’t seem to find their way in big tournaments, but I’m not sure they’re as good as the red sox when they’re not in big tourneys either.

We should have put Ebi up. The starting squad was a bad decision. Krzynowek was TERRIBLE. HE should have been on the bench. He screwed up so many balls! As dmac said, the guy wastes so many balls and should not be on the national team every again.

Ebi did well and each shot on goal was just a little off. Roger seemed slightly out of form. I think we had given up before the game even began because we knew the odds of Austria beating Germany were slim to none. I am still proud of our Polish boys. Let’s look ahead to the next World Cup!

I was impressed by Zahorski.
Krzynowek needs to sit his ass on the bench.
Ebi needs to play like he did today consistently.
We need a more creative midfield for ball distribution.

We had an encouraging first ten minutes but were not markedly better than the Croatia B side after that. We did not deserve to lose, but it’s impossible to win when no player but our goalkeeper makes a game changing play. We were far from the best teams in this tournament, but it was still much more exciting and emotional to see Poland play than England, Scotland, Denmark, Israel, Serbia or anyone else who could not qualify would have been.

Posted from  United States

Good-bye Poland. Nice to have had you with us. But enough is enough.

Sadly, though, to know that your jingoistic big-mouths will never be silenced, no matter what REALITY may be.

Sorry not to see you in South Africa

Greets from GERMANY

Poland better get their act together or they won’t make it to South Africa. No imagination at all in this tournament. At least Poland did give an effort in the final games of the last two World Cups even though they were already eliminated by then. Very, very disappointed.

Posted from  United States

Its a shame the officiating has not been much in our favour in this tournament. Krzynowek had a great chance to score but it was ruled offside when he was clearly onside. I noticed Beenhakker was shaking the hands of Polish players that didnt even take part in the game, wonder what that ment?

Posted from  United Kingdom

Just read the interview with Leo. Poland should be happy to have a coach like him. He did not make excuses, just said that we tried in the game but it’s not been good enough and is consistent with what we have seen the whole tournament. Everybody is very disappointed because there was ambition to do better and that was a realistic thing because of the qualification results. But the team was not good enough in this tournament. Several important players have not been in top form for us, players who made the difference in qualifying like Smolarek, Lewandowski and Krzynówek. He did not blame them for that. As disappointing as that sounds, it’s a pretty evident truth, and it’s not the team’s fault. The players today grew up in the 80’s and 90’s when Poland was not at the major tournaments. Our players’ skill level (other than Boruc) was not as high as our competition, and that’s directly related to not having the same competition in the home leagues as internationally. Hopefully, Poland can build from here, but they really tried; just were not good enough this year.

Posted from  United States

So honestly, what are Poland’s chances for 2010? The group looks pretty strong without any consistent success for Poland. The players are only getting older, and there doesn’t seem to be any young talent who can step up and play. And it does look like Beenhakker is not sure of his future. He may stay on for qualifiers, but if they fail to do well, he probably won’t stay on until his contract expires.

To PRS: Very good analysis, and I think that now we have to build around Smolarek, Kuba Błaszyczkowski and Boruc with the young players like Dawid Janczyk(CSKA Moskow), Krzysztof Król (Real Madrid), Grzegorz Krychowiak (Bordeau), and we will in better shape than now.

Posted from  Canada

To Breslau: May I remind you that half the German team is POLISH? Fool.

I think Poland also had crappy luck throughout the tournament. We got stuck playing Germany first, had that asshole Howard Webb as a referee second, and then got into this bizarre deadlock with Austria today where Austria had to beat Germany. Leo is an excellent coach and we have some excellent players, including one of the best goalkeepers in the WORLD who was the hero of this tournament. We show plenty of promise and I think we should be extremely proud that we are improving enough to qualify for the Euro Cup when countries like England fell short and we should have no shame when great teams like the Czechs and probably the Italians are not qualifying for the next round either. All I know right now is that, though I am born and raised in Canada, I feel full of Polish pride. We have a beautiful country with beautiful people who do everything with our whole hearts. We are going to kick ass in 2010 and in 2012 at the next Euro in OUR country.

hey Breslau-damus, any further prophetic insights into 2010? what’s the price of oil gonna be? will the dollar continue to decline? will you continue to miss the irony in a German accusing someone of jingoism?

Posted from  United States

Hey Rich,,

yes, the dollar will coninue to decline.
And yes, oil will get more and more expensive, among other things because Americans are too dumb to save energy. And yes, Americans and Poles will continue to pity the pettily paranoid self-pitying Poles if anyone dares to ridicule their notorieties. Now that’s what I call a fine specimen of irony indeed - take that.

Polishprincess,

nice you introduced your real name: Fool.
Now, Fool, listen: saying that half the German team is polish is absolutely correct.
And the earth is a disk.

polish princess your full of shite.

didnt know canada was in the euros lol born and bred in canada.then your canadian