He he maybe a 7 is a bit much, but he was our best forward today, better than Franek, Niedzielan and even better than Ebi when he came up.
The US combination play was superior throughout the match. Cherundolo owned his side of the park. Poland was the benificiary of a sub-standard pitch, which slowed the US down and made their one-touch game difficult. You're fans are annoying.
I think the pitch really effected both teams. Passes were bouncing knee high at times. And, players dribbling down the field had to deal with the ball bouncing up before taking a player on, passing, or serving the ball. I hope they fix that before the WC. The snow in the second half helped the ball stay on the ground. Other than the field, the game played out to be a close game as I expected. But, I was impressed with skill level of the Polish midfield. They controlled the first half for long stretches and were able to make Beasley, KZ, and LD look bad at times. I think you guys have the quality to win your group. Costa Rica can be very tricky but weak in the back, and I think this is a weak German team compared to historical teams. I am glad we did not see any injuries, and I will pull for you guys this summer.
Definitely the best forward we had. The thing that impressed me was how often he pulled out to the right side of the box and right flank to receive balls and open up space rather than just sitting and waiting for Route 1 football.
rasiak the best forward we had? you two need to rewatch the ********ing game...the guy had like two nice passes all game. his heading ability is brutal if the pass is coming from more than 20 yards and he is slow, he also fell over several times for no reason and lost the ball a couple of times...franek was unlucky with some of the passes he received and is out of form. and better than ebi? yah right, everytime ebi touched the ball in the first half he would try to make a good run, he was fouled a couple times in dangerous areas...niedzielan you cannot rate, he came on in the ********ing snow, like what was he suppose to do with no service...
comparing to what we normally see from him, he didn't play that bad. I'm kind of beginning to see the bright side of this loss now that my anger has passed. At least Janas knows it's time to get serous and quit messing around with these stupid lineups. The players were also visibly rattled by the loss, so its a good wake up call for them
yah rasiak maybe played a bit better than before, but he still hasn't justieifed his place on the team. simple as that. he shouldn't be ahead of niedzielan or smolarek in the pecking order...i mean i know he is suppose to add a different dimension, but he isn't good enough at this different "dimension". for a guy that is suppose to win headers for us he is pretty bad at them and he hurts us in other departments of the game with slowing us down and lost balls. the guy obviously has a football brain, because sometimes i can tell he is trying to make a nice play but his physical limitations prevent him from doing any of those things... some great points about the loss though man, definately a wake up call to the players...i guess you are on polishsoccer.com with the same name right? im m2793d1 on there...
yeah I can see what you're saying. hahah his "physical limitations", funny but true. Yeah karny9, thats me. polishsoccer.com is good, but I like it here because you get opinions from different people, and its more organized. But you do get to swear as much as you want on there, and on a day like wednesday was, that comes in handy...Plus there are more kibice on there so I feel more at home. If only they came here, than it'd be awesome
Hey...I'm on that site too, but I have many different names because polishsoccer is perfect for messing around with people. But the good thing about this site (and the other one that starts with "x"), is that like karny said there are many people from different countries and perspectives, which makes it fun. Back to Rasiak. He was better than any of them in this particular game. Unlike Smolarek and Franek he moved with a purpose, not just for the hell of it. And he is skillful for a big, tight guy, and showed some of that yesterday. I am not a fan, but I see his worth. What hampered Niedzielan more than lack of service and snow was the fact that he was tired. Same with Kosa. That in my opinion is Janas' or PZPN's fault for scheduling two games one day after another.
karny9 and Smoga, yes definately, both of you are right...i browse this site and "x" sometimes aswell. mostly on "x" to see how szymek is playing...on here to check out opponents and stuff. see you boys around...
i respect your opinion, just do not think he was better than smolarek on the day. and that is after rewatching the game in good quality. i really dont know what you mean about "purpose" though. rasiak maybe had a bit more energy than usual, but still hasn't done enough to convince me...
I QUOTE on of the Polish Newspapers "Wobec tego najbardziej wysuniętym polskim piłkarzem był Grzegorz Rasiak, który zagrał tak jak w swoim wrześniowym debiucie w barwach Tottenhamu - ambitnie, ofiarnie, ale pechowo i bez efektów." TRUE THAT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if anything, this game made me realize how important zurawski is to our team. Also, I bet that if Sobolewski was in the lineup, Szymkowiak would've taken more chances and communicated better with the defence, but he was too focused on playing more defensive than usual.
BTW I was listening to the Polish Radio today and supposedly some German paper wrote that "Poland didn't show anything special in that game" and that only thing that went good that day it was the organization of the whole game by Germans ........ WTF ????? I agree that we didn't show anything special but what kind of heating they have in Kaiserslautern ??? Both teams players complain that ground was frozen like a mothafu&^%#$ .... They also could close ROOF when it start snowing crazy, but switch didn't work ........ and they were looking for ORANGE ball when visibility got really bad ..... well .....didn't find ANY ... so they throw YELLOW one ... like 15 min before the end.
Poland didn't show anything special? didn't the krauts get crushed 4-1 last night? i think they should focus on their own team, lol. the location was a stupid choice anyways, we should of played somewhere warm that would of mirrored the conditions of germany in the summer...that's 2 friendlies now wrecked because of the weather...yah and i agree about the ball and the roof, way to make the situation worse...
Heh, yeah the high visibility ball as they called it on espn2 was very much invisible at times when they switched to the long range stadium cam. Not gonna comment too much on the German paper about our team quality. When you get pwned 4-1 I guess any headline is better than "WE GOT @$#%" . As for Rasiak, I hate to be the voice of descent from all of us who believe this guy is making strides towards actually being a positive contribution of on the team. However, "ambitnie, ofiarnie, ale pechowo i bez efektów." doesnt win games at the WC level . This guy is clearly out of his league in any serious match (exception was the hotspurs miracle debut), and we are really handicapping ourselves starting every game with 10 players and a mobile 2 by 4, who occasionally is in the right place at the right time. I do agree that losing to the states will likely bring the team back down to earth, and that is a good thing. Instead of approaching group match's with an attitude of superiority they will now be more likely to go out there and RUN for the whole 90 and win. All in all no worries, it was just a friendly. Learn from it and move on, the real competition begins in June. Not sure if any of you have had a chance to read these post match comments by Janas. Apparently someone "podpadl" and will not be called up again. http://sport.gazeta.pl/sport/1,65025,3192339.html?as=2&ias=2
Any educated guesses as to who that may be? I've heard Gorawski, but personally I think it's either Boruc (for being unprepared mentally and physically) or Kuszczak for going to papers with his unhappiness about not playing the US.
Exactly. Boruc made a mistake but he has proven many times that hes worthy and Janas wouldnt get rid of his first choice goalkeeper. Could be loud mouth Kuszczak (he always got smth interesting to say - like f.eg. still being a sub at WBA, after Boruc left to Celtic, Kuszczak told the press that he will never go to Legia while Legia wasnt even interested ) BUT I HOPE ITS THE WOODEN BOY, the peg leg - Gregory van der Drwaal