The past couple of days have given us a clear picture of Polish soccer. We are loosing ground every year, and once again our teams are loosing money, experience and prestige. Allow me to do a quick analysis of the games: Wisla-Panathinaikos 1:4 (4-5) This one really hurt boys. I have seen some crushing defeats as a fan of Polish football but I will remember this one for a while. I know that we were almost there, we played hard and the ref was against us but WTF can we have a game where the stakes are high go our way just once.On the pitch it gave us answers of how strong the Polish league is. Majdan and Zienczuk are awesome in the Polish league; they looked like fourth graders lost on a fieldtrip in front of 65000 fans.The bottom line is Polish teams never play in big games like this. Wisla plays in CL qualifiers and the NT plays maybe one or two big games a year (like the England game). Other than that we play year round in a weak corrupted, swamp of a league called the Ekstraklasa. The only thing Ekstra about it is some of the extra money corrupted officials get from corrupted team owners when the games are fixed. Groclin vs. Banka Bystrzyca 0:0 (4:1) I'm calling it right now. Groclin will make it to the group phase of UEFA Cup. Not because they have an awesome team, but because they have a good coach and a smart owner. They are not great but solid. Experienced players (mostly foriegners) and a few young players with some talent. Maybe we'll be able to save some face with them. Wisla Plock vs. Grasshoppers 3:2 (3:3) Twice in one week. Mielismy ich na widelcu. I'm probably the least mad at them. I'm actually surprised they made it as close as they did. But once again we fell apart in the end. Again we come back to lack of experience and playing games against weak oponnents in a crappy league. I read that Jelen was invisible. But another sad aspect is that I had to read about this game because no stations showed it. So, essentially what we are being told is we suck so bad our own TV won't show the games. Legia Warszawa vs. FC Zurich It seems that every year we have a debacle. I remember one year GKS Katowice lost to Cementarnica 55 Skopja (Macedonia). Well this year the award goes to Legia. I' sorry but one of our most famous teams, a name that is actually recognized in Europe and to loose 4:1 with Zurich (5:1 aggregate)is disgusting. One of my best friends is a huge Legia fan and ever since ITI took over I have been hearing about how Legia is going to be a E. European powerhouse and how they will have a state of the art stadium etc, etc. So far I like the old broke ass Legia better. At least they would manage to get past a team like Zurich; which with all due respect to them should not make a any team that wants to be taken seriouly tremble.On a miserable note the only way to track the game was on livescore.com I noticed some Legia fans on legia.net were actually tunning in on some Swiss radio station. We can't even follow our teams. We must be the laughing stock of Europe. When I see we teams like Sparta Prague, or Thun or Atrmedia in CL my heart breaks. Every year we fall behind these teams, which are gaining experience and cash year to year. Poland on the other hand is usually out by October/November. If we make it to spring its a miracle. And then we fall short because we don't have enough experience like Wisla I and Wisla II or get embarassed like Legia. Sorry for the long post but I had to vent after this week. As always I hope next year will be better.
I agree with most of what you have said. I wouldn't be surprised if Groclin has made it very far in the UEFA Cup: with the teams left in it, hell, they can win the whole thing. Wisla, of course, is a huge disappointment. They had a better team that PAO did, yet couldn't get it done. Who is to blame? Probably the same old Polish mentality that lets us win 3rd place in the World Cup, but considers that to be the pinnacle. This has to change in all Polish sport.
Only Legia played definitely below expectations. Looking at it all with calmness, it was predictable that Panathinaikos can win 5-4 on average with Wisla, that Wisla Plock lacks European pedigree to win with relatively well known team of Grasshoppers and that Groclin should do well against Slovakians. What makes me angry is that Wisla was so close. It is hard to imagine better position than where they were after 1st leg, after 1st half of 2nd leg and so on... Legia... At least it was no nervous finishing. It was clear we were poooor.
My prediction for these UEFA Cup ties is that they will both be over by the time the first leg concludes in Lens and Guimarães. Would be nice to talk about how they have a shot, and they might go through on a lucky goal, but if there is one thing this UEFA season has shown is that Poland is rapidly approaching a ranking outside the top 21 leagues in Europe. Meaning that our team pool entering the competition will be reduced to 1 CL and 2 UEFA. If the best the IDEA Extraklasa has to offer keeps exiting by the end of September, losing to teams from Switzerland, Austria and Norway the future looks bleak at best. It is time to stop looking at those federations as minnows, at least from our perspective, because unlike Poland they have actually placed teams in the Champions League and the UEFA Group stage, case in point Rapid Vienna, FC Thun and Rosenborg (in other years GAK Graz, Sturm Graz, Austria Vienna, FC Basel) with reasonable regularity. Hopefully I am wrong here and both Wisla and Groclin advance, but speaking objectively both Wisla and Groclin are looking at 2-3 goal loses on aggregate here. As a concluding note, I suggest someone sends the FIFA Football rulebook to PZPN, highlighting the fact that matches are played over the course of 90 Minutes, not 60 or 75. 16 Austria 3,375 4,000 2,125 7,625 2,750 19,875 1 LM, 3 PU 17 Szwajcaria 6,125 5,875 1,875 2,625 2,625 19,125 1 LM, 3 PU 18 Norwegia 3,250 2,700 6,125 3,500 2,800 18,375 1 LM, 3 PU 19 Polska 4,125 6,625 4,125 2,500 0,875 18,250 1 LM, 3 PU 20 Serbia i Czarnogóra 3,166 4,833 4,500 4,250 1,500 18,249 1 LM, 3 PU 21 Bułgaria 4,833 4,166 4,166 2,375 1,500 17,040 1 LM, 3 PU ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Rumunia 2,625 2,166 4,333 5,500 2,166 16,790 1 LM, 2 PU 23 Dania 4,500 3,250 4,200 1,500 2,000 15,450 1 LM, 2 PU The only hope left for the fall football season is that the NT will grab six points from September WC qf matches vs Austria and Wales, putting us in good position to qualify for the most important of all Cups, and then make us forget this dreadful UEFA club season by beating Islanders on their home turf. (Hope Janas has the tape of the last 2 England vs Denmark matches on file)