I agree that Leo is the real deal, but only when he's able to play with a full deck, meaning no major injuries, and when his tactical plans are followed exactly. He seems to have difficulty adjusting on the fly, both personnel-wise and tactically as at the Euros. But the REAL real deal is Blaszczykowski, without him we are less than half the team that we are with him.
Media is what media is, for the most part they jump off the bandwagon, at the first sign of trouble, because many of them have a mistaken idea that they themselves have a better plan for the team, and if they were setting up the line ups and strategy, we would be winning 5-0 every time. Well some fans are guilty of that too. So, sadly, I don't see that changing. That being said there are also some constructive criticisms out there, and there should be some, because you cant just keep applauding and cheering if things are not going well, adjustments have to be made, and there has to be some pressure or incentive on the coaching staff to make them. The simple fact is Leo has done a really good job with the team, there have been stumbles along the way, but that happens, no one has all the right moves all the time. One of his biggest accomplishments is restoring the belief that when we go out there and work hard, we can compete with any team in the world, at least on Oct 11th, every two years, at Slaski Stadium. As for Slovakia, yep we do need a result. They have a couple of key injuries, Skrtel and Hamsik, so we have to take advantage of that. The "bench warmers" just ran through, what on paper, is one of the best D in the world, "like a warm knife through butter", so hopefully we can pick up a big road win on Wednesday.
Group 3 Poland 3 2-1-0 5:2 7 Slovenia 3 2-1-0 5:2 7 Slovakia 3 2-0-1 6:4 6 Czech Republic 2 0-1-1 1:2 1 Northern Ireland 3 0-1-2 1:4 1 San Marino 2 0-0-2 1:5 0 Poland 2-1 Czech Republic San Marino 1-3 Slovakia Slovenia 2-0 Northern Ireland
Boruc Wasilewski, Zewlakow, Dudka, Wojtkowiak Blaszczykowski, Lewandowski, Murawski, Roger, Smolarek Brozek
yes, a draw would have been just fine it looks like this game will in fact be a 'home' game for Poland as the Slovak fans are having a boycott of sorts against the Slovak FA
Slovak team: Senecky - Petras, Pekarik, Cech, Sapara, Sestak, Zabavnik, Vittek, Durica, Hamsik, Jendrisek
Slovakia 2-1 Poland Stanislav Šesták 85, 86 - Euzebiusz Smolarek 70 Slovakia : 1. Štefan Senecký - 3. Peter Pekarík, 2. Martin Petráš, 16. Ján Ďurica, 4. Marek Čech - 9. Stanislav Šesták, 10. Radoslav Zabavník (83, 8. Ján Kozák), 7. Marek Sapara (73, 14. Martin Jakubko), 17. Marek Hamšík, 18. Erik Jendrišek (80, 15. Branislav Obžera) - 11. Róbert Vittek. Poland: 1. Artur Boruc - 13. Marcin Wasilewski, 5. Dariusz Dudka, 14. Michał Żewłakow, 2. Grzegorz Wojtkowiak - 16. Jakub Błaszczykowski, 18. Mariusz Lewandowski, 10. Rafał Murawski (66, 4. Łukasz Garguła), 6. Roger (89, 17. Robert Lewandowski), 7. Euzebiusz Smolarek - 9. Paweł Brożek (84, 8. Jacek Krzynówek). To complete the group 3 scores Northern Ireland 4-0 San Marino Czech Rep 1-0 Slovenia Slovakia 4 3-0-1 8:5 9 Poland 4 2-1-1 6:4 7 Slovenia 4 2-1-1 5:3 7 Northern Ireland 4 1-1-2 5:4 4 Czech Republic 3 1-1-1 2:2 4 San Marino 3 0-0-3 1:9 0 Bad way to lose. It is very likely that we will miss these points very much when this thing is winding down in the fall of next year, but its not the end of the world, and hopefully we wont F it up in the next away match in Belfast. The only thing certain, is what was certain at the beginning, and that is that San Marino will not advance from this group.
FIFA WC qualifying returns in March of 2009 28.03.09 Northern Ireland v. Poland Between now and then a couple of friendlies Dublin 2008-11-19 v. Ireland Rep Cardiff 2009-02-11 v. Wales
It doesn't make much sense to compare campaigns, but if Poland could lose to both Finland and Armenia and still qualify for Euro 2008, maybe this defeat in Bratislava will not end our chances now. Let's hope that until next spring maybe bigger number of Polish players will play in their foreign clubs and maybe a couple of Lech players will get some sort of experience.
Oh I don't think this ends our chances. This group has 4 arguably 5 teams competing for spots in 2010 World Cup. My only concern is that this time the group is smaller so less room for mistakes, especially since we really should have picked up 3 points. I completely agree that our NT players have to be in clubs where they play a lot, that's why I'm concerned that if Kuba goes to Liverpool or where ever he'll be joining a long line of our players who have gone to better clubs to sit on the bench. Smolarek has completely disappeared since he went to Racing (now Bolton), Kazmierczak, was promising in midfield, went top Porto, vanished (now in Derby) and the list goes on.