Poland 3-1 Ivory Coast - what we learned?

Eight months without a win in international matches and Poland finally found one against Ivory Coast. Their squad was weakened by injuries to top stars but still one Yaya Toure was worth more than our players will ever be. Funny old game, right? Lewandowski took advantage of two great passes from Matuszczyk, Ludovic Obraniak sent fantastic free-kick straight into the top corner of Yeboah’s goal and only easy mistake by Polish centre-backs gave consolation for the visitors late in the first half. Obviously our nation is celebrating on the streets after this win (not) but we have to take that lesson once again and try to understand that our failure during EURO 2012 is still the biggest possibility of all. Why?

1. Smuda still lacks any plan and idea. It don’t just mean that his team has no game plan, the problem is bigger than that. He is always saying that he wants his team to keep the possession, make the opponents run but once again we were all about counter attacks. For very, very long periods we couldn’t keep the ball for even ten seconds! Funny enough, our two goals scored by Lewandowski came from mistakes of opposition, not out creation. Mr. Smuda says he is happy of our attacking display but to be honest, there is not much to talk about – if not Błaszczykowski’s pace, Obraniak’s technique and Matuszczyk’s vision in those counter attacks, we would be screwed.
2. Defence is clueless again. In first version of this post I actually used word ‘shit’ but it wouldn’t be fair to Lukasz Piszczek who had another fine game on our right side. Not surprising that biggest danger for our goal, and a goal indeed, came from left side, where Maciej Sadlok played. He is not and ever will be a left back. Wojtkowiak is just after injury and plays as right back for Lech Poznan, while Jodłowiec is constantly caught up out of position. We all know that Boenisch will be back next year but our problems in the heart of Polish defence are still alive and doing pretty well. Unlike the duo presented by Smuda yesterday.
3. Our organization stinks. Polish team really tried to be organized in defence, to keep positions and sectors but they seemed to forget about one very important thing – marking. We just kept them running, passing through our lines without much notice and distraction. Always few yards behind nearest rival, too slow to the ball, losing every 50-50 tackle or not getting into the ones when situation called for it. I slated our back four in last point but the problem is in whole team – Smuda is just putting numbers in the middle hoping that would prevent opposition to play the ball in front of our box – clearly that is not working again.
4. Lewandowski will be huge player for Borussia Dortmund very soon. He is class and even taking that two great goals from yesterday apart, everybody could see that he is level above the rest in terms of keeping the ball at his feet. When the situation needed, he fought the ball and kept it until rest of the team showed up or played it quickly and followed the move. Our best player yesterday and he has got brain to match the level of expectations that still are in Dortmund after his transfer from Lech Poznan. I’m sure that soon(ish) he will be class for BVB and thankfully he already is for Poland.
5. Who is that man in goal? Someone said that’s Lukasz Fabiański but I saw someone very confident, brave, with great reflex, catching everything, getting to the crosses perfectly, timing his saves on and off the line. Clearly that is not the man that English press likes to name as Flappy-handsky or differently. He kept his head calm and may not be Top Three Premier League class but surely for Poland he is the best we have right now and it makes me both – happy and confident about this position during EURO 2012.

I could write about Kuba Błaszczykowski’s fine debut in captain role, about Ariel Borysiuk’s debut in national team and further lack of options for our defence. The truth is that we have only five-six names in the mix to be contenders for two spots on centre of our defence and every single one of them is a cause for a headache during the tournament. Smuda is planning to give a chance to Manuel Arboleda when he will gain Polish citizenship soon but that still may be not enough to solve our problems there. Not to mention other problems that still remain despite improved performance from yesterday.