Five things... Round XIX

This was expected to be one of most interesting rounds and before Sunday games it looked like the week in which Wisła Krakow could make sure that it was all about them in the title race. But they missed their chance. Read it.

1. So, changing managers is not the issue, is it? Look at what happened at Polonia Warszawa, just week after Józef Wojciechowski, their owner, sacked Theo Bos, fairly experienced Dutch manager, his team lost again. It did not helped that he employed young, ambitious Polish coach (Piotr Stokowiec), nothing changed when he sent Ebi Smolarek to the reserves/youth team… His team lost to Widzew in bad style and nobody at Konwiktorska can argue about that result. Good for visitors though, fantastic pass from Panka and good strike from Budka in a game where Widzew played the better part. Czesław Michniewicz must be really happy about his comeback to management.
2. Legia is having all kind of troubles right now and Maciej Skorża once again caught himself in a lot of pressure after two following losses against Śląsk Wroclaw and GKS Belchatow. They are missing wings, to be honest. Michał Kucharczyk is young, inexperienced and never was a winger, while Maciej Rybus, Manu, Felix Ogbuke and Miroslav Radović are all underperforming on this position. He misses Michal Hubnik as well but that may not be the biggest failure of Skorża’s tenure at all – identity is what Legia misses, any kind of character – even their captain and leader, when missed penalty on Sunday, he lost any commandership there and what followed could not make happy any of Legia’s fans. Especially when after the game, players went to thank the fans but all they got is abuse and demand of an explanation of yet another unsatisfying performance.
3. What is it with the light in Polish football? Floodlights failure happened again at Arka Gdynia vs Zaglebie Lubin, then, at the same day, lights went out during the Great Derby of Silesia… I think it is some kind of bad spell with the electricity during football games in Poland. More to follow tomorrow about this…
4. Śląsk Wrocław may be unbeaten in twelve games right now, and it is fantastic spell, but this club has more troubles than you would think of. First of all, their plan to built great club on is falling down – nobody is willing to give them a credit for building the shopping mall that would be giving them all the money in the future. Second of all, one of main investors doesn’t know what is going on in the club – what is more, he doesn’t even care about it. Then there is first squad, suffering from injuries and suspensions. Without possible leader potential for next years, having now troubles with strikers… Orest Lenczyk, very experienced manager, has a lot to think about. Maybe the first thing is will he work in Wroclaw next season come…
5. So what is going on at Arka Gdynia? It looks way too similar to what happened with Cracovia in the first round – new stadium, new players, new hopes… But results are bad, very bad. And to add to their woes, fans demanded from their players to stop partying heavily (as they saw two players literally wasted day before the game!) after their draw with Zagłębie Lubin. Dariusz Pasieka, impressive manager with German education, looks to be on his way unless he gets the results he needs. The replacement is prepared with one of less known names prepared for Pasieka’s place…

Here are the goals from this round and standings after nineteen league games in Polis Ekstraklasa. Enjoy.