6 mar 2011

Five things... Round XVII

Unbelievable how much can change after just one weekend of football. If you listen to some of experts, you will hear that apparently, Jagiellonia is no longer capable of winning Polish championship, while Wisła Krakow has one hand on the trophy. Silly? Of course but there are fourteen other teams just waiting to hear what I think about their recent performances, so not to make it any longer, here is five things we learned from this round of football in Ekstraklasa.

  1. Wisła is steaming in… despite having much more problems in the week following their promising win in Gdynia with Arka. Alright, they have lost to Podbeskidzie in Polish Cup where they ‘had their backsides slapped’Tony Pullis) by much better organized opposition but clearly Maaskant and company learned few things from this defeat before clash with Ruch Chorzow on Friday. Maybe first 45 minutes were unimpressive but then introduction of Jirsak made the whole game much easier and the Czech playmaker got a goal and assisted when Melikson scored. Many argued if there is any depth in Wisla’s squad but it seems there is no worry for White Star fans.
  2. Not a happy clubs are both teams from Lower Silesia. Śląsk Wroclaw drew disappointingly with Cracovia  and clearly lacked any power up front which just mounted moans over manager Orest Lenczyk head about his handling of the Sotirović affair… and there are voices that he had a row with the other striker, Cristian Omar Diaz. Leaving Śląsk aside, let’s take a look at what happened in Zagłębie Lubin after awful loss with Górnik in Zabrze. Losing five goals, especially of such high class, may be not the worst thing that happened to them but today I heard that Marek Bajor may be on his way out of the club and Jan Urban is close to replacing him as Zagłębie manager. Is revolution the best way to get the results right?
  3. The best thing I have noticed about Warsaw derby was two late substitutes from both managers, Legia’s Maciej Skorża and Polonia’s Theo Bos. The first one gave a debut to young and impressive Rafał Wolski who enjoyed good pre-season, while Dutch manager preferred young Paweł Wszołek instead of Ebi Smolarek. Both are teenagers and especially the latter performed well enough to hope that he will not be only limited to the several minutes per season. For the derby game itself, we could enjoy quite good match between two sides that were well organized but only one had a plan how to win it. Legia looked faster, more confident and with class upfront, while Polonia looked rather toothless, especially when opponents kept Mierzejewski and Bruno quiet for the whole game. Przyrowski had a great game and probably saved his team from losing more than to a single goal. Own goal.
  4. I’m pretty sure that I know by now who should be relegated and does not deserve to play in Ekstraklasa. Cracovia is the obvious choice, being bottom of the table but witnessing their performance against Śląsk I had yet another argument of how poor they are. Nothing to offer upfront, comedy mistakes at the back and only second consecutive great game from their keeper gave them second point during the spring. Oh, and the other team? It’s Polonia Bytom and it may not be about all the problems they have inside the club but rather average team manager Robert Góralczyk has. If he counts on young Łukasz Tymiński, playing only his twelfth game in Ekstraklasa to be the leader and drive them forward, it can’t be good, despite the best efforts of the young man.
  5. What a fantastic weekend we had in terms of beautiful goals. Melikson scored a beauty from Jirsak pass on Friday, Górnik Zabrze scored three fantastic screamers courtesy of Kwiek, Jeż and Sikorski, Dzalamidze shined throughout for Widzew but his debut goal for them was more than special, while I liked also the move Lech made to create their third in Gdynia against Arka. The hit from Edi Andradina was a nice one, while Traore did well with his second for Lechia. You can watch them all here – it is worth your time.

League standings can be found here.

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