Ekstraklasa Round 19 wrap-up

Ekstraklasa got to a real crazy start to Round 19 on Friday with LKS Lodz holding on to a 4-3 victory over Cracovia Krakow. The game featured the most goals of any match this season, and also featured some late second heroics as LKS Lodz was down by two in their home stadium with only a minute to go. LKS Lodz needed a miracle. And they got it. First, Rafal Kujawa scored in the 89th minute, and then Wahan Geworgian scored give Lodz the all important 3 points. National team hopefuls Maciej Iwanski, Robert Lewandowski , Roger, and Pawel Brozek all scored for their clubs this weekend as well. Here’s the rest from around the Ekstraklasa in Round 19-

—- Round 19 Ekstraklasa Statistics —-

Goals scored: 26

Yellow cards: 18

Red cards: 0

Biggest attendance: 16,000 (Poznan)

—- Ekstraklasa Team of the Week —-

————————————— Kasprzik ———————————–

———- Kaszowski ——– Zuraw ———– Bak ————- Djurdevic —

——— Gorawski ———– Roger ——— Nowak ——- Gancarczyk —-

—————————- Brozek ———— Ludzinski ———————–

—- Goalie —-

Grezgorz Kasprzik (Piast Gliwice) Outstanding performance in 1-0 win against heavily favorite GKS Belchatow. Made 4 saves.

—- Defense —-

Jaroslaw Kaszowski (Piast Gliwice) Strong all game in 1-0 win and added assist.

Dariusz Zuraw (Arka Gdynia) Played a very good game at central defense and scored a goal, a nice tip in off a rebound.

Krzysztof Bak (Lechia Gdansk) Scored a goal and defended well in helping his club to a 2-0 victory over Ruch Chorzow.

Ivan Djurdevic (Lech Poznan) Very strong game against a high powered offense in 1-0 win over Jagiellonia.

—- Midfield —-

Damian Gorawski (Gornik Zabrze) Poised a thread all game long, and scored a goal and an assist in 2-2 draw against Arka Gdynia.

Roger Guerreiro (Legia Warsaw) Outstanding the entire game in a 4-0 game. The best player on the field in a lopsided match. Scored a goal and added an assist.

Pawel Nowak (Cracovia Krakow) Scored 2 goals in 3-4 loss to LKS Lodz.

Marek Gancarczyk (Slask Wroclaw) Had two assists in 3-0 win over Polonia Bytom and made several quality runs up the wing. Also, it was his cross that was tipped in for an own-goal.

—- Forwards —-

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow) Scored both goals in 2-1 win over Polonia Warsaw. He could have had more if it wasn’t for a few unlucky bounces.

Przemyslaw Ludzinski (Slask Wroclaw) Scored two goals in 3-0 win over Polonia Bytom.

—- The good, the bad and the ugly! —-

The good- Pawel Brozek returned to form on Saturday with two excellent goals to power his Wisla Krakow over Polonia Warsaw 2-1 in a snowy and cold Krakow. Brozek’s first goal came in the 27th minute, when he got the ball from a cross and made a nice tip for goal. His second goal came in the 74th minute, breaking a 1-1 tie, by scoring a nicely put ball in the top corner. Brozek now leads the Ekstraklasa in goals with 14.

The bad- Even though they lost Lukasz Gargula for the season due to injury, GKS Belchatow was still considered to be a top 5 club in Poland. After a emotional 3-2 loss last week to leaders Lech Poznan, things got easier for them this week as they played last place Piast Gliwice. Things got a bit tougher after Sebastian Olszar scored to give Gliwice a 1-0 lead. And Belchatow never recovered and never were able to break the Gliwice defense, and when they did, keeper Grzegorz Kasprzik got in their way. Belchatow have now dropped their first two matches of the spring season and now sit in 6th place.

The ugly- Despite the game being out of reach, you never want to miss a golden chance for a goal and that’s what Slask Wroclaw’s Sebastian Mila did in a 3-0 win over Polonia Bytom. The score was 3-0 Slask when they were awarded a penalty kick. Mila, had the keeper guessing the wrong way and had the entire left side of the net wide open and yet still missed the net. Not the brightest moment in Mila’s career, but hey, his team won 3-0 so it doesn’t really matter.

—- Goal of the week —-

Lechia Gdansk for the second weekend in a row are featured on the Soca Soul! Ekstraklasa goal of the week. This time it’s sub Jakub Kawa scoring a wonderful header, which he got off a cross from last week’s goal of the week scorer Maciej Kowalczyk in the 81st minute. Kawa’s goal put the game out of hand and insured Gdansk a 2-0 victory over Ruch Chrozow.

—- Looking Ahead to Round 20 —-

GKS Belchatow (6) – Wisla Krakow (3)

Odra Wodzislaw (14) – Slask Wroclaw (5)

Cracovia Krakow (15) – Lechia Gdansk (10)

Polonia Warsaw (4) – LKS Lodz (11)

Gornik Zabrze (16) – Lech Poznan (1)

Jagiellonia (12) – Legia Warsaw (2)

Arka Gydnia (7) – Piast Gliwice (13)

Polonia Bytom (8) – Ruch Chorzow (9)