Lech Poznan celebrates the first trophy of the season as they beat Ruch Chorzow 1-0 in Slaski Stadium today. Slawomir Peszko’s 51st minute strike was all it took to carry Lech to win it’s 5th Puchar Polski. The play was nicely set up by Hernan Rengifo who looked like he might get fouled, passed it at the last possible second, and Peszko made no mistake with the shot.
The game started very wide open. First 20-minutes or so both teams attacked like crazy. I thought Lech carried the play because they had a few more dangerous chances. After that, it was pretty much a stalemate. Even all around. Only player to really impress, besides Lech’s defense, to me was Peszko, who was everywhere. No doubt he was by far the best player in this game. Manuel Arboleda was his usual self, dominating the backline for Lech. He looked like a man among boys. Ruch could never figure him out.
Ruch did get a bit lucky mid-way through the first half, when 
TomaszBandrowski got fouled. The referee called it a dive. Replays clearly showed that the defender from Ruch didn’t get any of the ball, just knocked Bandrowski down. Should have been a penalty kick.
Two players I wasn’t too impressed with today were Semir Stilic and Robert Lewandowski. Seemed like Ruch played them well, and both had nothing to offer to the Lech attack. Both must be nearing the end of a very tiresome season for Lech. It seemed like both were running on empty. Luckily for both, Bandrowski and Peszko were on top of their games offensively.
I also have to question Ruch’s manager Boguslaw Pietrzak. Some of the subs he used were very odd, atleast to me. He took off his best attacker Marcin Nowacki in the 54th minute for 18-year old Artur Sobiech. Then, just 10 minutes later, he took off striker Remigiusz Jezierski for 22-year old Lukasz Janoszka. The attackers, Nowacki and Jerierski were over powered. They were struggling because Lech defense dominated. They didn’t need to be taken off, they just needed reinforcements. They needed help, but didn’t get any. Only thing they got, was send off the pitch and allow two young, inexperienced players come in and try their luck against a great defense, a team who was up 1-0 and started to bunker down and on the verge of winning the Polish Cup. Very odd subs, i was surprised, i won’t lie. After the 65th minute, Ruch didn’t have any chances to even get excited about.
It was pretty cool to see Lech keeper Ivan Turina, head to manager Franz 
Smuda and give him a hug. The two laughed, and it kind of seemed like Turina was telling Smuda “See, i won’t didn’t let you down”. Good, feel good moment. Turina played an awesome match, when he needed to, he made the big save. Turina, for one of the few times I can say this, looked like the keeper that Lech thought they got when they first signed him. He was world class tonight.
Congrats to Lech Poznan. My prediction was way off. (I said 2-0 Ruch). It’s funny, Ruch were 90 minutes away from winning a trophy and getting a spot to play in Europe next season, and now must re-focus and plan their next two leagues games, because Ruch is in danger of falling and getting relegated. They only sit 3-points clear from relegation. Lech can’t celebrate for too long. They still need to hope Wisla Krakow somehow draws or loses a match in the final two weeks, and Lech must get a full 6. Winning Puchar Polski is nice, but Lech’s dream is still to get a sniff at the Champions League.
Not all was well in Chorzow. Fan violence once again will be a hot topic in the next few days because of what happened. It seems like every big league match and national team match, fans become the big talking point. Fans from both clubs clashed behind Ruch’s goal in the 1st half. The action was not seen on TVN because they refused to give Poland a black eye to it’s viewers. But,
the scenes of fans running to the empty section and then hearing the Police fire off tear gas to separate the fans, is just not cool. Polish football will never grow with hooligans like this at matches. At the start of the 2nd half, Lech fans in the upper deck started to light flares, with objects falling down, forcing fans in the lower section to flee. One fan was struck by a falling flare and many fans who paid good money, missed the lone goal.
It is what it is though.
Ruch Chorzów: Krzysztof Pilarz – Ariel Jakubowski, Rafał Grodzicki, Ireneusz Adamski, Tomasz Brzyski – Wojciech Grzyb, Michał Pulkowski (77. Gabor Straka), Grzegorz Baran, Marcin Nowacki (55. Artur Sobiech), Pavol Balaz – Remigiusz Jezierski.(65. Łukasz Janoszka).
Lech Poznań: Ivan Turina – Marcin Kikut, Zlatko Tanevski, Manuel Arboleda, Luis Henriquez – Sławomir Peszko (89. Jakub Wilk), Tomasz Bandrowski, Rafał Murawski, Semir Stilić (73. Dmitrij Injac) – Robert Lewandowski (90. Ivan Djurdjević), Hernan Rengifo.
Sloppy play continues for Lech. Thankfully there was no need for late minute miracles. Funny how Peszko recently stated that it would be nice if Lech got some goals earlier on and not right at the end of the game, just to score one shortly after the 2nd half started.