Another match day for the Polish national team and Franz Smuda, and yet another disappointing ending. In their first game since getting absolutley embarressed by Spain 0-6 right prior to the World Cup, Poland played hosts to Cameroon today in Szczecin, and got just as embarrassed, losing 0-3 in front of the home crowd.
Poland showed little to no life all match. With poor passing and very little attacking, anyone watching the game could just tell that Poland was getting out matched by a Cameroon squad that didn’t exactly send their “A-team”. Besides their star striker Samuel Eto’o, Cameroon picked mostly their reserve players from their disappointing world cup squad, along with several young up and comers.
The match had it’s doubts right from the original call-ups by Smuda, raising many questions about why some players even made it. Including striker Pawel Brozek, who has been struggling for Wisla Krakow recently and got a start today. Brozek, besides a few nice passes, was nonexistent all match long.
The best scoring chance Poland had was a Rafal Murawski strike which hit the cross bar. Other then that, i thought Murawski played a very poor game. On the second goal, he went in recklessly at the Cameroon player, missed, which allowed him to have such a great opportunity on net, and they didn’t waste it. Murawski is a very good talent, in the right system, he could be very beneficial to his side, however, he is very soft, too soft too play the central defensive position. If we had a world class central midfielder, things may be different and allow Murawski to do what he does, but we don’t, and he becomes a liability too often during games, and the only positive we get is one or two good plays from him.
Robert Lewandowski had a great scoring chance late in the match. Poland down 0-2 at the time, it would have made it for a great finish, but, Lewandowski one on one with the keeper running in, lightly shot it at their keeper. Killing the scoring chance. One could say he could have passed it across the box to a wide-open Kuba, but why? Any time you pass, you make it harder to score, makes it easier for a mistake to happen. He needed to do what he did- shoot, however, he needed to FINISH. Nobody on our roster can finish and that has been a problem for the last a long time.
The defense once again failed the team. With no holding midfielder, as Dariusz Dudka and Murawski are not exactly world class talents, it’s just another road bump for the back line, making their jobs much harder then what they were supposed to be. I thought Maciej Sadlok looked good again at left back. He wants a bigger role, he loves having the ball at his feet and i didn’t see too many mistakes from him. His one on one defending was excellent today. Glik? Not so much. He is still a very raw player. I am very happy he’s moved away from the Polish league to sign with Palermo in Italy, because he will learn a lot there. I wish Sadlok would be the next to leave for a different league. These two are our future, don’t make any mistakes about it. Glik may be struggling last two matches, but he’s a world talent. Can’t say that about too many of our younger players. Just like in the match against Spain, Glik, started very well, but, got worse with time. He will improve on that as he gains more experience from playing in big matches for Palermo.
One player which i wouldn’t mind not seeing play for Poland again, atleast for a while, is Ludovic Obraniak. His foot skills are great, probably in the same class as Kuba, and he does have a instinct to score, he wants to score each time he has the ball, which I like, because, well, nobody else on our roster seems to want that responsibility. He does. However, the man just kills our attacks way too often. Sometimes, you just need to reevaluate the pluses and minuses of the situation. Are all his minus worth the pluses? To me, no. He takes reckless shots without even thinking, skying balls or shooting them a mile wide. And his passing, is awful. He may be one of the worst passers I’ve seem play for the Polish national team in a long time. The momentum killer that is when he makes a horrid pass to a wide open player, after a nice run by two or three players, making nice passes, can not be calculated. It kills the offense. It’s physically and mentally killing.
Just another heart break for Poland. Back to the drawing board goes Smuda, i got to think this one will sting a lot though. Not sure what he can do now or what tricks he may have up his sleeve to fix this mess?
Goals: Eto’o (30., 54.), Aboubakar (85.)
Cameroon: G. A. Ndy – B. Ekotto Assou, S. Bassong, N. Nkoulu (63. Bikey), A. Binya – A. Chedjou (76. Matip), J. II Makoun, H. Bedimo (82. Bong), M. Ndjeng – E. Choupo-Moting (58. Bienvonu), S. Eto’o (80. Aboubakar)
Poland: Ł. Fabiański (46. P. Tytoń) – G. Wojtkowiak, K. Glik, M. Żewłakow, M. Sadlok – J. Błaszczykowski, R. Murawski (58. A. Mierzejewski), D. Dudka (72. Matuszczyk), L. Obraniak (77. Peszko) – R. Lewandowski, P. Brożek
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