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Post by Jurek on Oct 15, 2002 9:11:18 GMT
Boniek turns to uncapped duo after shock defeat
Poland coach Zbigniew Boniek, under fire after the dismal 1-0 defeat by Latvia in a Euro 2004 qualifier, has called up uncapped Michal Stasiak and Mariusz Nalepa for Wednesday's friendly against New Zealand.
Stasiak, a defender at Widzew Lodz and captain of Poland's Under-21 team, will replace Schalke 04's Tomasz Hajto, who suffered an Achilles injury in Saturday's qualifier.
Karpaty Lviv goalkeeper Nalepa will give a break to Poland's number one Jerzy Dudek, who returns to club duty at Liverpool.
Boniek was grilled by the press after the shock home defeat to Latvia, with top selling daily Gazeta Wyborcza's full page sports headline saying: 'It can't get any worse. Skill - none, tactics - none, ideas - none, fitness - none, result - 0-1.'
Boniek said he scaled down squad changes for the New Zealand friendly, to give players a chance to 'make amends' for the loss.
Squad
Goalkeepers: Mariusz Liberda (Groclin Grodzisk), Mariusz Nalepa (Karpaty Lviv)
Defenders: Michal Zewlakow (Anderlecht Brussels), Marcin Kus (Polonia Warsaw), Arkadiusz Glowacki (Wisla Krakow), Jacek Zielinski (Legia Warsaw), Michal Stasiak (Widzew Lodz), Krzysztof Ratajczyk (Austria Vienna)
Midfielders: Mariusz Kukielka (PAOK), Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk), Kamil Kosowski (Wisla Krakow), Tomasz Dawidowski (Amica Wronki), Marek Zienczuk (Amica Wronki), Lukasz Surma (Legia Warsaw)
Forwards: Marcin Zewlakow (Excelsior Mouscron), Artur Wichniarek (Arminia Bielefeld), Maciej Zurawski (Wisla Krakow), Marcin Mieciel (Iraklis Saloniki)
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Post by Eddyp on Oct 15, 2002 11:26:05 GMT
my team would be:
Liberda
Zewlakow (Mi)
Stasiak
Zielinski
Kus
Dawidowski
Kukielka
Surma
Zewlakow (Ma)
Wichniarek
Zurawski
Go for it. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
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Post by panproper on Oct 15, 2002 13:17:21 GMT
unfortunately this applies to nz as well! i'm expecting a 1-1 draw.
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Post by Tyskie Steve on Oct 16, 2002 21:31:54 GMT
Just got in having laughed my way through England rather poor efforts to beat Macedonia. I see we won 2-0 according to the BBC. I suppose we should be happy at that
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Post by Jurek on Oct 17, 2002 8:18:12 GMT
Poland back to winning ways
Wednesday 16 October 2002
Poland beat New Zealand 2-0 in an international friendly on Wednesday.
Defender Krzysztof Ratajczyk fired in a bullet shot from more than 25 metres in the 51st minute to give Poland, who suffered a shock home defeat against Latvia in a EURO 2004™ qualifier last Saturday, a hard-earned lead.
Shortly before the full-time whistle, Mariusz Kukielka confidently converted a Marcin Zewlakow cross to make it 2-0. Poland dominated for long periods but created few chances, as would befit an attack which had scored only one goal in four matches since a disappointing FIFA World Cup campaign in Korea/Japan.
"We lacked the finishing touch. We easily won the game, but lacked calmness in front of our opponents' goal," said coach Zbigniew Boniek. Looking back to Saturday's defeat, he added: "The game with Latvia will stay in my stomach for years."
New Zealand had only two shots on goal, but nearly scored in stoppage time when Gavin Wilkinson's shot from just outside the penalty box hit the crossbar.
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Post by panproper on Oct 17, 2002 9:39:11 GMT
we lacked the finishing touch - unfortunately it's been like that for years and only improved once olisadebe was in the squad and showed the others the way to goal. and then we were in the world cup. although it's a win you don't learn anything playing new zealand. sweden had a friendly last night also - odd that we didn't play them. i wish we did - they're doing worse than us!
as for england tee-hee! just goes to show you don't win internationals by hoofing the ball forward. although england stepped up in the second half so did the macedonians who obviously raised their game and fully deserved a draw. i thought it was disgusting that the english fans took to booing the macedonians at the end when they were applauding them after achieving the greatest result in their footballing history. especially after what happened in slovakia it seems a tad ironic.
i'm waiting for my mate to bring in the sun to read all about the macedonian illegal immigrants and the usual jingoistic nonsense that follows these sort of results.
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Post by Jurek on Oct 18, 2002 8:15:08 GMT
Here's the NZ view of the match taken from: www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/sportsstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=2999743&thesection=sport&thesubsection=soccer&thesecondsubsection=general All Whites face reality
18.10.2002
By TERRY MADDAFORD
The All Whites were given another dose of footballing reality in going down 2-0 to Poland yesterday.
Against a team playing under the threat of their coach's resignation if they did not get a result and in front of 11,000 frantic fans, the All Whites were given a lesson in just how tough football at this level is.
Starved of possession by the Poles, the All Whites spent long periods on defence.
That they did not test the Polish goalkeeper until the 67th minute, when Aaran Lines had the All Whites' first real shot in anger, was testimony to the control the Poles enjoyed.
The All Whites, playing a team ranked 10 places higher (at 37) in the Fifa rankings, at times appeared further off the pace than that.
The first half was reasonably encouraging, with Scott Smith turning in a solid defensive effort.
But much of the good work from Smith and Danny Hay at the back was undone in midfield, where too much ball was given away. This led to a dearth of ball for the strikers.
With Vaughan Coveny out after sustaining a hip injury in the team's final training session, the attack was left with Lines, Kris Bouckenooghe and Noah Hickey, who struggled against the rangy Polish defence.
Coach Mick Waitt said as the team headed back to Warsaw from Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski after the game: "I was encouraged by a lot of what we did against a World Cup team playing in their backyard. But in the end we did not have a lot of possession.
"They are a good side and put us under pressure. We were competitive, but without really threatening to score goals."
Waitt said that when his side were at full strength - and he mentioned players such as Ivan Vicelich, Ryan Nelsen, Simon Elliott, Duncan Oughton, Chris Killen, Mark Burton and Coveny as players who were missing - he was confident he could put out a team capable of fronting up at next year's Confederations Cup.
The Poles finally took advantage of their dominance with second-half strikes by Krzysztof Ratajczyk and Mariusz Kukielka.
The first by Ratajczyk was a spectacular left-foot effort from well outside the area which gave goalkeeper Jason Batty no chance. Batty was otherwise in good form on a busy night.
Six minutes from time, Batty got a hand to a cross from the right but succeeded only in punching the ball to Kukielka who, from close range, hit home his first-time shot.
Polish coach Zbigniew Boniek, one of his country's greatest former players, was relieved.
He said before the game that he would resign if they did not beat the All Whites following a disappointing World Cup campaign this year and a shock 1-0 loss to Latvia last weekend.
"We lacked the finishing touch. We easily won the game, but lacked calmness in front of our opponents' goal," Boniek said. "The match with Latvia will stay in my stomach for years."
There will, no doubt, be some soul-searching for the New Zealanders. On paper the result does not look too bad. In reality, there is much to be done if they are going to be competitive at the Confederations Cup.So Boniek was going to resign if they lost. Can't that team do anything right? |
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Post by Jurek on Oct 18, 2002 8:20:18 GMT
2 reports on the same website. Cool.
All Whites outclassed by Poland
17.10.2002
10.00am New Zealand were outclassed by World Cup finalists Poland 2-0 in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski this morning (NZ time) to end their two-match tour of Europe with a second defeat.
Compared with the 2-3 loss to Estonia in Tallinn on Sunday, today's match was a scrappy affair in cool weather on a soft surface, with the All Whites spending much of the game on defence.
While their midfield was run over, the New Zealand defence and goalkeeper Jason Batty held firm to keep the Poles to just two second-half goals.
The back four was well marshalled by Danny Hay, the tall central defender making his first appearance for the All Whites in four years. Injury and commitments to English club soccer had kept Hay out of the national team.
Chastised at home following a 0-1 loss to Latvia in a Euro 2004 qualifier over the weekend, Poland produced a professional performance in front of a vocal home crowd of 10,000. They took control of the match after the opening 20 minutes, which were relatively even.
New Zealand did well to keep the match scoreless until halftime but couldn't stem the tide in the second spell, with defender Krzysztof Ratajczyk and midfielder Mariusz Kukielka scoring in the 52nd and 87th minutes.
Poland played at this year's World Cup, where they lost to South Korea and Portugal but beat the United States. They are ranked 37th in the world compared with New Zealand's 47.
Poland's most effective player today was the speedy Kamil Kosowski, who was given far too much space by a tired-looking All Whites midfield.
They were often forced into fouls and two of them resulted in yellow cards -- to Aaron Lines and captain Chris Zorocich.
New Zealand created a couple of half-chances midway through the second half and replacement defender Gavin Wilkinson scrapped the crossbar with a left-foot strike in injury time.
Otherwise the New Zealand strike force of Noah Hickey and Christian Bouckenooghe were largely unemployed.
Hay's introduction was one of three changes to the All Whites from the Estonia game. He was joined in defence by Scott Smith from England's Woking club while Lee Jones came into the midfield in place of Ivan Vicelich, who was required by his Dutch club Roda JC.
New Zealand coach Mick Waitt said a positive aspect to come from the match was how his team were able to keep their shape in the face of pressure.
"I was very pleased with how we defended, especially in the first half," Waitt said.
"It was more of a contest at that stage.
"But the pressure went on a little bit after that and we possibly didn't respond well enough. We lost some initiative and gave the ball back to them a little bit too often."
Waitt couldn't pinpoint where the problem lay in terms of maintaining possession.
"It wasn't so much a problem with the midfield, it was a problem with everyone giving the ball back too often and too quickly.
"You're not going to create chances when you do that."
Waitt said both matches of the tour were invaluable for his players in terms of the quality of the opposition and playing in hostile environments.
"The atmosphere tonight was great. The stadium was packed to the rafters. It's a great experience for the guys to play in these sorts of situations," Waitt said.
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