Legia.Net – Legia Warszawa – Some notes after the match against Pogoń

Rotation, five substitutions, six players playing left-footed – Coach Kosra Ronjajic decided to make five changes compared to the match against Gornik Zabrze. In defence, Steve Kobade came on for Radovan Pankov, Paweł Wszołek returned to his place for Makana Baku, as did Bartosz Slisz for Jurgen Celhaka, and Josue, Maciej Rosolek. Ernest Moussi started this time, and Mark Goal was on the bench. It must be admitted that the Legia coach took Pogoń Szczecin seriously and sent a cup team that was close to the optimal team. It is worth noting how diverse the starting line-up is – Tobias, Capuade, Ribeiro, Elitim, Kun and Gozowi are the players with the leading left foot, while Jędrzejczyk, Wszołek, Slisz, Pekhart and Muci have the better right foot. Having such a diverse staff gives the coaching staff great opportunities.

A technical and wonderful midfield – What caught most attention during the match, especially in the first half, was the wonderful midfield that Al-Faylaq controlled. The trio of Seles, Elitim and Jose is the best midfield in the entire Premier League today, but also one of the best in recent years. Slisz isn’t just a guy who runs for two and receives balls, but he plays as well. In Szczecin, he willingly moved to the right side, pushing Wszołek inside and sending precise passes into the penalty area. Jose felt relaxed when creating situations, and was happy to play with the outside of his foot, either Thomas Beckhardt or Ernst Mussi, who were usually very dangerous with the ball, opening the way to goal. The defense was a bit weaker, and the Portuguese also made a mistake while passing the ball, which led to a goal being missed, but the closer he was to the opponent’s goal, the better he looked. Above all, Elitem is as good defensively as he is offensively, but the Colombian deserves a separate paragraph for him.

Mr. elite soccer player – It’s really a great transfer for Jacek Zieliński and Radosław Mozyrka. He has been at Legia for a short time, but he has already become close to the team, he sympathizes with it, remains silent like a child after his or his teammates’ goals, and quickly adapted to Kosta Rungaic’s playing style and demands. At first, he was mainly observing his teammates and rivals, getting to know the league and the new environment, but very quickly he began to play an important role in the team, becoming more important from match to match. In the match in Szczecin, he fought defensively, came back, helped his teammates, secured them – he made 11 tackles, including 5 in the opponent’s half! In the creative phase, he was almost flawless, his passes were precise, calculated and cut through the defence. He passed at a 90 percent efficiency rate — 52 of 58 passes reached the receiver. He won 70 percent of his duels – 11 out of 16. He only had one shot on target and it ended in a goal, although he was a bit lucky in that case. But this needs help, and Elitim did just that a moment ago by receiving the ball and deciding to shoot. He also scored an assist worth three points – in the absence of Josue, who had already left the field, he scored a free kick at the side of the pitch. He did it brazenly – he kicked in the air, deceiving and provoking his opponent, who after a while fouled him. The free kick was executed perfectly by Steve Capwadi, who scored his first and very important goal for Legia. There would be no victory in Szczecin if it were not for Jürgen Elitem and his brilliant play.

Error on Jędza, a higher level of Greek representation The origins of theater go back to Greece, and it was a celebration. The first actor appeared there, and one of the literary genres – drama – developed there. In recent weeks, the Greeks, thanks to their theatrical roots, have managed to take the Super League to a new level of simulation, a level that others in the country on the Vistula River could not have reached. First, Alexandros Katranis pitched in Gliwice. He attacked Jose and hit him in the ankle joint. Just as he himself made a mistake that endangered the legionnaire’s health, he began screaming in pain, fell to the field as if he had been electrocuted, and curled up on the field, howling incredulously. Damian Šelwistrzak, who was in charge of the match, was fooled and could not stand the pressure and showed the captain the second yellow card and thus the red card. Bartosz Frankowski, who was sitting on VAR, clearly didn’t help. The second part of the Greek drama took place in Szczecin. Alexandros Kolouris clashed with Artur Jędrzejczyk. Both players grabbed each other and caused them to fall. As he fell, Legion struck the home player in the face, and immediately began grabbing his head. Even – at some point, the Greek noticed that the “Gadza” shoe was on his hand and decided to take advantage of it. He immediately grabbed the shoe, held it with all his strength and screamed as if he had been burned. Artur tried to get up, wanted to take his leg, but he didn’t really know how. Referee Tomas Mosia, like Damian Selostrzak before him, was fascinated by the Greek stage art style and decided to punish Legionnaires with a yellow card. And perhaps we would not have talked about this situation if it had not been for the presence of Bartosz Frankowski in VAR – again he did not help, but this time he decided to intervene, which he did not decide to do in Gliwice. The referee showed the event in slow motion, which distorted reality, so the referee changed his decision, canceled the yellow card, and awarded a red card. It must be acknowledged that Messrs. Katranis and Koulouris raised the level of simulation to an unprecedented level.

The fate of the match has been reversed, the game is full – Legia turned the game around again, again this season. She lost three times in Szczecin and made up for her loss three times until she finally took the lead, which she did not give up until the final whistle. What is even more impressive is that Legia twice came back from losing while playing with ten men and then struck a decisive blow. It is also worth noting that after scoring the fourth goal, Legia controlled the game until the end, not allowing Pogo to build even a single movement. Gil Dias and Elitim, who have already been praised several times in this summary, played wonderfully in the end. Costa Rongajic’s team is strong today in sports, but even stronger mentally! This team always plays to its full potential, no matter the circumstances or obstacles we face. Many teams and coaches would probably be satisfied after scoring the third equalizer and leave it at that, considering the circumstances, but not Legia – no one was satisfied with the draw, everyone wanted to win and the goal was achieved. Bartosz Slez spoke directly about the fact that they were accused of not winning away from home for a long time – since March and the match against Radomiac, they had not won in Szczecin for six years and did everything to prevent such an opportunity to reproach again. This was achieved despite extremely unfavorable circumstances.

Two goals were scored at my request – To avoid only positives and compliments, we would like to mention that Legia in Szczecin did not draw any results in its defensive game. Pogoń played a corner kick twice so that the pass from the corner of the field was directed to Vahan Biczakhchyan in front of the penalty area, and he shot into the goal. In several other situations, the Armenian representative waited outside the penalty area and tried to shoot with his left foot, taking advantage of his greatest advantage. Unfortunately, Legia players did not draw any conclusions from this. In the 71st minute, Wahan was alone in front of the penalty area during a corner kick, and when the ball hit him, Josue tried to jump to him, but it was too late and after a while the ball fluttered into Kakbar’s net. Tobias goal. It is also worth noting that the Pogoń players quickly jumped on Josue when he also played the ball back. Such was the case in the 29th minute when the Portuguese lost the ball at the 25-metre mark, but then three Legia players were behind him and Artur Jedrzejczyk corrected his mistake. Unfortunately, the situation was repeated after the break in the 51st minute of the match – again, one of the Bogo players jumped at Gozoe who was throwing the ball and took the ball, but then the captain only had Steve Kabwadi behind him, who was completely calm. Negative when Alexandros Koulouris entered the penalty area and shot the ball, and after a while he was happy with the goal. Legia must avoid such situations, because there will be a match and an opponent when it will be impossible to make up for these losses.