But in the second half, the Japanese, as if helped by a divine wind, turned the tables. The Germans were leading 13-1 in the shots classification at the break. After the break, the Japanese scored as many as 10 hits, impressed with their stubbornness, quick attack, good combination, technical game.
And they, like the players of the Saudi national team before, showed that if you are determined and organized enough, you can beat anyone. If you come to the World Cup once every four years (and some may come once in a lifetime), don’t spoil it with a scary, conservative strategy.
Unfortunately, this was the path the Poles took. After the statements of the players before and after the match, we read that the job was done, it wasn’t too bad and so on. Hard to listen to, hard to read, it evokes reality, telling audiences that white is black. I don’t want to believe that Robert Lewandowski, who has played in directed teams all his life, suddenly said on his own: “We played smart and we should have won.”
ViaPlay journalist Andrej Twarovski cited an interesting stat. Lewandowski has five assists from Piotr Zieliński and as many as 19 from Wojciech Szczęsny. No less interesting statistics were shown by TV channel journalist Tomasz Swiczka. In the match against Germany, the Poles had as many as 32 passes over 36 meters (about half the field), followed by Wales – 18, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia – 17 passes each.
Is this supposed to be a smart game? kick from the goalkeeper and leave the will of heaven? In terms of style of play, it is difficult to find a team at the World Cup at such a low level today. Of course, Qatar and Iran were weaker, but this was due to the individual quality and class of the competitor. However, Iran played a great match with England.
Michniewicz’s strategy is the result of a vicious circle in which Polish football has found itself. Pragmatism is everywhere among the Polish coaches, no inclination to take risks, no love for attacking play. why? Because he can be fired, so he has to live. And this is what Polish football looks like at every level, from children’s to adult games.
“Laga, killer, constant part of the game” So it is not surprising that the team led by the coach of the Polish League played like them. Czesaw Michniewicz is a leading representative of the Polish school. Today one only regrets that we didn’t try. It’s not about the players. Under Paulo Souza or Leo Beenhacker, we wanted to play attacking, take risks, sometimes lose, but improve.
Most Polish coaches will play the same way. It was similar under Adam Nowak, Kamil Celik said. Glick is wrong and very wrong. Under Nawaka, he was “on both the defensive and the offensive side.” Apart from the fact that we defended well, we were well organized up front, and we were able to use the middle. At the moment we have some good European players and we can’t take advantage of that.
Michniewicz asked reporters if it was possible to put together a more offensive squad than he had. Probably not, but the configuration of the composition and the director-imposed gameplay is a different story. So what if you have great assistants like Sebastian Szymanski or Piotr Zielinski, if you’re not going to use them. In our performance it was not a game of ball, but of tennis, with creative assistants shooting into the net.
In fact, it was a great chance to win, because Mexico is in crisis, and they have the weakest team in years. Yet we lacked the courage to be like Japan, like Saudi Arabia. Even in the end, El Mokhtar didn’t take any chances, not letting in Michel Skura or Camille Grosicki, who are there to take advantage of the attack.
However, for the Japanese and Saudi Arabia players, a tie with Germany or Argentina was a dream come true. Yet they all went out, took risks, and hit the pot and thanks to this, players’ names will be written in football history forever.
and we? We have the last chance. To beat Saudi Arabia, we have to play just like Saudi Arabia. and Japan. Aggressive, aggressive, fearless. If we don’t win on Saturday, our odds are anything but mathematical.
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