We’re now 48 hours removed from Poland’s 2-0 win over Saudi Arabia on Saturday afternoon, and the mood surrounding the national team, their performance and the way they played has done a complete U-turn from the reaction following the Mexico draw.
I’ll be writing about five of the things I took from Saturday’s result, in particular the wonderful performances of Wojciech Szczęsny and Robert Lewandowski, as well as some well-earned praise for Czesław Michniewicz.
1: Szczęsny’s match-winning performance
Image via @FifaWorldCup on Twitter
It cannot be said enough how crucial Wojtek Szczęsny was to the result on Saturday. Not just in his penalty save and and the other defensive work he did, but his distribution with the ball at his feet was a welcome change from the game against Mexico. Poland’s first goal came from a wonderfully chipped ball out to Matty Cash, who obviously then continued the positive move up the pitch.
I got pretty carried away on Twitter when Szczęsny made the double save from the penalty, claiming it probably made up for all the mistakes he had made in a Poland shirt. Without wishing to continue the hyperbole, I think it probably has gone a long way to making up for those past errors and the Liverpool fan in me was reminded of Jerzy Dudek’s double save from Andriy Shevchenko in the 2005 Champions League final, but I digress.
We have known for some time now that Szczęsny is a bit of a penalty specialist, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn he has saved 25 penalties in his career, which is more than the likes of Iker Casillas and Manuel Neuer.
Szczęsny continued producing wonderful saves in the second half, and for me it was a performance worthy of the man of the match award, although Fifa clearly disagreed.
2: Lewandowski finally gets his goal
Image via @FifaWorldCup on Twitter
Each and every one of us felt pretty overjoyed to see Lewy finally get his goal at the World Cup, especially after the missed penalty against Mexico. To have the presence of mind to score such an easy opportunity took real skill, especially given all the talk and everything that had gone beforehand, not to mention Lewandowski having hit the post earlier in the second half.
The goal probably overshadows a lot of the other good things that Lewy did throughout the game, in particular his assist for Piotr Zieliński’s goal. Not many strikers would have been able to show the composure that Lewandowski did when he took the ball wider than he probably thought he would when he touched the ball over and around the goalkeeper.
The Argentina game is sure to be tough as Lewandowski will likely get few chances. We just have to hope he will take them in a similar manner to how he did on Saturday.
3: The tactics and in-game management
Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
I am not a big fan of Czesław Michniewicz nor the football he plays with his sides, but I am more than happy to admit that plenty of what he did and how he set the team up against Saudi Arabia worked very well. To have a back four out of possession and a back three in possession made the transitions particularly nervous to watch, but going forward Poland looked far better than they had against Mexico.
Furthermore, the substitutions that Michniewicz made, with Jakub Kamiński and Krzysztof Piątek, really helped cement Poland as a counter-counter-attacking threat in the second half (Kamiński in particular).
I’m hopeful we’ll see similar tactics implemented against Argentina, especially as they proved with their game against Mexico on Saturday night that the football they play can often be disjointed and open to the counter.
4: Krychowiak did his work effectively
Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
Grzegorz Krychowiak is often criticised for his play with the national team, and it’s probably true that if Jakub Moder was fit then we wouldn’t be seeing him in the starting line-up for Poland at this World Cup.
Despite this, the work he did to defend and to relieve pressure on Saturday was perfectly satisfactory. He was not at the standard he once was, but he has been okay for a long time now and at least in my option is often criticised unfairly (even if I’m sometimes doing the criticising).
He will almost certainly start again on Wednesday night, and I hope that he can keep up these solid, workman-like performances.
5: Matty Cash needs to calm down at times
Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
I’m hesitant to criticise Matty Cash, he is one of the side’s best players on paper and was instrumental to the first goal against Saudi Arabia. However, he was probably lucky to be on the pitch.
In the early parts of the match, Saudi Arabia put Poland under a lot of pressure and Cash picked up a yellow card with a fairly needless challenge. He then sent a flailing elbow into the side of the head of his opponent and somehow didn’t receive a second yellow.
The refereeing was particularly poor all game on Saturday, but this shouldn’t distract us from the fact that for all Matty Cash gives Poland he needs to exercise greater caution at times.
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