Robert Lewandowski – World Player of the Week

Goal Machine

The editors of Goal.com, comprising journalists from around the world, regularly choose the world’s best footballer of the week. This time Robert Lewandowski is this weeks’ winner after his incredible performance in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid. “It was an absolutely extraordinary week for Robert Lewandowski. His performance is one of the greatest individual performances in Champions League history,” according to Goal.com. Last Wednesday ‘Lewa’ scored four goals giving Borussia Dortmund victory against Real Madrid at Signal Iduna Park (Westfalenstadion), thereby becoming the first player to score four goals against the ‘kings’ of European football. “Not only has Lewandowski proved to have the instincts of a killer, but he also demonstrated his great technical skills. The third goal was unbelievable. No one can doubt his world-class abilities,” according to Goal.com. The journalists emphasise that ‘Lewa’ is already being chased by Europe’s leading football clubs. “Bayern Munich and Manchester United both want him. However, his price has rocketed in the last few days thanks to his performance at Signal Iduna Park which will be part of football folklore for years to come.” Not only that but Borussia together with Lewandowski will be in the Champions League final on the 25th May at Wembley.
Interia.pl

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Victory of Polish Patriotism

Smuda to Blame?

Poland’s football players did not live up to the nation’s expectations. However, journalist Dominik Zdort regards Euro 2012 “a splendid time for patriotic emotions.” The Rzeczpospolita journalist said on TOK FM radio that, “I have watched masses of Poles in white-and-red T-shirts with pleasure. It’s a positive awakening.” He added, “Such excitement is necessary for the country to feel a certain togetherness.” It is interesting that Dominik Zdort does not belong to the group of journalists heavily criticising Polish manager Franciszek Smuda. He stated, “I like this young team. I would not dismiss coach Smuda either, even though he made mistakes in  tactics.” Being a political journalist, Zdort could not resist adding a political twist: “This national team is politically pluralistic. There were hints that Robert Lewandowski is a Civic Platform (PO) supporter and Kuba Błaszczykowski is pro Law and Justice (PiS), but they managed to play together very well.” According to the Rzeczpospolita journalist, Franciszek Smuda and PM Donald Tusk are alike with regard to their… reluctance to make changes. Also, Marek Zając from TVP (Polish TV) shares the opinion that Euro 2012 is a chance for Poles to demonstrate their patriotism. However, he has does not agree with Zdort with regards to the team. “We lost mentally. I blame the manager, Franciszek Smuda, who was supposed to motivate his team to fight from the beginning right until the end.” He added, “Remember how Smuda announced before the Greece match that if the game was looking like finishing a draw he would not throw players on to attack. Before the Russia game Smuda said that he would be satisfied with a draw. It now looks like this drawing attitude, and not playing for a win, backfired on Smuda.”

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Lech Poznań To Face Man City

Game Over Already?

Before the Europa League draw, hopes were high for fans of Lech Poznań (nicknamed Kolejorz, pol. ‘The Railwaymen’). The Polish champions, who only just scraped past Dnipro Dniepropietrovsk (1-0 on aggregate) in the previous round, were hoping for an easy draw and the chance to go as far as possible in the UEFA Europa League. However, after the draw, the bubble appears to have burst for Kolejorz fans. Lech Poznań has been drawn against Italian giants Juventus, Austrian Salzburg and the richest club in the world, big-spending Manchester City. The full draw is as follows:

Group A
Juventus; Manchester City; Salzburg; LECH POZNAŃ

Group B
Atletico Madrid; Bayer Leverkusen; Rosenburg; Thessaloniki

Group C
Sporting; Lille; Levski Sofia; Gent

Group D
Villarreal; Club Brugge; Dinamo Zagreb; PAOK

Group E
Alkmaar; Dinamo Kiev; BATE Borisov; FC Sheriff;

Group F
CSKA Moscow; Palermo; Sparta Prague; Lausanne

Group G
Zenit St Petersburg; Anderlecht; AEK Athens; Hajduk Split

Group H
Stuttgart; Getafe; Odense; Young Boys

Group I
PSV Eindhoven; Sampdoria; FC Metalist Kharkiv; Debreceni

Group J
Sevilla; PSG; Borussia Dortmund; Karpaty Lviv

Group K
Liverpool; Steaua Bucharest; Napoli; Utrecht

Group L
Porto; Besiktas; CSKA Sofia; Rapid Vienna

Gazeta Wyborcza

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Lech Poznań: Champions of Poland

Champions of Poland

After beating Zagłębie Lubin 2:0, Lech Poznań sealed their sixth Polish championship. ‘Kolejorz’ (The Railwaymen) regained the Polish ‘Ekstraklasa’ (Premiership) for the first time in seventeen years. The celebrations started after the final whistle. The team cracked open the champagne and were driven in an open-top bus to Poznań’s Old Town where the celebrations continued. The last time Lech Poznań’s fans had the opportunity to celebrate their team’s success was in 2004 when Lech won the Polish Cup. On Sunday, the team will travel to the capital to receive their winners’ medals.
Wirtualna Polska

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Can Polish Football Get Any Worse?

A Footballing Nightmare

The overall performance of the national team is top priority because it attracts the attention of all fans, and the team’s results have a tremendous effect on our mood. It is rather impractical to compare the qualifying rounds of today to the ones of past years but let’s do it anyway. The amateurs of San Marino were the only ones to face defeat at the hands of the Poles, only San Marino wound up below Poland in the qualifying group: Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Northern Ireland all did better. One would have to go all the way back to 1987 to find similar, disastrous results. Back then Cyprus was the only team Poland beat. Poland only faced one world-class opponent then and even managed a draw, with the Netherlands, who won the European Cup the following year. The conclusion? The performance of the Beenhaker-coached squad was the worst since the expansion of the qualifying-round groups. When we take friendly games into account, the overall result is only slightly more promising, at least statistically. The Polish team did record three victories against Wales, Greece and Canada but calling these teams ‘average’ would be praise they do not deserve.

Poland, however, did have worse years: 1996 began with a 0-5 loss to Japan. European cups? No Polish team has managed to get past the first, preliminary stage of any European competition, an embarrassing ‘achievement’ to say the least. The Polish league is ranked 26th in Europe, again, its worst place in modern history. How have Polish footballers fared abroad? Very poorly. Even the goalies have achieved little to make Poland proud. They either made no noticeable progress (Fabiański, Kuszczak) or played far below their own standards (Boruc). Polish league superstar Paweł Brożek’s search for a foreign employer failed miserably when Fulham decided instead to acquire a virtually unknown Swede who had not even played for his national team yet. Poland is currently 58th in the FIFA rankings, slightly above its 1998 record-low 61. The junior national team’s losses continue to mount, sometimes reaching embarrassing levels such as those against Azerbaijan and the Netherlands. Even the best Polish league games are rarely memorable. The Polish Football Association (PZPN) is losing sponsors. There is practically nothing good that can be said about 2009 for Polish football. One can only hope that the new national team coach Franciszek Smuda will build a team that will bring back memories of the past, if not the glory days of the 1970s and early ’80s.
Gazeta Wyborcza

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Adamek: Arreola On My Mind

Another Battle?

Tomasz Adamek will fight Chris Arreola on April 24 next year, and this might be a stepping stone to a duel against a world champion, possibly even Wladimir Klitschko. The fight will be the main event of the Boxing Fight Championship evening to be broadcast on HBO. Arreola, a Mexican by birth, was considered a heavyweight rising star until his first loss, a 10th round knock-out at the hands of Vitali Klitschko. He is still high in the boxing rankings and is seen as a true American warrior. In his last fight, a win against Brian Minto, Arreola weighed in at about 120 kg, slightly more than Gołota did before his bout with Adamek and it is Arreola who is likely to be a much more formidable opponent for Adamek than his Polish counterpart. The Mexican, although not very quick, packs a very powerful punch. Adamek, a former world champion in two weight categories remains undaunted though: “Adamek is number 1, Adamek will be world champion. Arreola has got what it takes but I have more,” says Adamek. In order to get the chance to fight Arreola, Adamek will have to defeat Jason Estrada, a former bronze medalist from Sydney which might prove a difficult task. On top of that, the 11-week period between the two fights is slightly shorter than ‘normal’. “You don’t say ‘no’ to HBO. I wish there was more time for me to recuperate and prepare for the next opponent but I agreed immediately anyway,” adds Adamek. If the Pole keeps up his winning record, his heavyweight career just might be picture-perfect. First an easy opponent, Gołota, followed by the demanding Estada, then the tough, well-known Arreola and eventually a world champion. As long as he continues winning, Adamek’s salary will certainly keep increasing.
Gazeta Wyborcza

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Ski Season Around the Corner

Skiing in Poland

It is freezing in the Beskids, so the snow guns are working at full steam. Although officially the ski season kicks off tomorrow, some ski lifts have already been open today, like the upgraded chairlift in Wisła-Nowa Osada. During  the season last year, skiers had to use the run-down two-person T-bar lift at Czupel. But this time, the old lift has been replaced by a new cable car system, designed to carry 1,800 skiers per hour, with a 900m (about 3,000 feet) long track. The passenger cabins feature four-person comfortable couches to sit on. Also today, chairlifts at the Soszów Ski Station and at the Stożek ski centre in Wisła ran for the first time. On Saturday, Czantoria in Ustroń and Zagroń in Istebna will be open for skiers and snowboarders, as well as Cieńków, Rowienki and Kiczera in Wisła. The new season at lesser-known ski slopes will commence in a few days.
Polska

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Logo of Euro 2012

Creating History Together

The new logo of Euro 2012 is a green sprig with three flowers  in red, yellow and blue representing the two host nations. The middle flower, which  is the biggest, resembles a football. The new logo of Euro 2012 was presented in Kiev. “It looks like a goal keeper, who is falling down or the tentacles of an octopus,” joked Henryk Sawka, the logo designer. The logo was unveiled at Michajłowski Square in the centre of Kiev by the President of UEFA. He was accompanied by Grzegorz Lato, President of the Polish Football Association (PZPN), and Hrihorij Surkis, President of the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU). The slogan of Euro 2012, which was also presented is not the most sophisticated but is both simple and clear. It reads as follows: “Creating History Together”. The three-colour logo of the football championships includes elements of Polish and Ukrainian folk art and the whole logo looks like a folk cut-out, much like the paper-cutting art of the rural areas of Poland and Ukraine.
Dziennik

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

Burnt Out Gortat?

Future Up in the Air

On Thursday, December 10th, the only Pole in the NBA played 4 minutes against the Utah Jazz (his team, the Magic, lost 111:120 in Salt Lake City). He collected 2 defensive rebounds and 2 fouls. Over the last 7 games he has averaged 7 minutes playing time per game, 1.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, about 0.5 blocks and 2 fouls. These averages fall way short of expectations. “Marcin is not playing as well as he did last year,” says Magic’s coach, Stan Van Gundy. “He averages fewer rebounds, runs less, lacks the energy that used to be a strength of his. I am not saying he is playing poorly, though. He is still helping the team.” The problem is that Gortat is not helping his teammates to the extent he could. After a very successful finish to the 2008/09 season and signing a multi-million dollar contract, he was hoping to take the next step in his career. That has not happened so far, though. He has been performing well below par from the very beginning of the current season even though, mainly as Dwight Howard’s back-up, his main tasks are limited to defence and rebounding. The man is clearly tired. After a long NBA season in which the Magic reached, and lost in, the Finals, Gortat ran a training camp for kids in Poland, prepared for the EuroBasket tournament with the Polish national team and later averaged over 30 minutes per game in that event. After returning to Florida, he immediately joined Magic’s training camp. “It is very difficult for me to handle all this from a physical standpoint. I am also burnt out mentally,” says Gortat.
Gazeta Wyborcza

Newzar can be emailed to you directly

No Big Fights For Adamek

No Takers

New Polish heavyweight hero Tomek Adamek is no longer scheduled to go up against a well-known boxer on February 6. The reason? A shortage of funds. If the much talked about showdown on February 6 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey were a football match it would carry the status of a friendly outside of FIFA’s time frame. The main reason is that there are no major American television stations that are planning to broadcast the event, much less have it in their budgets. Ziggy Rozalski, Adamek’s promoter told Gazeta Wyborcza that Michael Grant, James Toney and Hassim Rahman have recently declined the offer to take on the Polish boxer.
Gazeta Wyborcza

Newzar can be emailed to you directly