“Fernando Santos is just studying our national team. For him, the match in Prague was a kind of slap in the face, because the new selector of the national team did not expect such a course of the match at all, - says the former captain of the Polish national team Roman Kosetsky.
Dariusz Tuzimek (“Wprost”): Do you have any explanation why the Polish team had such a bad start against the Czech Republic? What failed? Concentration? Mental preparation? Or maybe the Poles simply ignored their rivals, because our players play in much better clubs than the Czechs.
Roman Kosetsky: Several factors contributed to such a disastrous start. I do not think that what we saw in the first minutes of this match is a true representation of the strength of our team. I am convinced that we have much greater potential.
Perhaps, somewhere in the depths of their souls, the members of our team thought that since we play in better clubs than the Czechs, it will be easy for us. Nothing could be more wrong. In football, if someone does not fight, his purely football advantage is useless. And the Czechs are a physical team, very strong, well-coordinated. It is extremely inconvenient to play against them. It was shocking that we lost every fight for the ball to them.
Why?
I have the impression that the Poles wanted to know the opponent only during the match, to see how the match would go, what the opponent had at their disposal, and before our players had time to understand all this, we were already losing 0-2. Immediately became nervous, and it was difficult for us to restore balance. Nevertheless, the Czechs warned before the match that they would go to war with us, that they would play uncompromisingly.
Their coach said in an interview that the advantage of the Czechs is that they have a team, and we are just trying to build it. This was fully confirmed on Friday.
I think it’s safe to say that Fernando Santos missed the squad several times.
There are many doubts about the personnel choice of the Portuguese. For such an opponent as the Czechs, I would see in eleven strong and tall players, such as Pavel Davidovich, who spent the entire match in Prague on the bench. There we needed players who were not afraid of physical combat. Gladiators were needed here more than technical players. In today’s football, it doesn’t matter that we have more assists or more possession in the statistics. It has absolutely no effect on the result.
Fernando Santos is just studying in our team. For him, the match in Prague was a kind of slap in the face, because the new coach did not expect such a match. I think now the coach will talk to the players, they should honestly explain to themselves what happened in the match against the Czech Republic.
And then respond adequately to the meeting with Albania, but can you be sure that we will meet with a different attitude?
We all hope that the best reaction to this blunder in the first qualifying match will be a complete rehabilitation of the team against Albania. In the crowded National Stadium, you won’t be able to afford the game we saw on Friday night. There must be fire here, it must burn under the feet of the white-reds, the fans must feel that what happened in Prague was just an industrial accident.
Source: Wprost
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have been an author at Daily News Hack for the past 1 year. I mostly cover sports news, but I also have a keen interest in current affairs and politics. In my spare time, I enjoy playing tennis and spending time with my family.
