The third consecutive draw was recorded by the Arka Gdynia players. This time they shared the points with Ruch Chorzów 1:1, with Szczepan scoring in the 26th minute and Marcjanik in the 63rd minute. From the 78th minute, the Gdynia players played with a numerical advantage, but they did not reverse the result, although they sent the ball into the visitors’ goal twice more, because each time the referee saw fouls and canceled the goals.
6th round – Betclic 1 league
Arka Gdynia – Ruch Chorzow 1:1 (0:1)
Goals: Marcjanik 63′ – Szczepan 26′
Back: Lenarcik – Navarro, Dobrotka, Marcjanik, Gojny – Oliveira (87′ Skóra), Rzuchowski, Staniszewski (82′ Zieliński), Gaprindashvili – Vitalucci (58′ Sobczak) – Czubak
Movement: Turk – Lukić, Szymanski, Sadlok, Konczkowski (74′ Góra) – Ventura, Nono (61′ Szwoch), Karasinski, Łaski (74′ Moneta), Novothny, Szczepan
Yellow cards: Leather – Lukić, Novothny (two)
Red card: Novothny (78′ for two yellows)
Judge: Karol Arys (Szczecin); VAR: Marcin Szczerbowicz (Olsztyn)
Viewers: 7314
The emotions after the match in Kraków had not yet subsided and it was already necessary to focus on the clash with Ruch Chorzów. Niebieski, who after relegation from Ekstraklasa planned to return to it immediately, did not start the new season well, so they came to Gdynia to make up for the losses and were only interested in three points. Two victories of the yellow-blues in five matches is also not something that satisfies the appetites of our club, so Thursday’s match promised to be downright exciting.
Coach Łobodziński did not anticipate any rotation in the line-up for this match and indeed there was only one change. Marc Navarro appeared on the pitch from the first minute, having been resting after a rib injury at Wawel, but he quickly recovered and was now available to the Arka coach. In the Ruch team, coach Janusz Niedźwiedź had more to worry about, because the team leader, Filip Starzyński, had to suffer a penalty for a red card, and Miłosz Kozak did not even appear on the bench. It seemed that in this situation Mateusz Szwoch, known in Gdynia, would play perfectly from the start, but it turned out differently and our former player had to wait for his chance later in the match.
The first minutes were very nervous on both sides – the players’ actions were dominated by many inaccuracies and misunderstandings. A more interesting action was recorded only after 9 minutes, when a quick exit from one’s own half could have ended in a face-to-face situation between Gaprindashvili and Ruch Turk’s goalkeeper, but Oliveira’s attempt to pass to the Georgian was too light. A moment later, Vitalucci scared the ball with a long-range shot, but it ended with a corner kick. In the 15th minute, Lenarcik’s long throw to Gaprindashvili allowed another counter-attack, which Tornike finished with a strong shot from a sharp angle, but Martin Turk saved it.
In the 17th minute, the Georgian took a corner kick and caused a lot of confusion in the Ruch goal area. Unfortunately, there was not a bit of luck for one of the Ark players to hit the ball towards the goal. Two minutes later, Michał Rzuchowski tried a long-range shot and missed by half a meter.
In the 24th minute, Oliveira had his first chance of the match. He intercepted a perpendicular pass and ran into the penalty area with the ball, but when Vitalluci was cut off from passing the ball to him, the Swiss player decided to take the shot himself, but once again the Turk was on guard.
In the 26th minute, the Gdynia defense was surprised. Szczepan tricked our defenders and ran with the ball into the penalty area, but at the last moment the ball was knocked out from under his feet by Navarro. It seemed that the threat had been averted, but Szczepan still managed to get to the ball and with a ground shot sent it past Lenarcik into our goal…
Our ranks became tense and two minutes later Szczepan would have won the fight with our defenders again. This time, however, Dobrotka managed to return and take the ball away from the striker from Chorzów in a professorial manner. In the 33rd minute, with the help of Arka, Szymon Szymański was able to help, cutting the pass from the left side of Oliveira in such a way that he almost hit the ball into his own goal.
For a long time, Gdynia could not shake off the fact that it was the visitors who took the lead in this match, because their actions lost much of their quality and did not pose a greater threat. It was not until the 39th minute that Navarro’s shot flew slightly over the crossbar. It was similar two minutes later after a header by Czubak, who took advantage of a pass from Vitalucci 13 meters. Before the break, the aforementioned Vitalucci made a surprising attempt at a shot from distance, but he caused little trouble to the Turk.
The visitors were leading until half-time, because they took advantage of the Arkowcy’s mistakes both in defense and in the middle of the field. A change in the game was necessary to change the result. Coach Niedźwiedź’s team did not play anything extraordinary, but it was enough to wait for the mistakes, which unfortunately came. The stands, however, were counting on the second half to bring goals from Gdynia and the result to reverse.
Just three minutes after the resumption of play, Karol Czubak had a great chance to equalize. The Arka striker intercepted the ball passed to Turek, but when he tried to shoot, the Ruch goalkeeper managed to block Karol’s shot with his hand! In the 55th minute, Vitalucci launched a counterattack and cleverly found Oliveira with a pass, but the Swiss was forestalled by Ruch defenders.
120 seconds later, from the 16-meter line, Gaprindashvili’s precise shot near the post scared the goalkeeper, but the Chorzów goalkeeper managed to intervene. After an hour of play, coach Łobodziński sent Sobczak into the fray in place of Vitalucci. Right after entering the pitch, the Gdynia team created a great situation in the visitors’ penalty area, when Rzuchowski shot and Czubak tried to change the direction of the ball, but it ultimately missed the goal by a few centimeters.
Arka’s offensive finally brought the expected result. In the 63rd minute, Gaprindashvili crossed the ball six meters in front of the goal, where Marcjanik won the duel in the air and sent the ball into the top corner of the goal! Less than three minutes later, Arka could enjoy the lead! Navarro took the corner kick brilliantly, and Czubak headed the ball under the crossbar! Unfortunately, the VAR analysis quickly dampened this joy, because the referees saw a foul on Novothny and the goal was canceled.
In the 76th minute, Czubak caught a stray ball in the Ruch penalty area and took a shot without thinking, but the ball bounced off the defender’s leg and didn’t go into the goal. It was even more dangerous after another great cross from Navarro from the corner of the pitch and another header from Marcjanik, because the ball hit the post and went out of play.
Two minutes later, Novothny fouled an opponent in the middle of the pitch and referee Arys showed him a yellow card, and since it was the second warning for this player, Arka went into the end of the match with a numerical advantage. In the 81st minute, a well-executed quick attack by Sobczak ended with a good attempt to pass from the left by Oliveira, but also an effective intervention by the defender.
Skóra came on for the final minutes to increase the hosts’ offensive power. After a foul on that player in injury time, Navarro crossed the ball into the penalty area, and Dobrotka touched the ball with his head, after which the stands exploded with joy. Unfortunately, it was only for a short time – the referee noticed the Arkowcy’s foul again and canceled the goal…
Arka drew their third consecutive match in this way and the fact that they have played their fifth match without a defeat is of little consolation in this situation, because the gap to the leader Bruk-Bet Termalika is already seven points. The season is long and such losses can soon be made up, but the condition is to eliminate the weaknesses that unfortunately cost us goals and lack of victories. The opportunity to finally reach for a win will be next Sunday, when we will host Górnik Łęczna at Olimpijska.
Arkadiusz Skubek
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Arka Gdynia – Ruch Chorzow
Goals
2
2
Shots
22
3
Customs
6
1
Corner kicks
10
4
Free throws
8
12
Burnt
0
2
Possession of the ball
57%
43%
Yellow cards
1
3
Red cards
0
1
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