Michał Białoński, Interia: How do you assess the situation after the promotion of the Polish national team, looking at which match your teeth hurt, but the wave of criticism seems to be exaggerated?
Kazimierz Węgrzyn, representative of Poland in 1990-1999: The promotion itself is a huge success for this team. However, in reality, I’m not even surprised by these complainers. We’ve had a lot of luck along the way. In the match against Argentina, our players apparently had in mind the thought that a low defeat would give them promotion, so maybe that’s what caused such a negative image of the game. Perhaps the stress also paralyzed their legs. Sunday against France we will see if we play so badly or if we can do better.
Don’t you have the impression that our players lost strength against Argentina? Let’s not rotate the team too much, it was suffocating on the pitch.
– I don’t know if it was a physical preparation problem. It seems to me that Argentina have been superior especially in technique, in the way they handle the ball. In local stadiums the grass is cut very short, thanks to which the ball flies fast. For a team that has a technical advantage, it’s much easier to dominate the opponent.
On the other hand, our team concentrated as in the match against Mexico, especially not to miss goals and not lose. The coach’s message to the midfielders remains in their heads: “Help the defenders, protect them”. However, there was no attack, there was nothing to scare and the fans certainly didn’t like it, but neither did I. It’s time for a braver game against France as the pressure from our team has eased.
Do you think that after eight months of perfecting defensive tactics, you will be able to shift the lever to the offensive?
– Even the mental attitude is important, the coach’s message. This time the draw gives us nothing.
There are still penalties and Wojtek Szczęsny defends them as if in a trance.
– I have nothing against a defensive strategy and intelligent defense with the whole team. However, after receiving it, you have to do something with the ball and it’s better to attack the opponent with a counter-attack, and that’s what I missed the most.
The World Cup is full of surprises, many favorites after the group stage: Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Ecuador, Uruguay.
– Taking into account some teams, such as Germany, who could have won the game against Japan already in the first half, and played well against Spain, yet were eliminated. Football is unfair. Sometimes the worst stay in the round of 16 and the best go home. Of all team games, pika is the most casual. In basketball, handball, if you accidentally miss points or a goal, it’s easy to fix it. This is the hardest thing about football.
You can sympathize with these losers. It seems that the German team is well put together, yet they are going home. On the one hand I am very happy that the Poles have left the group and on the other I understand our fans. Immediately after the match, I was happy with the promotion, but it was not a spontaneous joy, but the artistic values did not bring me down.
How do you like the championship in general?
– The matches are very tight, the teams impress with their preparation. In one of the matches, the USA covered more than 127 km. This is a great result. The stadiums are beautiful, the transport, the subway, the logistics – everything is great. There is nothing to hold on to.
If you had to come up with one logical argument that Poland could make headlines on Sunday, what would it be, other than Wojtek Szczęsny in the form of life?
“Out of 10 matches against such an opponent, you can lose eight, draw one, but win one and who knows, maybe that day will be. I also hope that the nerves pass and our players take it easy, thanks to which they will play with panache and they will not be afraid, and this is the basis!
Interviewed in Doha by Michał Białoński, Interia
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