[Archived] Wisla Krakow Match Chat

[philipl]

Excellent result from a very good performance.

The way the Polish lads are coming on here saying how we were lucky just shows the gulf in class between Polish football and the Prem is so great that they cannot see it.

From my perspective, Rovers were always in control of that game and capable of stepping up a gear which is what Hughes got the lads to do in the second half but even then we had a huge amount in reserve. The Poles had some good players (have to to be top of their league- I liked the play of their winger) but never really threatened and pressed us in the way Premiership opposition does.

MGP is beginning to become a major weak link for us. When Bert floated that cross to him in acres of space inside the box (the Polish defending positioning was pretty poor all game- sure the big boys can head and tackle but any invention from Rovers and they were lost), I was certain he would score. If he cannot put those away reliably, I think it is time for Gally to get a run or go with three forwards exploiting Benny's willingness to drop deep or go wide.

Benny was pretty quiet by his standards but Nonda was good. Unfortunately I didn't see anything of Roberts as the signal failed in the 70th minute but it looked like his additional strength was needed against the Wisla brutes at the back.

It was a nailed on penalty when Neill got body checked in the first half by the way.

Channel 5 were awful. Hodgson didn't have a clue what he was talking about- he didn't even know the names of the Rovers' players. I really got the feeling of "let's get this out of the way so the Spuds and Newcastle can provide the real games" attitude pervading the whole procedings.

It is looking very good for qualification. The Basle-Feyernoord draw is great news as a win against either of them or draws against both pretty well assures us of third place. However, the Group is opening up nicely for us to go for top spot and a relatively easy draw in the third round knock out when we would get a third place team from one of the other groups with second leg at Ewood. In terms of UEFA coefficients, the wins against Salzburg and Wisla combined with the extremely strong showing by all the Premiership sides in Europe so far this season will be moving us up the rankings dramatically already if we qualify for Europe again in the coming seasons.

Edited October 20, 2006 by philipl

[wislak]

Some photos from match.

http://www.wislakrakow.com/www/page.php?pageid=64

http://www.wislakrakow.com/www/page.php?pageid=63

http://www.wislasoccer.com/?co=galeria&do=item&id=107

http://wislafoto.freshsite.pl/thumbnails.php?album=194

http://www.leszczynski.org/ts_bb

Enjoy.

[SAS]

hello from poland

was a great great day yesterday, big massive win for us that gives us pole position to get thru to the next stages

the atmosphere was top, the krakow fans are very vocal, and brought out a massive flag that was quite amazing

las\t nite got a bit messy

with several members of this board falling asleep

[3rdpillar]

1-2 Rovers.

who's a clever boy then

[Paul]

Some excellent photographs Wislak - thank you

[Ricky]

Name and Shame Scott... I'm guessing at Steb and Jordan

[CAPT KAYOS]

Some photos from match.

http://www.wislakrakow.com/www/page.php?pageid=63

Enjoy.

Good pictures there Wislak

Looks like the Ewood Blues Charanbanc made it and the Accy Blues

Is that Bomber I see?

CAPT KAYOS Yesterday, 13:27 Post #40

Champions League

Group: Members

Posts: 2311

Joined: 5-March 01

From: ALWAYS THERE BUT NEVER ANYWHERE

Member No.: 103

Confident but it will be nerve jangling

2 v 1 Rovers

[b12_simon]

Should have seen me for the Sav goal. I couldnt work out what was going on. He headed the ball, the ref blew the wistle like it had beenj disalowed and then sav seemed to stop - I couldnt tell what had happend

Heh. Same here. My (Geordie) housemate jumped up and shouted before me.

I blame the ball hitting the keeper's towel.

Simon

PS dunno if this has come up yet (only halfway through the thread) but wasn't that the BRFCS flag on show as Sav celebrated?

Edit: Looking at the excellent photos, yes it was! Roll on Feyenoord away!

Edited October 20, 2006 by b12_simon

[asgawer]

Great pics wislak, thank you very much.

[VITO]

now i'm supporting ypur team and i hope you will take points from feyenord nad basel and maybe nancy , becose i hop we take second place in the group

come on Rovers !

[Ricky]

It certainly was Simon.

I was going to text you yesterday to see if you had gone or not.. (I'm hoping it's the same Simon now)

[Fife Rover]

To all the Wisla fans: Please dont give up hope; your team did OK and you have got some good players, so you can still qualify by finishing in the top 3. I think your team are quite capable of doing that. Rovers did not play at their usual tempo and so you did not see us at our best; far from it, but I think we did OK as well. I understand your disapointment at the late winner we scored; it happens to us as well and it hurts, but you will get over it. Put it behind you now and concentrate on winning the next match in this group; you can do it!

[jim mk2]

Benni McCarthy has accused one or more of the Krakow players of making racist remarks.

If correct, this would not be the first time that black players with English clubs and the national team have suffered racial abuse from players or supporters on away games in eastern Europe.

Any of the Polish lads care to comment ?

[Ricky]

Jim. At one stage on the tv coverage you clearly see Benni turn to one of the polish lads and shake his head and point a finger at him. I said straight away that it looked like he had been racially abused.

It was very similar when Anton Ferdinand suffered abuse against Germany.

[pleasure]

the most comprehensive 2-1 victory in history! i dont to be unkind to our polish posters, but i dont think Wisla would beat burnley!

superb displays from zurab, burt, tugay, bentley and sav (taken him a while, but he's looking more and more like the player we thought we'd bought).

great to see the midfield coming up with the goals, takes the pressure off the forwards.

the run continues... now for bolton!

[arealbrfcfan]

I could just about see and make out what was happening on tv. At the end of the match looking at it now, i think its McCarthy that goes to switch shirts and shake hands and the Krakow player shunned him. Disgraceful behavior in this day and age, are some people cavemen or what? they should be chucked out of the competition, even if its just one player the club has to take some blame having such a neanderthal playing for them.

[b12_simon]

It certainly was Simon.

I was going to text you yesterday to see if you had gone or not.. (I'm hoping it's the same Simon now)

Hi Ricky. Yup, it's the same Simon. I couldn't go to this one cos I'm at a wedding do tonight. I'll be at all the other group games, though.

Are you fancying any home games soon? I'm thinking ManUre is coming up in the not-too-distant

Simon

Edited October 20, 2006 by b12_simon

[American]

Heh. Same here. My (Geordie) housemate jumped up and shouted before me.

I blame the ball hitting the keeper's towel.

I looked away after the shot thinking it had gone wide, turned back to see the celebrating.

[Hughesy]

My view on last night.

1st 30 minutes we had control of the game and it looked too easy. Until they got a fluke of a goal against the run of play.

Up to half time from the 30th minute they did alright and could have maybe nicked another.

2nd half rovers went into 2nd gear and to be honest were simply too good for Krakow. Nonda did some great work and was unlucky not to score and we could have easily won the game by the end.

However in the end Roberts did some good, strong work and created the goal that Bentley tucked away. Bentley played really well, however calls for England are premature. He still needs to prove himself a little bit more consistently at domestic level.

Pedersen is lacking confidence and hopefully he will bag a free-kick on Sunday. That should kick off his season. Surprised that Peter wasn’t on the bench – whats happened with him?

1 other point – Ooijer & Zurab are starting to work well together. Master Hughes looks to of pulled of another good signing.

SMALL TOWN IN EUROPE!

WE ARE TOP OF THE LEAGUE!

Also how is Savages back injury?? Anyone know??

[Wolverine]

FA to back Rovers in Racism claim

[Blue blood]

An excellent start to the group stages by rovers.

First half I thought we were the better team and although we didn't create too many chances we should have been a goal to the good at half time - the penalty claim should have been a penalty and Pedersen's miss was horific (why didn't he head it?) Even prior to their goal you felt that if we had stepped it up a gear which we were capable of we'd murder them. Agreed with the commentator that the slow pitch helped them and perhaps hid some of their weaknesses. Their goal - typical of rovers. If I recall correctly Lucas was to blame for giving away the corner and we didn't close the guy down fast enough for the shot. Nevertheless it took a large slice of luck and a mamoth deflection for the goal to beat brad. After that we seemed to struggle until half time, leaving me thinking here we go again.

Fortunately rovers kicked on - upped the tempo and got a deserved equaliser. All of which continued until about the 80th minute when rovers toned it down and the poles got in their first attacks of the half. To be honest at this point I was pretty disappointed as for two thirds of the game at least we'd bossed the game and should have got a winner, yet it looked to be heading for a draw. Fortunately we managed a late winner in what was our poorest spell of the half - highly impressive considering the fatigue of our players must really have been kicking in. Bentley just seems to be getting better and better.

As it is it's a good three points. I, and I reckon Hughes, would've been disappointed with a draw on that performance and I didn't really rate the poles at all. I reckon they'll be the whipping boys of the group, especially in their away games on faster pitches. The other thing of note was that Woy's commentary was shocking - within 5 minutes he couldn't remember the rovers centre back's names and was constantly vague and rambled (the stan ramble being particularly irrelivent and irritating). How he's still a national manager is beyond me.

Player raitings:

Brad - 8 no chance with the goal but good late save to keep us in it.

Emerton - 8 class both forward and back

Ooijer - 7 a few hairy moments but generally competent

Zurab - 7 ditto

Neill - 5 beaten too often had a very uncomfortable time at left back

Tugs - 8 good defensively as well as showing he's the master at passing, hard to believe he's 35.

Savage - 9 excellent in both defense and attack - some great runs forward and tracking back. MOTM

Bently - 8 genius a few trademark wayward shots but terrorised the defense with his crosses, and took his goal well.

Pedersen - 5 not his best game, shocking miss but worked hard defensively

Benni - 7 one of his weaker games too often couldn't turn and shoot but some nice link-up play with Nonda and some of the others.

Nonda -8 excellent worked really hard and forced a couple of opportunities.

Roberts - 7 ok he hasn't scored for us yet but he does force the defenders to make errors which got us the win.

My only worry is how knackered the team will be come Sunday as it looks like it'll have to be the sam 11 again.

[OhmiBRFC]

Good pictures there Wislak

Looks like the Ewood Blues Charanbanc made it and the Accy Blues

Is that Bomber I see?

I no the ewood blues went as they was talking about it against liverpool at weekend, goin feyenoored aswell, i'm going with them

Edited October 20, 2006 by OhmiBRFC

[gumboots]

Nobody seems to have mentioned the part the pitch played in rovers performance. Not an excuse as Wenger tried to make it in Moscow but it just seemed very slow especially in the first half compared to the pitches in the Prem. It made slick passing very difficult as the ball seemed to slow down. Got better in the second half when the dew started forming and it got damp on top.

[Eddie]

Grass looked to be very long and it certainly made everything slow. We would have passed around them all day had the game been back at Ewood, but both teams played on the same pitch so it wouldn't have been a good excuse for a poor result. Great result, good performance and let's keep it up.

[RoyRover]

Does anyone know if the goals have been put onto youtube? I had a look yesterday, but no sign.