Nov 18: Canada vs Poland [R]

[masster]

I purchased a couple of Polish newspapers while I was at the airport and here were their rankings of the Canadian players.

Futbol News - They seem to have a 1-5 ranking system with 1 as very poor and 5 as extremely good. I personally thought that these rankings were pretty fair.

Hirschfeld (3); Klukowski (2), McKenna (1), Jakovic (3), Stalteri (2); De Jong (1), De Guzman (2), Hutchinson (2), Peters (1); Radzinski (2), Friend (2)

For comparison's sake, 7 Polish players got a mark of 3, two players were ranked with a 2 and Dudka and Rybus received a score of 4.

Przeglad Sportowy - Their ranking system seems to be a ten point scale with the higher mark the better, similar to the one used in Italy. I wouldn't put as much weight into these rankings as they didn't even get Canada's formation correct.

Hirschfeld (5); Klukowski (4), Jakovic (6), McKenna (5), Stalteri(5); De Jong (4), De Guzman (5), Hutchinson (4), Peters (5); Radzinski (5), Friend (4)

Polish players were mainly 5 and 6 with Obraniak and Rybus getting 7.

[nolando]

^^ Great follow-up comments. One thing, though, wasn't the Poland tribute to Radz meant as a farewell, or did you not get that sense of finality?

[Guest Ed]

Masster, thanks for the belated update from someone who actually saw the game.

[BearcatSA]

[

quote:Originally posted by masster

Our central midfield pairing was not where we know it can be. Lets be honest, they did not get much help from the wings but De Guzman and Hutchinson were simply overrun. Julian seemed to want to do too much when he had the ball. The pair did not break-up enough Polish attacks and seems to lack bite. Over 2 games, our midfield was just too lightweight against these European opponents.

Thanks for the update. Lots of good points but I agree very strongly with this particular observation. Until a bona fide destroyer/d mid type emerges, were going to have problems against the teams we need to beat in CONCACAF, let alone this rank of European opponent.

[masster]

quote:Originally posted by nolando

One thing, though, wasn't the Poland tribute to Radz meant as a farewell, or did you not get that sense of finality?

It very well could have been and that was the sense I got initially, but I don't speak Polish so I can't say for sure. On the other hand, I was told that Radzinski made comments in some of the papers prior to the game along the lines of him waiting for this game his entire life. So maybe it was just recognition of somebody who was born closeby and still connected to his roots. I don't know.