Best win? Worst loss? For your team in history of the tournament.
Best Win -7-1 win vs. Norway when needing to win by 5 to get through to the 2nd roundWorst loss - A lot to 1 against Canada four or five years ago.
Tranfers. Who's in? Who's out?
In-Jay Tomchuk, Brett LevisOut-None
Who is your most important player?
Michal Bandula (Goalkeeper)
What are you team's strengths?
Very physical, and extremely fast pace and high intensity.If you could have one player from any other team who would it be? Why?
Jarvis, calm, solid at the back, great midfielder and good shot.Realistically where do you expect to finish?
Not reaching the semi finals would be considered under-achieving.Who would you like to see win besides your team?
Anyone other than Ireland and Laos.My take: It's pretty much a forgone conclusion that Poland are going to win this thing and here's why. They are already a top 3 team and that before that added the two best strikers in the tournament. They are also in one of, if not the easiest pool. I would argue that Brett Levis is now their most important player because form the exhibition games I have seen they have relied on him heavily. It will be interesting to see Brett adapts to Poland's style or if Poland is forced to adapt to Brett's style. Either way they will be a different team than last year. For Poland only making the final would be under-achieving, only making the semi would be a catastrophe.
27 comments:
Mike are you going to over-hype Poland this year like you did France last year to add extra pressure on them?? you sly fox
It's a classic tactic move, sir Alex ferguson does it, as do I against Batman, always works
You posted earlier mike that you didnt think two elite players made a winning team, so hard to believe your "nobody can beat poland" comment here.
They could easily lose a game against nigeria or germany and be on the outside looking in. Its that close and a fifty minute game gives you little chance to recover from a bad start or an error.
Julio, agreed, both pattersons are great and very capable of taking germay through.
Mike won't give Poland credit because he knows Poland is the best team in wcp and his scared of playing them because he knows ROI can't beat Poland right now
Ok, lets get realistic here. Yes, Poland did have a great tournament last year. Yes they did reach the semi finals. But lets take a closer look here at what really happend.
First off, this may have been the most mediocre group of death in tournament history. Germany, Jamaica and Canada were all good teams, but nothing that anyone would have considered un-beatable going into last years tournament.
Sure no one expected anything from Poland last year, all the talk was that Germany Canada or Jamaica would occupy the 2 spots in the quarters from this group. Poland puts on cinderella's slippers and here we have it, a cinderella story.
After making it out of their group in top spot, Poland earned their quarterfinal birth against, you guessed it, another mediocre team that came out of an easy group. Norway.
This couldn't have possibly worked out any better for Poland. Once again their match up is against a team that isn't considered in the top 5 ( unless you talk to Dufus Husdal)
Booom! Poland wins 3-0 and is on their way to the semi's.
They lose in the semi's, but whatever, they weren't supposed to be there anyways, its not dust off their shoulder.
Now we move onto this year... Poland somehow has reached the ranks of a top 3 team that should have no issue making it to the finals. Is this ranking really deserved? How can you rank someone that hasn't been anyone that could be considered above them? They haven't played ROI, Laos, ES ... so how are they all of a sudden better?
Don't be surprised if Poland peaked last year with their Quarterfinal win.... a win where they beat Norway.
Anyone disagree?
Edward Nigma
Edward, very good point. Germany had a terrible game plan last tournament. This year I hear they have a new strategy which will utilize their players in a much more efficient way then previous years. They will definitely be stronger this year. Ukraine gave us an incredibly tough game in which we won in the last 6-8 minutes. Our game against Canada was pretty tight as well but they didn't give us as much of a run for our money as Ukraine did. Boom 3 games won by tight margins and we're on our way to the quarters. Unfortunately for the haters an doubters, all you need to do is finish top of a weak group to get set up for a birth in the semis. 1st place in our group this year will likely play an erratically unpredictable Sudan side and with them you never know what you're going to get, another birth in the semis is quite possible unless they've patched things up from last year.
That being said, I can't say I'd be surprised to see Serbia compete with Sudan, or at least give them a much tougher go than any Serbian team in the past. We played them in a friendly and tied 3-3. Not saying that the score alone is any idication of how they will do, but they do look a lot better than last year or years past. They've cut some loose ends and tightened the ship up. Mark my words, I will put 30$ on a serbian upset of Sudan.
I got a little sidetracked there. You're right Edward, Germany or Nigeria could beat anyone at the moment. I haven't seen Nigeria play but from the sounds of things they are looking dangerous. Germany is always dangerous and with their course being corrected I wouldn't be surprised if they were battling for top spot in our group. I think anything less would-be disappointing, Kirk is pretty sure they will be in the final and hey I think they have more of a shot then anyone. Germany should be ranked top 3 here.
I wouldn't put too much stock into mikes comments about Poland...he's definitely using ferguson tactics. No big deal.
We won't worry about playing in the final,especially not before the tournament starts. We like to live game by game. We know we have a hard task ahead of us with people gunning for us to show we don't belong with the best of the tournament. But hey, let's leave that to the teams we play.
Damn this is long, I should come on here more often so I don't have so much to say
I love Edward Nigmas posts. He's right Poland are the best team to never beat a good team. Our team isn't afraid to play anyone so I don't think that's it. I am just tired of seeing SOME Poland players walk around like they are God's gift to soccer when their greatest accomplishment is 3rd place in a tournament that resembles rugby as much as it does soccer.
Great comments, I heard Nigeria is playing Jamaica tonite at 10pm if u want to see both these teams, I've heard tooth teams have made some improvements which is good to hear so I will be checking out the game
Edward, sounds like sour grapes since it was the Polish who cracked the Enigma code.
Mike, the tournament does resemble rugby at times, but you yourself have made plays that would make the All Blacks jealous.
Some Polish players walk around like they're God's gift to soccer? I'm amazed that out of all the teams they're the only one to have some players with that attitude! Cough! Even typing that made me choke. Every team has a jackass or two on board and whether the team is successful or not doesn't excuse it.
Let the games begin. Good luck to all teams.
I'd love to hear these players names Mike. Because I believe that it's more than likely that you're probably just misunderstanding their mannerisms much like people misunderstand Julio for being an asshole. He's just an entertainer. I don't think any of our guys think any higher of themselves due to a 3rd place win last year...
Nigerias gonna kill Jamaica hahahahaa. No one can stop us this yearr. Have you seen our forwards, its gonna be raining goals all tournament hahahaha. Nigeria and Poland are going thruuuu nuff said.
Who the f keeps coping and pasting old comments which doesn't make any sense, common grow up ppl
when you say its going to raining goals, are you referring to your team in the past and the amount of goals you concede because you have an awful defense? Or do you blame your losses because your keeper is a siv.
If this were a track meet, then maybe you guys would have a chance at winning something.
MLK
Nigeria looked real good in the rsa tourney. What did you guys finish...hmmm last.
What tat guy was saying is bs. Nigeria dont have a good defence, i agree. But this year with Ireland getting weakr we have the best attack in the tournament.
PI
Collins you are a cry baby, hence why no one likes you and why people give you a hard time. Expect the same this year. Probably worse than it's ever been.
-Fools "R" US.
Based on exhibition games, Nigeria has done pretty good. Thats something to be proud of. I guess when you have had nothing to be proud of in the past, you will take anything you get.
Congratulations to Nigeria on winning the most meaningless games before the tournament starts!
You guys give yourselves a big pat on the back. You are terrific!
-Jingo Jango Bingo Bango
My thought is Poland will finish second to Germany. The surprise teams of the tournament this year will be Germany and Afghanistan.
Nigeria or Portugal will come third in this pool depending on who wins between them. Portugal is a much improved team from last year, but still puts them at the top of class B. For instance in watching them this year, they would go head to head against Norway and either team might win. Alot of new talent and they've gotten younger and faster with some new Yorkton talent, the return of Philipe and Craig, and Adam Pettigrew is a big improvement over Josh forsberg at striker.
Poland sees the return of Brett, who started his WCP career with Poland, so the team knows how he plays and how to use him, and they use him alot.
But the new wild card is Jay, and this isn't a Chico to Afghanistan for a new pair of shoes trade, this is Jay coming back to his heritage team, at least partly because he was interested in evening out the top few teams in the tournament instead of stacked in ROI's favor again this year.
Jay has undeniable skill, calmness at the net, and proven finishing ability. Last year he spent most of the tournament patting David Brown on the back after a goal. This year he will have to not just participate, but lead, if the team is to move through it's own pool, and get anywhere beyond.
Some have called Bart the Polish prince, well the king is now here, and it will be interesting to see how he reigns. If that takes any time at all to gel, Poland will be looking at second place (to germany) in their pool, with a very tough road beyond.
If Jay gets into the, I'm Polish and those fans are cheering their guts out for me and this team mode, and takes a leadership role, this will be a fun tournament for the Poles.
Jay will be drunk before kick off of every game he does not work the next day of. Therefore Poland better hope his shift work ends up favouring a schedule whereas he works the next day after a game ;)
DG
Bart called himself the Polish Prince. Bobby Vinton is the Polish Prince. Bart - can you sing "Moja droga ja cie kocham....."?
If Poland is the best team in the tournament, then why are they practicing day and night and have played so many ex games? Good teams like ROI,ES, LAOS don't play ex games because they are that good and don't need any
1. I don't think that Poland has said they're the best team in the tournament. That's hype from other sources.
2. Since when is practicing something a bad thing? Not comparing WCP teams to the pros, but I'm pretty sure none of the pro teams say "we don't need to practice because we're so good we don't need to". Grow up.
1. Sometimes actions speak louder than words.
2. To clarify I don't think practicing is useless. It's about the quality and quantity of practices that I have beef with.
The pros practice 5 times a week. Most WCP teams practice 10 times a year. I have seen 2 practices this week while at the facility. In one the players were just passing the ball around with no structure and in the other they had formed a horseshoe and were shooting on the net. I personally don't find that to be beneficial.
With the amount of practice Poland is had, they should be in a much better shape than any other team in wcp and I expect them to be in the finals vs ROI, and I see Ireland loosing 3-2 in a really good game, the reason I say that is both teams have got the best goalies in wcp probably 1 and 2 wouldn't say who's best but Poland will prevail because Bret the best player in the tournament is going to score the winning goal
Poland has best keeper
Ireland has the second best
Poland has had casual time once a week for the past few weeks and whoever comes out, comes out. Lets not get carried away, coed is more strenuous.
Jingo Jango Bingo Bango!
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