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You are here: Home / Sports / Poland v Russia Open Thread

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    handsmile

    Given the history between these two nations, it will be quite magnificent if Poland manages to spike celebrations of Russia Day 2012 (June 12).

    This match will help determine if Poland’s squad is as mediocre as it appeared against Greece (Szczesny’s suspension today doesn’t help the cause) or if Russia is as formidable as it evidenced in thrashing the Czech Republic. (i.e., do those Moscow girls really make Andrey Arshavin sing and shout?)

    Most of all though, commenting on this match is gonna be sheer hell for the consonant-challenged.

  3. 3.

    cmorenc

    @handsmile:

    And a German referee. Must be UEFA’s little joke.

    Hopefully a German referee in Russia v Poland will work out better than Netherlands v Portugal with a Russian referee in WC 2006.

  5. 5.

    slim's tuna provider

    grew up in russian-american family, never heard of “korall”. sounds gross. russians aren’t really originators of cheese — we favor a type of cottage cheese/ricotta stuff called “tvorog”

  7. 7.

    Mattski

    for fun watch teh ESPN gamecast commentary and try to guess the players nationality by name. Good luck

  8. 8.

    Leeds man

    @Mattski: Yeah, it’s as hard as telling Dutch from English names. Luckily, the English probably won’t get that far.

  11. 11.

    handsmile

    @cmorenc:

    [waiting until half-time to reply]

    Because you’ve long been a soccer referee (iirc), you maintain a pesky insistence that matches be properly adjudged. What’s a mere head-butt between friends Figo and van Bommel?

    I don’t believe, however, that the Dutch and Portuguese have as sanguinary a relationship as do Poles and Russians, one often augmented by Germans.

  12. 12.

    Paula

    So this is frustrating. By GameCast stats alone it seems like Poland could have equalized by now and maybe taken a lead …

    Argh. Is this worth taking lunch hour @ the pub for the 2nd half??

  14. 14.

    handsmile

    @Paula:

    Tonight ESPN2 (rather than ESPN Deportes) is rebroadcasting the match at 8:00pm EST, if that’s more convenient (and there’s always ESPN3 online). The match has been quite good and balanced thus far, so if the pub grub’s tempting…

  17. 17.

    pseudonymous in nc

    What a finish. Poland had been pretty poor, but if you take your chances as well as that, it makes up for a lot.

    And yeah, the refereeing has been… questionable.

  18. 18.

    slim's tuna provider

    @Origuy: kvass is barely alcoholic and made from bread… so i respectfully dipute your statement ;}

  19. 19.

    slim's tuna provider

    @Origuy: kvass is barely alcoholic and made from bread… so i respectfully dispute your statement ;}

  20. 20.

    handsmile

    What a strike!! That’s what being team captain is all about. Blaszczykowski was also Poland’s best player by some distance in the match against Greece.

    I don’t think emotions will let either team settle for a draw here.

  21. 21.

    slim's tuna provider

    @J. Michael Neal: in a sense, yes. but a lot of the berry and herbs liquors and infusions that russians make are because they want to, not because they have to.

  22. 22.

    pseudonymous in nc

    The Russians are starting to think that the referee will turn a blind eye to common assault from the Poles. I think they have a point.

  23. 23.

    gelfling545

    My daughter is in Wroclaw now and while she is not at the game she can hear it from her lodgings as she tries to write something or another erudite and scholarly. Apparently when Poland scored the sound was like the entire Polish citizenry shouting at once. Also US nationals have been cautioned by the US Embassy about possible security concerns surrounding the game & its aftermath.

  24. 24.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Leeds man:

    Yeah, it’s as hard as telling Dutch from English names

    Really?!?

    Take it from someone whose local phone books have always contained a much higher percentage of Dutch surnames than those of any other nationality: It’s easy to differentiate. Dutch is heavy on prefixes (Van-, Nan der-, Van den-, Van de-, De-) and suffixes (-sma, -sema, -ema, -stra).

    Those of Dutch heritage I know who don’t have the traditional prefixes or suffixes tend to claim ancestors either who were Huguenots or who were from near the border with Germany.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    And it finishes 1 – 1. so now Russia top Group A with 4 points, Czech Republic are second with 3 points, Poland has 2 points, and Greece is bottom with one. Russia vs Greece and Poland vs Czech Republic next. I’m pretty sure that Russia are through to the knockout stages, but the other place out of the group could go to anyone of the others.

  26. 26.

    J. Michael Neal

    So, for this group it’s:

    Russia gets through if they manage at least a draw with Greece;
    the winner of Poland/Czech Republic advances;
    Greece advances if they beat Russia and the Poles and Czechs don’t tie;
    if both games end in a tie, the Czechs advance;
    if the Greeks win and the Czechs and Poles tie, there’s a three-way clusterfuck to advance that excludes the Poles.

    Do I have that right?

  27. 27.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Amir Khalid: I think that if Russia loses to Greece and the other match isn’t a draw, Russia does not advance. Let’s see:

    Russia loss, Polish win: Poles 5 pts, Russia & Greece 4 pts, Czechs 3 pts, Greece wins tiebreaker;
    Russia loss, Czech win: Czechs 6 pts, rRussia & Greece 4 pts, Poles 2 pts, Greece wins tiebreaker

    Isn’t the first tiebreak head-to-head?

  28. 28.

    handsmile

    A fair result, with Russia certainly feeling comfortable about its prospects for advancing to the QFs.

    For about 15 minutes after the Polish goal, the match went up a gear, thrillingly open and urgent. Then at about the 80th minute, Russia seemed to realize that a draw was perfectly adequate for its purposes, and the air began to leak from the game. In both of Poland’s matches, I’ve been unable to discern any offensive coherence or discipline: individual virtuosity yes, but nothing to indicate organization between midfielders and forwards.

    If Tomas Rosicky has not been injured (don’t yet know why he was substituted at halftime against Greece), I think the Czechs will nip Poland for second place in Group B. That match on Saturday ought to be entertaining.

  30. 30.

    handsmile

    Anything is possible in football I suppose, e.g., Carlos Tevez is still playing for ManCity and little Montpellier won Ligue 1 this season, but close to the realm of the unpossible is the 2012 Greek national team beating Russia in this tournament. (Barring food poisoning or other mischief of course, but that’s unlikely with Vladimir Putin such a big fan of Russian football.)

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    @J. Michael Neal:
    I think you are right, if Greece pull off that upset win over Russia. But Russia only need a draw, as you point out, and they do look stronger than Greece. If Russia do indeed win or draw they are definitely going through with either five or seven points. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic only need a draw to go through, whereas Poland must win. So I’d rate the outcome of that match a toss-up.

  32. 32.

    J. Michael Neal

    @Amir Khalid: I think it might matter which game is played first. But that might just be me not understanding the tiebreakers. How is it resolved if Russia, Greece and the Czechs all end up with 4 points?

  33. 33.

    handsmile

    @J. Michael Neal: (#32)

    In the event that AK does not return/reply….

    Both final matches in each group are played simultaneously to preclude gamesmanship. A decision by FIFA/UEFA after a notorious World Cup match a number of years ago, in which the two teams with a later start time essentially kicked the ball back and forth across midfield. Having learned the result from the earlier game, a draw guaranteed both passage to the next round of competition.

    Tiebreakers: head-to-head results; goal differential (goals scored/goals scored against). I’ve not gone further into the weeds.

    Alsotoo, Greece will not end up with 4 points.

  34. 34.

    cmorenc

    @J. Michael Neal:

    @Amir Khalid: I think it might matter which game is played first. But that might just be me not understanding the tiebreakers. How is it resolved if Russia, Greece and the Czechs all end up with 4 points?

    The group tiebreakers are, in order:
    1) Most points (you’ve stipulated a hypothetical where all four teams have four points each);
    2) Total goal difference in group matches;
    3) most goals scored in group matches;
    4) most goals scored while playing as designated “visiting” team (I think this is intended for competitions where teams play a pair of matches against each other, one at each team’s home site);
    5) drawing lots

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @J. Michael Neal:
    I don’t know, man. Greece will have beaten Russia, Russia has beaten the Czech Republic, the Czech Republic and Greece have a draw.

    It might come to goal difference. Russia came into their last match with +3, Greece with minus1; Czech Republic would finish with minus2. so then it would depend on the size of the Greek win over Russia. I think on GD Greece and Russia would go through: a 1 – 0 win brings Greece’s GD to 0 and Russia’s to +2. The Czechs would have to hope for Greece to win by an unlikely 6-goal margin.

  38. 38.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @cmorenc:

    The group tiebreakers are, in order:

    Your list applies to the World Cup, but handsmile’s right: the first tiebreaker in this competition is the head-to-head result: that’s why Russia would have won the group with a win today, since the only other team capable of getting six points was the Czech Republic, who they beat in their first match.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    @Leeds man:
    I saw it on TV. The fans in the stadium were furious. They took to chanting “Algeria, Algeria”, the name of the team that was getting screwed. The commentator was furious. He was reduced to cursing out Austria and Germany for not even pretending to try. And yet the World Cup tournament committee never actually investigated anyone over this obvious collusion.

  40. 40.

    Leeds man

    @Amir Khalid: So it goes, Amir. Old Boys’ Clubs are very resistant to the cleansing properties of transparency. Like every hierarchical construct since the dawn of history.

  42. 42.

    steve

    if greece wins they are automatically in , no matter the result in the poland czeck game

  43. 43.

    handsmile

    [waiting for the Denmark v. Portugal thread….]

    With its shock victory against the Netherlands, Denmark certainly surpassed pre-tournament expectations. The consensus on Portugal, however, in its match with Germany deemed it to be SOP: too much reliance upon and too much taken on by CRonaldo, as well as an inadequate supporting cast of midfielders and forwards.

    Myself I was most surprised that the team committed only 19 fouls with two yellow cards. In order to maintain its international preeminence in outright thuggishness (embodied best by its enforcer Pepe), Portugal must do more against the Danes. And those heels of the mighty Bendtner will be ever so tempting.

    Off-topic (well perhaps not so much given previous threads’ discussions of kvass, cheeses and kebabs), here’s a football story you won’t see coming out of Italy from its current scandal, “China jails former football bosses in match-fixing crackdown”:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/13/china-jails-football-bosses?newsfeed=true

    Two former heads of the Chinese national football association were jailed for 10-1/2 years (!!) for taking bribes in the amount of around $250,000 (i.e., a week’s salary for many EPL players). Four former national team players were also sentenced to up to six years for bribe-taking.

    Another interesting nugget from the article is that China, with an estimated population of 1.35B, has a national team that is ranked by FIFA at 73rd in the world, between Benin and Iraq.

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