NewsNational Team A
Jan Urban: We paid a high price for poor effectiveness and our own mistakes
"I feel powerless, because it is difficult to explain what exactly happened after such a match. We played a good match, our play surprised the home team, but if you give away goals yourself in certain situations, it is not so easy to catch up later. We did it twice, but in the closing stages the Swedes grabbed a third goal, even though there were no signs of it coming," said head coach Jan Urban, summarising the defeat in the play-off final.
In the match against the Swedes, the coach made three changes compared to Thursday's game against Albania. Przemysław Wiśniewski replaced Tomasz Kędziora, Nicola Zalewski came in for Michał Skóraś, and Karol Świderski for Filip Rózga. The team's midfield, however, remained unchanged.
"We wanted to control possession, and Piotrek Zieliński and Sebastian Szymański know how to dictate the tempo of the game, who to release with a pass, and so on. They are players of immense quality. Today, from a mental standpoint, it was vital to have the ball and show that we had come here to qualify," the White-and-Reds coach explained. “When we made it 1–1, a moment later we could have gone in front. At that point we felt we were stronger, and then suddenly we handed the home team a gift and paid a high price for it. On Thursday it was Albania who failed to convert clear-cut chances, whereas today it was us. On top of that, we conceded the second and third goals far too easily. The one for 1–2 irritated me even more. We added height to the team with Przemek Wiśniewski, because we knew set pieces were one of the home team's strengths. So the height was similar, but the behaviour was not."
"We spend many hours together with the coaching staff discussing things. We consider various options, both ours and the opponent's. We select players according to what we are up against. I had no doubts that Sebastian and Piotrek would dominate the midfield, as they are very good on the ball, capable of playing their way out of the press. Both of them can win the ball back as well. The decisions were largely dictated by the magnitude of the match – we opted for experience," Urban explained; "evaluating what was lacking to secure the victory and a trip to the World Cup."
"Effectiveness is an incredibly important thing, and today we lacked it. We also lacked savviness, for example when conceding the second or third goal. Kamil saved a dangerous shot then, but we restarted play poorly and brought that attack upon ourselves. I was convinced that the match would go to extra time, and earlier, that we were closer to scoring a goal," he explained. "More substitutions? I'm not going to talk about the details, but they were in the plan. I will not hide that I was alarmed when Oskar received a yellow card in his first involvement after coming on. I thought that if the game goes to extra time, he might attempt a dangerous sliding tackle."
The head coach was also asked about Robert Lewandowski in the context of a possible end to our captain’s national team career. "This is not the right moment to talk about Robert’s future. We will want to know his opinion, but not now. There is dead silence in the dressing room; we lost a match that decided qualification for the World Cup, which takes place every four years. The Swedes got their revenge on us for the 2022 game in Chorzów," said Urban, cutting the conversation short.
Finally, Urban addressed the information about his contract's extension and staying on as head coach: "Before the match, I did not think at all about what would happen if we failed to qualify, whether the contract would be extended or not. Evidently, President Cezary Kulesza is convinced that we are heading in the right direction and sees a bright future for this team."
