Holland 1-1 Poland: Lots to like from Jan Urban’s first match in charge as unlikely draw earned

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

With a belting strike ten minutes from time, Matty Cash ensured that Poland did not go home empty-handed from their meeting with the Dutch in Rotterdam. 

Similarly to the last meeting these two teams had in this stadium three years ago, Cash scored as the sides could not be separated, but the similarities largely end there. 

In this evening’s game, Jan Urban had set Poland up with a clear plan, at least in the first half. Counter-attacking football was the order of the day, especially utilising the wing-backs in Nicola Zalewski and Cash as well as another “true” winger in Jakub Kamiński. It also saw a debut for Przemysław Wiśniewski, who for many people (myself included) was potentially player of the match.

Unfortunately as so often has been the case watching Poland, they were predictably undone through an individual error, or a combined duo of errors shall we say. Denzel Dumfries scores unmarked from a corner, with both Bartosz Slisz and Piotr Zieliński staring right at him before he peels off to the far post.

Overall though Poland were a decent watch in the first 45 minutes. Cash didn’t look great up against the in-form Cody Gakpo, and made a few mistakes himself, but there was some good work in possession from Poland and Zieliński looked comfortable in a deeper role, something which the previous Selekcjoner Michał Probierz had tried but not really managed to make stick.

Indeed we should come to the man in charge as it was Urban’s first. His decision to take off Robert Lewandowski on the hour mark, which you imagine was largely pre-planned, worked well given Karol Świderski had a role in the equaliser. 

So too did the triple change of Kamil Grosicki, Bartosz Kapustka and Paweł Wszołek, the trio of Ekstraklasa players no longer in their prime but proving themselves more than capable. I scoffed when they were introduced as I really didn’t understand the changes, but lo and behold they really worked well. Grosicki is always willing to put in the hard work, Kapustka was a tad more disciplined defensively and Wszołek much physically tougher than the player he replaced, as Jan Paul van Hecke’s broken nose will attest.

We expected Poland to suffer without the ball ahead of the match and there can be no argument that it occurred, but you get the sense that Urban planned for that very likely eventuality and it paid dividends.

Those dividends came in the form of Cash’s thunderous effort from the edge of the area following some tidy Polish play from the Ekstraklasa trio around the box on the opposite flank. A truly stunning strike from Cash, which kissed the inside of the post on its way. A lengthy check for offside resulted in the goal’s approval, and Poland largely saw the game out free of major trouble. 

Given the record that the Dutch national team have been on over the course of the past few years in home matches, we should treat this result as the nigh-on unbelievable positive that it is. I posited on Twitter that given the opponent, result and context of the match it might’ve been the best debut match for a new Selekcjoner in some time. 

Certainly, it was hard to see this result happening given everything that has gone on with the Polish national team this calendar year, and yet it has. Poland did not give their best performance, but it helped that they showed glimpses of quality and their manager certainly gave a good performance. 

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