Polish team is out of EURO 2012

The pride.  The white and red flags.  The anticipation.  The reality.  The sad faces.

After a decent roll, Polish national soccer team is out of the EURO 2012 tournament beaten 1:0 by the Czech team.  The first 25 minutes of the first half, Poles ruled the pitch at the brand new Stadion Miejski in Wroclaw.  Several shots on the goal and fast paced game looked very promising.  Then, the Poles lost their steam.  Robert Lewandowski's commitment was futile with lack of the team effort.  Even the overwhelming support of the Polish fans could not revive the team.  It was painful to watch how Czechs were slowly gaining more and more advantage.  Finally, in 72nd minute, Petr Jiracek scored for Czechs.  Poles could not recover and after the final whistle, the host nation was out of EURO 2012.

For Poland, the true hero of the tournament is substitute goalie, Przemysław Tytoń, who took over during the game with Greece after a red card for Wojciech Szczesny.  Tytoń denied the penalty kick saving the 1:1 score with Greece.  During the matches with Russia and Czech Republic, Tytoń have also shown a great skill.  Interestingly, Tytoń means tobacco in Polish, and yes, he was "smoking" at those games.

Logo PZPN (fot. PZPN)

The tournament is still on.  There are many more fantastic games to see.  I'm watching Denmark vs Germany as I write this post.  Germany just scored a second goal in the 80th minute.  Great game.

Perhaps, the Polish Football Union (Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej, PZPN) will finally learn from this failure.  Soccer in Poland is a giant source of entertainment, pride, and, of course, money.  Rebuilding the PZPN structure and strategy is mandatory.  I would go as far as abolishing this dinosaur in order to build a brand new, modern, flexible, transparent, professionally ran organization.

Poland has great soccer traditions.  Lets revert the transition from the powerhouse to powerless before it becomes permanent.