Ricardo in Leicester City?

Last years were not good for Ricardo. His club Betis Sevilla was relegated to Segunda Division after 2008/2009 season and he himself lost the place in the frist squad. He was not even given a squad number ahead of this season.

But finally there is a hope for a change. Ricardo was released by Betis in this month and is without a club for the time being. It is said that he was invited to train with Leicester City club by Sven Goran-Eriksson. The Swedish coach knows Ricardo two well. He managed the English team when they lost against Portugal in penalty shoot-out on Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006. In both those cases it was Ricardo who stopped England, sucessufully defending penalties.

Although a contract has been not signed yet Maisfutebol claims that Ricardo intends to make the move to the club.

Will Ricardo join Leicester and fullfill his dreams to play in England? I wish him all the best.

Video interview with the coach Bogdan Wenta after Croatia - Poland match

Wenta: brakuje mi w tej grupie człowieka, który to pociągnie

Before the game against Serbia there was such silence in the dressing room... There was a change later, but today... On the morning walk, on the meeting before the game the mood was full of optimism.

For Croats it was a game for everything, and it was the same for us. We commited mistakes in this match, we suffered a break down. It seems that this group lacks the leader, someone who will inspire the others. Sometimes Grzesiu [Tkaczyk] plays this part but he was ruled out by an injury. Sławek [Szmal] is a great figure, showed it today through his great performance, but we can't expect that he is going to cover the goal completely, save everything and we are only going to score.

It was a series of easy mistakes again. It's a bit embarassing. If it is only unused clear situation, the team can't be really blamed for it. If it repeats three or four times in the row the player can be always changed. But it's puzzling that in simple situations we are losing the ball or passing it straight in the hands of an opponent. Those throws are intended to be so easy just in purpouse to start the game well, to face the opponent. Today we expected that they are going to wait what we are going to do. There were good moments, we had postions to score. When we hesitated for a while, tried to slow down on the back, there were counter-attacks.

I know the Croatian team's way of playing by heart. To sum up today they also didn't play anything different than usual. But it worked out, they were more effective or perhaps they commited less mistakes, or, I don't know, the spectators were more favourable for them because thay are among the top teams not only for the last four years but for ten, right? Well, it's a certain advantage.

They say... Well, today Croats had a few players from Bundesliga in the squad... But in the backstage people generally say that players playing in Bundesliga are more tired that the others. But then again, it's standing in the front of the cameras and saying what we all want to hear.

We are the group where there is sixteen players and the coaching staff, so it's obvious that as in every group they are friendships but they are also anthypaties. Someone likes someone else more, someone is irritated by someone's else behaviour. We are together for nearly a month so you can be annoyed just by seeing the t-shirt another person is wearing or beg my pardon what is served for the breakfast or what hour we are drinking coffee. It's normal. Add stress to this to get the picture. If you win matches, everything is okay, the cooperation goes well. Even if something is not quite right... Like today in Grabarczyk's case. I have a lot of admiration for him, because it had seemed he was injuried and yet he managed to play quite well.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Croatia - Poland 28:24 (13:11), postgame video interview with Piotr Wyszomirski and goalkeepers match stats

Postgame interview with the deputy goalkeeper Piotr Wyszomirski after Crotia - Poland game. His performance as well as Sławomir Szmal's belongs to the few positive sides of that game.

Szmal saved 42% of shots (15 of 36 attempts). He saved also two penalty shots and sucesfully stopped opponents in situations one to one a few times.

Wyszomirski replaced Szmal in 42'. He saved 46% of shots (6 of 13), one penalty shot and managed to save a shot in one to one situation.

But a goalkeeper can't win a game alone...

Wyszomirski o porażce z Chorwacją: coś pękło, zeszło z nas powietrze

It was really an important match for us, as if it was the final. We were fighting for the qualification to the Olympic Games. We are going to play another final two days later. We will see how it's going to turn out. I think we lacked the spirt, everyone had had a different expectations in the first place. We arrived on those Championships with other plan.

Something went wrong, we lacked the consequence in the attack and commited stupid mistakes in the defence. We had to chase the result again and that cost us dear. We were not able to catch up with the result and we lost.

Question: In your opinion that game could be won?

I think so. At the beggining Croats were very nervous. We also didn't look the best, but we lead the game at the beginning of the first half. So I think that if our counter-attacks had been sucessful and we had scored we would have had a chance. We could get clear lead and they would have to chase the result. I think we could have won this match.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Croatia - Poland 28:24 (13:11), postgame video interview with Sławomir Szmal

Szmal: w poprzednie mecze wkładaliśmy dużo serca. Dziś tego nie było

Szmal: We lack the spirit. It's as if something died down in us. We play without a faith in ourselves, in our team. In such moments it's as if we had already lost. It could be clearly seen in the second half when we were playing but without faith, simply speaking... Well, it's hard to judge it now.

Journalist: So what had happened with this fight? Because we come here with great hopes but we lost three of four matches against top teams.

Szmal: Well, with great hopes. For sure we come here to fight as we had said. No one did say that we came here with an intention to give up. I think that up to this moment we put our heart into the games. There were of course weak matches, when we didn't play the best but we really put our heart into them. I think we can't say the same today.

Journalist: I'm under an impression that today, first time since a long time, Croats were within the reach. That's why it hurts even more.

Szmal: Well, I think that they played in their own style. They worked out good situations to score and here Piotrek [Wyszomirski, the deputy goalkeeper] deserves to be praised. Also the defence in the first half was good, the lads were fighting. Unfortunately, there were too much counter-attacks in the second half and it's always disheartening for a goalkeeper.

Journalist: We are on the fourth place in this group. This means "a game of everything" awaits us, because the seventh place on the tournament guarantees us a right to play in the elimination for the Olympic Games. The eighth will not.

Another journalist: It's as if it was a final.

Szmal: Actually it was also a final today. If we had won today we needn't to worry any more. We would play for the fifth place. Unfortunately we didn't managed to win. I hope we will pull ourselves together and we are going to play a good game.

Journalist: Most likely it's going to be Hungary. So it's an opponent which is theoretically weaker. Seems we are going to be the favourite.

Szmal: On those Championships we can't really judge who is weaker or not. As we had said before we should think about ourselves, belive in ourselves and give 100 per cent of ourselves.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Poland - Serbia 27:26 (10:11)

Another thrilling game. The ending was almost as desperate as in the match against Norway two years ago, when Poland won after Artur Siódmiak's throw from the distance, just a few second before the final whistle. They qualified to the semifinal back then.

This time there will be no semifinal, Poland is already without a chance to play for the medal. But is still in the game for the qualification round to Olympic Games 2012.

It was Tomasz Tłuczyński's match, no doubt about this, he scored 10 goals and was almost faultless today. He said later it's was a present for Karol Bielecki, whose birthday are today.

The ending was dramatic. Poland took the lead in the second half, but Serbia managed to tie the game just a few minutes before the end. The coach Bogdan Wenta took the timeout 30 seconds before the full time to give instuctions to the players. To try to score, but what was more important - to not lose. The plan worked. Karol Bielecki scored the goal which give the victory, and Piotr Wyszomirski saved the last throw of desperation of Serbian team.

Watch the last 30 seconds of the game: here.

Video interview with the coach Bogdan Wenta after Denmark - Poland match

MŚ piłkarzy ręcznych. Wenta po meczu z Danią [WIDEO]

We made a lot of changes in the first half but we lacked the effectiveness. Our playing sheme was too plain. In the second was more work and running, Tomek Tłuczyński scored, Lisek [Patryk Kuchczyński] scored, to cut long story short we started playing. We stopped thinking too much, we started playing how we are able to do. However, we are not always sucessful. I hadn't take the timeout because I though that we had a chance to tie the game and that it will be needed before the last action.

But when there was the last 16 seconds they didn't even give us a chance to touch the ball.

But that free-throw when Mariusz tried to pass the ball to the pivot... We shouted that he should pass to Zarek [Mateusz Zaremba]. We didn't counted too much on Zarek and perhaps he would be able to score... but... It didn't work anyway. What to add more? To be honest I will say that despite the fact the game was lost, there is a lot of interesting things to study. You have seen the game too so for sure you have a lot of thoughts about it, you can ask about many things. But sometimes one has to ask people, because it's a team game and everyone is important, every decision of the referee is also important, every decision how to play in the defence and in the attack is important too. And today I think... We can again, as we often do in Poland, ponder about 'what could happen if the things were different'.

It turns out that it's not as good as it could be, but it's also not as bad.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Denmark - Poland 28:27 (15:9)

What to say? The same scenario. Horrible first half and the mad chase to catch up with the result in the second. The match ended with one goal difference. So much and so few at the same time. Something is still not working good and it seems that it't too late for improvements.

Polish team is at the point where has no other options except for winning two games and count on that other results in the group will put them in favour.

Impossible?

I would say so if it was not Polish national handball team. Will belive in them till the final whistle of the last game. They proved that they fight till the very end and that they never give up. And even if they lose they will do everything trying. And that's why I support them.

Training session of Polish handball team in Malmö video

Orły Wenty już w Malmoe. Pierwszy trening w pięknej hali

Serie A: Genoa - Lazio 0:0, 6 January 2011 video highlights

Video highlights of Seria A Genoa - Lazio game. Great saves of Lazio's goalkeeper Fernando Muslera! A lucky ones too. Eduardo was also playing in that game.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Poland - Sweden 21:24 (12:14), video interview with Sławomir Szmal

After a hard, exhausting and even game Sweden won with Poland 24:21.

Postgame interview with Polish goalkeeper Sławomir Szmal, whose amazing saves allowed to keep up Poland's hopes to tie the game. Unfortunately too much mistakes in the attack didn't allowed to sucessed one more time.

Sweden, as well as Poland and Argentina qualifed to the second round of the Championships. In the group they are going to play against Serbia, Croatia and Denmark.

Szmal: Zabrakło koncentracji i woli walki

Our plan was to play aggressively because we know the opponent, we had know that the main threat are Andersson and Kaellman. We were suppoused to play offensive and harshly. Unfortunately, they managed to come off on good postions. We commited a number of mistakes in attack and they answered with counterattacks. In today's match we lacked consistency and the will to win. We had a real chance to win today with Swedes on their home soil, watched by 12 000 audience.

We had a few situations when we had a one man advantage but we didn't used it. Normally we should win in such moments by scoring two goals. There was a situation when we had a chance to tie the game but unfortunately we were losing the ball. Against such a opponent on their home soil it's impossible to win a game.

Having such an audience, when Swedes fans were cheering for their team, there were moments when only the Polish supporters could be heard. It should give us strength but unfortunately in those crucial moments we failed.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Poland - South Korea 25:20 (10:11)

On Tuesday Poland won with South Korea. The first half was hard, but in the second Polish team took the lead and was dominating on the pitch.

Goalkeeper Sławomir Szmal, whose performance was very good, was chosen the best player of the match.

Surprisingly Argentina won with Sweden, which means that today game is going to be really hard for the host's team. If they lose today they are not going to have any points from the first round despite qualifing to the second.

Picspam of the game.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Poland - Chile 38:23 (15:13)

Poland beat Chile 38:23. Finally a fine victory. The first half didn't look the best, although Poland lead for the most of the time, but in the second the team rushed to the attack. Chile's defence played well at the beginning, but then Polish players found a way to go through it and also to stop opponents' attack.

Quite good game for the goalkeepers Sławomir Szmal and Piotr Wyszomirski. Both had to face penalties and they managed to save one each. Szmal was very good at the beginning of the first half, made a few good saves.

Wyszomirski played the second half. His biggest mistakes were quite unfortunate passes, which were snatched by the opponents (fortunately not used well in the most dangerous situation, the ball was thrown into the empty goal, but hit the post). However, overall he saved around 50% of shots.

Tommorrow Poland against South Korea. It's not going to be easy...

Poland - Czech Republic (33:32), New Year's Tournament in Gdynia, 7.01.11, videos

Went to watch a handball games a week ago on the New Year's Tournament in Gdynia. Enjoyed both, Slovakia against Hungary and Poland against Czech Republic. Took some video footage during the latest.

Polish handball team before Poland - Czech Republic game (Gdynia, 7.01.11)



Warm-up session







Piotr Wyszomirski's warm-up session



Poland - Czech Republic game





The end of the match, Karol Bielecki is named the best Polish player of the game



I have also loads of photos but still need some time to chose the best ones.

"For me it is clear that Fabiański is No1", states Arsene Wenger

Over last two weeks Łukasz Fabiański has been out of the game due to an injury. However, accoriding to the coach, it didn't change anything. He still considers him to be the first-choice goalkeeper, while Wojciech Szczęsny is the second-choice. Vito Mannone went on the loan to Hull City. Manuel Almunia is still injuried and might leave the club in the transfer window.

Arsène Wenger has reassured his goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański that the shoulder injury that has kept him out of action for the past two weeks has not affected his position as Arsenal's first-choice goalkeeper. The Pole is not yet fit enough to feature against West Ham tomorrow but will be buoyed by his manager's suggestion that he will be thrust straight back into the team when he completes his recovery over the coming days, despite the solid displays in Arsenal's past two matches by his deputy and compatriot, Wojciech Szczęsny.

Fabiański began this season as Arsenal's second choice but has become a regular since replacing the erratic Manuel Almunia in September. "We live in a world of competition but for me it is clear that Fabiański is No1," Wenger said."

Read the full article at guardian.co.uk.

Polish handballers' football training session

I prefer to not write anything about today's Poland - Argentina game. It was not a good match. Poland managed to win, but overall it was a very poor performance of the team. Hope the next game in Monday is going to look totally different.

Instead of analysing the game it's better to watch a video showing a part of the handballer's training session. They played football as a warm-up ;)

'Jeszcze Smuda go weźmie', czyli nożny trening piłkarzy ręcznych przed Argentyną

Liked the comment from Damian Wleklak (a member of the team's staff) at the end of the video: "Turn off the cameras or Smuda will call you up!"

Franciszek Smuda is the coach of Poland national football team.

22nd Men's Handball World Championship - Poland - Slovakia 35:33 (15:17)

After an even and hard game Poland won with Slovakia 35:33. It has nothing in common with the game on New Year's Tournament in Gdynia, where Poland snatched the lead easily and kept it till the final whistle. Slovakia surprised Polish team, and even took the lead on the end of the first half.

In the second half Polish team reduced the distance and took the lead. At 50' was five goals ahead. Slovakia didn't gave up and at two minutes before the final whistle it was only one goal difference. However, goals of Bielecki and Jurecki guaranteed Poland the first victory on the Championships.

As for the goalkeepers - Sławomir Szmal showed a glimpse of his skills especially in the second half and made good saves in the cruacial moments, when Poland was fighthing to catch up with Slovakia. Piotr Wyszmirski appeared on for a while.

As for Slovakia's side. I expected Richard Štochl to be better, actually. Then Martin Pramuk changed him, a total surprise (he was not playing on the Tournament in Gdynia) and was one of the best players on the pitch, made really stunning saves. For sure it was his day, even if Slovakia didn't won the game.

Would do a proper picspam but don't have time for this now.

Today next game: Poland against Argentina.

Tickets

Got tickets for the Friday games of the New Year Tournament in Handball which is going to take place in Gdynia, 6-8 January. The national teams of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia are going to take part in it. Might also go to the Saturday games, but I haven't decided yet.

The tournament draws a lot of attencion and it seems that almost the whole Gdynia Sports Arena is going to be full of spectators.

So excited that I'm finally going to see live my favorite national team. Handball is nice to watch. It's a very fast game and almost all the time something is happening on the field. Besides this games also has goalkeepers.

Going to take a lot of photos!

New Year

So, it's a new year. It's over 10 months since I have this blog. Didn't had too much time for the regular updates lately and didn't even watch too much football. Need to catch up with Everton matches.

Hopefully some of the football players I miss are going to be back. Buffon should be ready to play again soon, and I hope the same will be with Quim. I also hope that 2011 is going to be a year when Ricardo finally changes his club! He doesn't have too much of the choice actually, his contract is going to expire in June.

The Men Handball World Chapionship in Sweden is going to begin at 13th of January and of course I'm going to follow the Polish team. What's more they are going to play at a small tournament in my city in the next week, which is going to be a part of their preparation and I hope that I will finally watch my national team live :)

Goalkeeperss Saves Vol. 5

The fifth volume of goalkeeper saves, a video made by YT user LCTrussell1992Media.

Goalkeepers in the video: Rene Adler, Manuel Almunia, Fabien Barthez, Gianluigi Buffon, Hans-Jorg Butt, Iker Casillas, Petr Cech, Julio Cesar, Carlo Cudicini, Brad Friedel, Ben Foster, Robert Green, Joe Hart, Ali Al Habsi, Shaka Hislop, Tim Howard, Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Richard Kingson, Tim Krul, Jens Lehmann, Hugo Lloris, Manuel Neuer, Edwin Van Der Sar, Paul Smith, Wojciech Szczęsny, Roman Weidenfeller, Lee Woon-Jae.