Coaching duet #ARKWIS

The Arka vs. Wisła match ended in a draw, with the White Star battling for a single point until the very end. Coaches Mariusz Jop and Dawid Szwarga met with journalists after the match.

Mariusz Jop - Wisla Kraków

"It was definitely a very difficult match against an opponent who focused on disrupting our rhythm and wasting time. I think they started doing this very quickly, after scoring the first goal. There were even interesting situations where the opposing bench slowed down stretcher-bearers when they went to get a player, so I understand all these tricks that are aimed at taking seconds away. And Arka did it well, very well even. On the other hand, congratulations to the guys. Many of the things we set out to do worked out. We created a lot of scoring opportunities. I regret that the match ended so quickly, because I think it would have been only a matter of time before we scored more goals. A small thing for us was definitely the marking at set pieces, because that was the only time Arka were dangerous, and they scored two goals from them. Besides that, they didn't create any scoring opportunities, so there's a lot of dissatisfaction, but on the other hand, there's optimism, because it was clear that this team is ready to play." He believes in victory to the end and attacks constantly, being aggressive in attack. I treat this draw as a loss of two points," he began.

One local media representative suggested that, according to coach Mariusz Jop, the R22 team drew the match because of stretchers: "No, Wisła didn't draw the match because of stretchers. I'm only talking about situations where the opponent deliberately took up time, threw us off our rhythm. Of course, that's their strategy and they have the right to do so. However, I don't necessarily like it. We drew because we were weak defensively at set pieces."

The next question concerned the White Star's poor performance, according to the journalist, to which the coach responded: "We scored two goals. That's quite a lot for an away game against an opponent who is high in the table and often defended with their entire team in the second half. It's not easy; many shots were blocked. Many shots were very close to the target. The goalkeeper made several saves. Of course, let's not expect every chance to be converted into a goal; that's impossible. However, the positive thing is that we created a lot of those chances. Of course, we would like to be more effective."

After one play, the referee didn't award a penalty kick to Wisła, which seemed obvious. What did the coach say about this? "From my perspective, it also looked like a hand problem. A hand that's positioned unnaturally. The ball was in the air for a very long time, so I think the player had time to check where it was going. The referees explained it by saying he didn't see the ball... I'm not in charge of judging; that's what the referees are for, and I don't want to go into detail," he replied.

Marko Poletanović left the pitch early. What's the prognosis? "As for Marko, he'll have tests tomorrow and we'll see how serious the injury is, because it's a knee injury," he said, referring to Mariusz Kutwa's health situation: "Yes, he had a high temperature on Thursday evening, and this morning as well. We decided to send him home early because there was no point in keeping him on the bench or in the stadium in this weather. He's simply sick."

Dawid Szwarga - Arka Gdynia

"It's always disappointing when you concede a goal in stoppage time, but considering how the match unfolded, this draw was a deserved result. We certainly demand more from ourselves in terms of the quality of our play. I'm talking about both our performance with the ball and our pressing. There were definitely moments where we could improve, but I have to give credit to the players for showing such character and truly high-level willpower. Ultimately, as a team, we can and will be better. We'll work this week to perform better in the next match. We'll take this point with us and move on," he began.

The team from Kraków came to Gdynia eager to play football and were – as the statistics confirm – better: "It's a shame you didn't cite those statistics after the match against Polonia Warszawa, because they were the opposite. However, I agree with you that we should have been better at high defense. I won't go into details, because the biggest problems there were with interpreting in the first half whether Wisła was building with four or three defenders. Because pressing is different when they build with four and slightly different when they build with three. We interpreted it incorrectly, a bit too slowly. That's one of the things we can do better. I think it was a bit better in the second half, but it's still not at the level I expect, and probably not at the level the team expects," he replied.

Wisła Kraków equalized in stoppage time. Where did the "chaos" among the team from northern Poland come from? "There was quite a bit of confusion there, because we won the first ball. Then the second ball – I think Marc and Rataj were jumping for the second ball together, and there wasn't enough communication to stay calm and simply dispatch the ball. But you also have to give credit to the scorer for his excellent performance, because he shot the ball first, a shot that flew in the air, so there was no time to react." There are goals you can defend against, but in this particular case, the individual performance of the Wisła player was top-notch," he analyzed. "Overall, we had twenty corner kicks in the first two matches against Polonia Warszawa and Znicz Pruszków. Today, we had significantly fewer, but we were much more effective. This is consistent work. The players certainly did a good job, because the crosses were simply good, and coach Rafał Figiel, who is responsible for set pieces, certainly prepared well for this match and helped the players be effective in the opponent's penalty area," he continued.

When asked about the referee's work, Dawid Szwarga replied: "Football is generally about emotions. I never take it badly if the bench is alive. In fact, I expect the bench to be alive, but of course not vulgar or rude. But if the referee whistles a foul for the opposing team in a close game, it's hard for us to sit on the bench and applaud. We just react, and there's nothing wrong with that. The referee should focus on officiating, and we on the bench should also do our job. And our job is also about emotions, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you don't cross certain lines. If that line is crossed, you have to punish the player or coach with a yellow card, which referee Raczkowski did. I think the refereeing was at a good level, and I certainly wouldn't expect a 2-2 result or for the match to end in some refereeing errors. I would rather say that there were a lot of emotions on both sides, and it certainly wasn't an easy match to referee, but the referee didn't He was also the main actor in this spectacle, but the players were the ones who played. And that's how it should be in football matches, that football is the most important thing." "I'll put it this way: it wasn't planned or controlled by us in any way. These were real injuries. Both Hide and Torni had previously reported fatigue problems, simply related to the intensity of the match. They got cramps, and we had to carry the player off the field somehow. It was not our intention to prolong the match at all," he concluded.