Coaching duo: #POGWIS

This wasn't your average press conference! Not only did it take place after Wisła's victory over Pogoń, which gave the Kraków team their fifth-ever Polish Cup, but the entire White Star coaching staff was in attendance, and the event was interrupted by… celebrating R22 players!

Albert Rudé - Wisla Kraków

"This is the greatest success of my life, there's no doubt about it. We played brilliantly, gave it our all. We fought until the end for a positive result, never giving up. After conceding the goal, I just said to the players: keep doing what you're doing. What else could I say in a situation like this? I added: be yourself, do what we've been training for all these weeks. Push until the very end, and you'll be rewarded for it. And that's what happened. I'm happy; we fully deserved the Polish Cup," said coach Albert Rude. "As I've said before, we have a 24-hour rule. If we lose, we can grieve for 24 hours, and if we win, we can celebrate for 24 hours. Then we get back to work. Such success is a stimulus to continue working, but it needs to be managed wisely," he added.

Alfaro, Goku, and Junca weren't certain to play in the final. The latter was missing from the field. "As for the first two, we managed to get them back on their feet. Junca couldn't play at 100 percent, so I decided to leave him out of the squad. We needed fully healthy players for a match like this, and he requires further treatment to fully recover," he noted.
The match against Portowcy confirmed the theory that the Kraków team performs better against teams that can move the ball and favor an attacking style. "There are different teams and different players in both the First League and the Ekstraklasa. We can say that this team, in terms of characteristics, is indeed more suited to the Ekstraklasa, but the reality is that we play lower and need to win at this level. The top two positions in the table have slipped away from us, and we must do everything we can to achieve our goal," he said.

Since other members of the staff were also present, there were plenty of questions for them. Mariusz Jop was asked if the former Wisła team, where he played, could cope with the current R22 team. "It's very difficult to compare, because football has changed. Wisła back then had more Polish internationals, and if they were foreign players, they were very strong. I think the potential of that team was greater than that of the current Wisła, but that didn't stop us from achieving a great result today. This team shows character, as we scored goals many times late in the game. This is something that builds the team for the future and gives hope for further success," he said.

He knew the outcome of the match even before the match… Kazimierz Kmiecik, who predicted this very outcome of the final: "When I played for Wisła, we lost the final to Arka Gdynia in Lublin in 1979. Later, I won the Greek Cup with Larissa, and in Germany, against Stuttgarter Kickers, I lost the final again. I assumed, by the law of the series, that it was our turn to win, and when an editor called me before the final, I said it would be 2-1 to Wisła. And it happened, which I am extremely pleased with."

Jens Gustafsson - Pogoń Szczecin

"We had the trophy in our hands, but we fell short at the end. I think Wisła played better than us in the first half. We weren't able to control the ball as well as we usually do, but we created some chances, and Wisła did too. In the second half, we improved our game. If you're a minute away from winning the final and don't win the trophy, you have to feel a huge disappointment, and that's exactly what we feel, because we should have won," he said.

"First of all, there's a story connected to this referee and Pogoń. But this isn't the best time to comment on his performance. As for the red card for my assistant, it was the result of our analysis of the situation on the tablet. We felt we deserved a penalty," he added.