What we learned from Santos' first camp

Patience. It's going to take time. 

All the cliche's Polish fans have been told after a false-start for new Polish head coach Fernando Santos. Poland lost in Prague to the Czech Republic 1-3 on Friday and came out with a lucky victory over Albania 1-0 in Warsaw, in a match that likely should've ended in a draw. 

After all, previous coaches, such as Leo Beenhakker and Adam Nawalka also started very poorly and worse then Santos' three points out of possible six. 

The camp was short and Poland played two matches, but there is plenty we can take away from this grouping as Santos and Poland look forward to their next grouping in June. 

Poland's wildcard

Karol Swiderski came through yet again for Poland as they held on to a tight 1-0 win over Albania at Narodowy stadium in Warsaw on a lone goal by Swiderski. 

Swiderski who left Europe in early 2022 to join Charlotte in Major League Soccer to earn some extra money in a league that will pay extra to attract european talent and also to rejuvenate his career. MLS is a league that has shown it can help re-develop players and re-sale them back to Europe, most recently with Polish players Przemyzlaw Frankowski and Patryk Klimala. 

Eriksen collapse: A year later

 

Euro 2020 in 2021. From the minute UEFA announced the European Cup would be played as a "continental" Euro, it was met with widespread anguish by fans who knew the Euros they've always come to expect would not be replicated in 2020. And that was before any of us know what Covid-19 was. 

After Covid-19 shut the world down, Euro 2020 was moved to 2021 in hopes the world would be back like it was just two years prior. But that wasn't the case. With Covid-19 still spreading all over the world, half filled stadiums, little to no buzz in host cities, fans either barred from traveling due to covid restrictions or just frankly refusing to do so, made Euro 2021 most likely the worst European Cup to date. And that was before Denmark took on Finland in Group B. The match the world thought it lost Christian Eriksen.

Skorupski makes declaration to be Poland's #2

When the May/June international window opened, one of the most interesting position battles on the Polish national team was who will become the teams' backup goalkeeper to Wojtek Szczesny. And in theory, whoever wins the backup job, will have a edge on who becomes the next NT #1 keeper once the 32-year old Juventus shot stopper retires from national team duty.

The top two candidates, 23-year old Kamil Grabara and 24-year old Bartlomiej Dragowski received the first looks and were the clear favorites when camp opened. But it could be that 31-year old Lukasz Skorupski could swoop in and steal the gig from either of the two young keepers in short term until they're ready.

Poland's catastrophic second half

Robert Lewandowski scored mid-way through the first half to give Poland a 1-0 lead. Despite having their backs against the wall most of the half, it wasn't until the 42nd minute til Belgium tied the match 1-1 after a defensive error by Sebastian Szymanski easily losing a rebound to Axel Witsel who put past a diving Bartek Dragowski. 

Even then, despite signs of brilliance throughout that half by Kevin de Bruyne that signaled that he and his teammates were not going to be stopped on this evening. Poland went into half-time tied 1-1, and with a few adjustments and locking down a bit more defensively, the moral surrounding the team was high with the thought that this team might actually go into Belgium and steal crucial Nations League points from one of the best teams in the world. 

Bosz on verge of another collapse

Peter Bosz was clearly showing frustration after his side Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 loss over the weekend to RB Leipzig, as all signs are pointing to another collapse for the Dutch manager at a major bundesliga club. "It was a top game, but not top football" Bosz told reporters after the match. 

Bayer Leverkusen after a hot start to the season with the breakout year for German teen prodigy Florian Wirtz, are beginning to mirror Bosz's Borussia Dortmund's side which showed all the promise in the world but to fall hard at the end. 

Revamped Atletico Madrid

"This will be the biggest task of my career" is how Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone in June described the upcoming off-season. It wasn't a secret to anyone, that Atletico Madrid had run into a dead end with the club they have build and the team has peaked. Going into the summer, Atletico knew it would lose three of it's starting defenders: Juanfran, captain Diego Godin and Filipe Luis, due to their ages and declining skills. It was time to rebuild that defense into a younger and quicker group.

Losing three starters on defense wouldn't be the biggest shakeup on the team. Their star and face of the franchise Antoine Griezmann, 28, was looking to further his career and play with a better team and add some trophies to his resume, after winning the 2018 World Cup with France. The Griezmann transfer saga had many twists and turns, and sometimes turned ugly, but eventually the French superstar made his move to Barcelona for $139 million.