“There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, there are no limits.” — Michael Phelps
This is part VI of The Story Of Polonia Warsaw and in this part, we finish the second season as the head of the Polonia Warsaw football club. You´ll find the previous parts here: https://tomikorkeamaki.wixsite.com/impactsub
Chodźmy!
Winter started to fade away as we were getting ready to make a miracle comeback just like Rocky to the promotion playoffs in the second half of the season. It was a battle between two lines though. Conversely, we had every chance to get to the promotion playoffs, but if we slip, we might drop into the relegation battle.
During the winter transfer window, we were looking to bolster the squad with another Nigerian talent but every player we targeted wasn´t looking forward to playing in the Polish First Division so we looked for national talent. We broke the club's transfer fee record as we paid £21,5K to Garbarnia to secure the signing of Mateusz Duda. We needed new legs in the midfield and Duda brought some security to the midfield.
Excellent friendly games before the start of the second half also saw us finally play against our fierce local rivals Legia Warsaw. There is a catch though. We requested to play against them but this time the reason they declined the friendly wasn´t their hectic schedule but that they don´t want to play against fierce rivals in a friendly. So we send another request and played against their 2nd team. In a tight contest, we were able to secure a 2-1 victory and hoped for a boost in the team morale as we were ready to make a miracle. #BeatLegia
We didn´t make any major changes to the tactic as we still played with 4-4-2. The biggest change in tactic was that we replaced the inverted winger roles with wingers and upfront, we had a pressing forward pairing with an advanced forward.
Although we started with a bang right from the start with a 4-2 victory against Stal Rzeszow we only managed to gain three wins out of nine games played and it started to look that our dream about the spot in the playoff promotion was fading away. The Rocky tactic wasn´t working quite as well as we had planned. When the month of April came around, it felt like we were just knocked out of consciousness when we lost three games in a row. With just seven games to go, we needed some kind of a miracle. We needed Rocky spirit to make that miracle comeback.
That miracle came from a place I didn´t expect, We live in a weird time in the World at the moment when the World Cup is played in December. As I was watching the Japan-Croatia game, I was impressed by the Japanese team playing. They were relentless, attacking fast with width and gave constant pressure on Croatia. I started to think, maybe my Polonia would be able to play the same way. Luckily, JoshDaly had created a replica of the Japanese tactic for FM Scout. We inserted the tactic for our team and we were flying. We had just woken up Rocky.
We went from a slightly cautious tactic to full-blown attack mode and the result showed that. We were hammering opponents game after game and looked confident in every game for the full 90 minutes. With the previous system, we had started conceding a lot of goals in the second half. Now we just hammered forward.
Six wins in a row and scoring 19 goals in those games meant that we entered the final day of the regular season in the 6th place, final place in the promotion playoffs. The final game was against Puszcza, a team that had already been doomed for relegation and although we had 2 point advance against 7th-placed team Ruch, a point from the final game might not be enough as they had a slightly better goal difference. And of course, we drew 1-1 against a far much weaker side. Did we just get FM´d?
We did not! We finished 6th place, 2 points clear and secured the final place in the promotion playoffs! I shouted my wife´s name (not Adrian) in our living room, trying to get her to celebrate with me just as Rocky and Adrian did in the movie but no response. What a moment for our club though!
Unbelievable finish to the season that at some point looked to be doomed and we even feared relegation. Finishing 6th place meant that now in the playoffs we would have to play against our rivals LKS Lodz who had finished 3th. In the regular season, we drew 0-0 against them in an away game and at home, we were humiliated by a 0-2 defeat. It felt though that the momentum was on our side and the boys showed up for the game.
We just straight-up bullied them and should have won by a greater margin but once again it was Jan Los who banged the winner. With Chilohem Onouah called up for the Nigerian youth team (the timing, right?!), Abba Bichi stepped up for him in the starting lineup. After the game, it hit me. We were just one win away from Ekstraklasa. One win. In the second promotion semifinal, Podbeskidzie lost 0-3 at home against GKS Katowice. This meant that we as the 6th seed were up against the 5th seed GKS Katowice. Battle of the underdogs!
One win. That´s all we needed. Like always in the playoffs, games are played with a short rest but the squad was in fairly good condition. We had no major injuries and no suspensions other than Onuoah was still with the national team. GKS was a favourite for the match. We had drawn 0-0 and lost 1-3 against them in the regular season. Then the match day arrived.
It was a heartbreak. Complete heartbreak. We had 68% of possession but we only managed one shot on goal. One. In the biggest game of our season. No promotion but I am so proud of this team and we have a very good chance to achieve it next season. There is one player I am especially proud of and that is our striker Jan Los. He scored a total of 17 goals in 26 games. I love him for the fact that he was a free-agent signing but also for the narrative. Now already a retired player in real life is flourishing in the game. He was mainly our pressing forward when we inserted the new system but he has a range to play in the shadow striker role as well.
Here is the final league table. We were expected to fight for relegation but ended up just one win away from promotion. Somehow we ended up as the top-scoring team in the First Division. Did we overachieve? Probably quite a lot and as we are now facing a couple of key youngsters moving clubs, the upcoming summer with scouting and looking for replacing them is important. The key is now to focus on developing our defence. We conceded 45 goals which is almost the same amount that the top two teams conceded combined.
We have now completed two seasons with Polonia Warsaw. Almost two promotions back-to-back. We have made some key signings. We have made mistakes. We have been doubted. Now the focus is getting stronger as we have shown ourselves that we almost have what it takes to get promoted. With hard work, there are no limits.
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