Ekstraklasa Cup is a competition to try out some new players or tactics. Cracovia begun in some style beating Górnik Łęczna 3-0 on an away game. Later came a defeat at Kałuży against Korona Kielce after a poor performance. The third game scheduled before the winter-break was postponed due to heavy fog over our stadium.

Few weeks ago Górnik Łęczna defeated Pasy in a league game 1-0. The first game of the League Cup Group Stage was an opportunity for Cracovia to take revenge. The first half was goalless despite Cracovia’s domination; the best chance for scoring had Nowak, but Łęczna’s goalkeeper Tytoń saved the one-on-one. Thanks to Tytoń’s good performance Łęczna managed to keep things level up to 74^th minute, when the goalkeeper made a mistake and after his poor clearance after a corner-kick Baran scored with a shot from 11 meters. Five minutes later Giza stormed on the left side and played a good ball to Moskała, who scored without any problems. This was Moskała’s 9^th goal his 18^th match of the season. Two minutes before the end Cracovia’s young striker Kurowski scored after an individual action. Pasy could have scored more goals, but Kurowski and Nowak failed to beat Tytoń.

After a good start in Łęczna Cracovia faced one of the top teams in the league – Korona Kielce. Korona dominated throughout the game and showed a good play. Cracovia, on the contrary, performed poorly and lacked skills and maybe some ambition. After some 30 minutes Kowalczyk scored after Brzyski’s pinpoint pass from the left. This goal marked Korona’s heavy pressure, exerted during that period of the game. Some seven minutes later Skrzyński’s poor clearance let Bonin score with a fantastic shot from about 25 meters. The team from Kielce exposed many errors of Cracovia defense, but being aware of their advantage Korona relaxed and did not score more goals. The consolation goal came in the last minute when Kurowski scored with a fine curled shot from some 15 meters. This goal changed nothing, as this was a truly deserved victory for Korona.

Our players could rehabilitate in the game against Widzew Lodz, but extremely heavy fog made it impossible to play. The game has been postponed for March. Now a long winter-break starts and the first event will be the traditional New Year’s training held on January 1st. Cracovia is planning to make some transfers this winter. Pasy already signed on a free transfer a powerful defensive midfielder Dariusz Kłus from ŁKS. Together with Baran and Giza they have the potential make a strongest midfield trio of the league. Also Karol Piątek, young universal full-back, returned from loan to Lechia Gdańsk.

22/11/2006
Górnik Łęczna 0-3 Cracovia
Arkadiusz Baran 74, Tomasz Moskała 79, Sebastian Kurowski 88

Górnik Ł.: Przemysław Tytoń – Mariusz Pawelec, Vladimir Sandulović, Toni Golem, Wałerij Sokołenko (46 David Topolski) – Marcin Rogowski, Piotr Bronowicki, Paulinho, Łukasz Masłowski (71 Sławomir Nazaruk) – Jakub Grzegorzewski (40 Janusz Surdykowski), Aleksandar Bajevski (44 Grzegorz Szymanek).

Cracovia: Sławomir Olszewski - Tomasz Wacek, Michał Karwan, Łukasz Skrzyński (53 Łukasz Uszalewski) - João Paulo (65 Sebastian Kurowski), Jacek Wiśniewski, Arkadiusz Baran, Piotr Giza (81 Paweł Wojciechowski), Paweł Nowak - Piotr Bania (71 Marcin Bojarski), Tomasz Moskała.

Booked: Paulinho, Szymanek - Uszalewski.

Referee: Włodzimierz Bartos (Łódź).
Attendance: 1500.

26/11/2006
Cracovia 1-2 Korona Kielce
Sebastian Kurowski 90 - Maciej Kowalczyk 29, Grzegorz Bonin 36

Cracovia: 30. Sławomir Olszewski - 2. Mateusz Rzucidło, 13. Michał Karwan, 15. Łukasz Skrzyński - 21. Marcin Bojarski, 3. Jacek Wiśniewski, 8. Arkadiusz Baran (78, 35. Marcin Zimoń), 7. Piotr Giza (46, 25. João Paulo), 19. Paweł Nowak - 11. Piotr Bania (46, 20. Sebastian Kurowski), 18. Tomasz Moskała.

Korona: 33. Łukasz Załuska - 21. Przemysław Cichoń, 24. Marek Szyndrowski, 22. Maciej Kiciński, 19. Robert Bednarek (46, 7. Jarosław Wieczorek) - 15. Grzegorz Bonin (85, 27. Jacek Kiełb), 17. Hermes, 10. Mariusz Zganiacz (89, 18. Kamil Radulj), 3. Tomasz Brzyski - 25. Maciej Kowalczyk, 28. Piotr Bagnicki (69, 11. Marcin Robak).
Booked: Szyndrowski.

Referee: Marcin Szulc (Warszawa).
Attendance: 3.500.