That was not a pleasant period for Cracovia fans. To begin with, the footballers lost a friendly against Lechia Gdańsk 0-3. On Friday Podhale crushed our hockey team 4-0 in play-off semi-final first game. The moods hit the bottom on Saturday, as Górnik Łęczna beat Cracovia 2-0 in Extraklasa Cup game. The depressed fans found some consolation on Sunday, when the hockey team beat Podhale 4-2 in the second game as Pasiut and Laszkiewicz scored two goals each.

The game against Lechia Gdańsk, one of the better teams of the second division, was the last test match before the Extraklasa Cup Group Stage games and the league. Coach Majewski decided to send a reserve team, so that young players get their chance to show their skills. After a goalless first half, Lechia easily scored three goals, leaving our back-up players helpless. Unfortunately, when our first-choice players faced Górnik Łęczna in the Polish Ekstraklasa Cup Group Stage game, things did not look much better. Cracovia was surprisingly impotent in attack, while the defense was careless and absent-minded. This resulted in a bore game, which gave Łęczna three points thanks to fatal mistakes of our defenders and goalkeeper. This was an unexpected result, as in November Pasy easily won the game in Łęczna 3-0 and the team seemed to be prepared for the season.

The hockey team begun the clash against Podhale Nowy Targ in the semi-final best-of-seven series. This a classic confrontation in Polish league and a regional derby. The winner of this series will be the favorite of the final. Before the first face-off Cracovia fans expected Podhale to cause some problems, but nobody had foreseen what happened on Friday evening. Podhale played a fantastic game, while Pasy lacked pace, precision, creativity and some luck. Nowy Targ’s goalie Tomasz Rajski was the MVP of the game, as he saved dozens of shots and did a shootout. Podhale scored the first goal after Różański’s shot that Radziszewski should have saved easily. This was not the only mistake by our goalie, as Zapała’s goal also could have been saved. But “Radzik” could do nothing when Sroka scored a goal after a masterpiece power-play scheme. When Baranyk made use of Cracovia’s defenders hesitancy and Radziszewski’s mistake Podhale could celebrate a deserved and confident victory. Nowy Targ played almost a perfect game, while Pasy were powerless.

After Friday game some expected, that Podhale would win the Sunday game easily, but this time we saw Cracovia playing with more passion and precision. Grzegorz Pasiut scored the opener, but Podhale made use of power-play periods and put their nose in front after Buril’s equalizer and Sroka’s goal just five seconds before the end of the first period. The second period was a confrontation of two equally matched teams, which created many chances, but their goalies were in very good form. The only goal of this period was a shorthanded goal by Leszek Laszkiewicz, Cracovia’s undoubted leader. His anticipation, interception, skating and finishing were of top quality on that moment. Before the last period Laszkiewicz said, that the team that would score a goal would win the game. And he was right. Some five minutes before the end Pasiut scored with a thunder strike from a short distance, and Laszkiewicz sealed the victory scoring to an empty goal in the last minute. Therefore Cracovia leveled the series to 1-1. The next game is to be played on Tuesday in Nowy Targ, while football team goes on the same day to Kielce to face Korona in Extraklasa Cup. On Friday Cracovia fans are served a combo: first Pasy will play a home game against Podhale, and after that game we shall move to football ground to watch the game against 2006 Champions Legia Warszawa in the league’s Spring round opener.

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22.02. CRACOVIA – LECHIA GDAŃSK (2nd division) 0 : 3 (0 : 0)

0:1 - Rogalski 54’ 0:2 - Rogalski 65’ 0:3 - Gacek 82’

Cracovia: Olszewski – Cieciura (76’ Łuczak), Wojciechowski, Baster, Kostrubała, Baliga, Szwajdych (46’ Heidemann), Kalinowski, Bania, Kurowski, Dudzic

Lechia (starting line-up): Sobański - Fechner, Manuszewski, Kożyński, Żuk, Buzała, Kalkowski, Pietrowski, Miklosik, Wiśniewski, Rogalsk

24.02. CRACOVIA – GÓRNIK ŁĘCZNA 0 : 2 (0 : 1)

0:1 - Zahorski 39’ 0:2 - Nazaruk 85’

Booked: Baran, Wacek, Kostrubała (Cracovia) - Niżnik, Sokolenko (Górnik Ł.)

Cracovia: Cabaj – Wacek, Karwan, Radwański – Kłus, Wiśniewski (72’ Kostrubała) – Baran (62’ Giza) , Pawlusiński (62’ Heidemann), Nowak – Bojarski (80’ Bania), Moskała

Górnik Ł.: Leciejewski – Kulig, Jurkowski, Sokolenko, Pawelec, Głowacki (83’ Rogowski), Nikitovic, Niżnik, Kwiek, Nazaruk, Zahorski (46’ Bajevski, 86’ Manevski)

Attendance: ok. 700

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23.02. COMARCH CRACOVIA – WOJAS PODHALE 0 : 4 (0:1, 0:2, 0:1)

0:1 - Różański 5’ 0:2 - Zapała (Sroka) 24’ 0:3 - Sroka (Kacir) 28’ 0:4 - Baranyk (Jakes) 56’

Comarch Cracovia: Radziszewski (Kachniarz) – Piekarski, Csorich, L.Laszkiewicz, Słaboń, Hartmann – Galant, Gil, Podlipni, Prokop, Pinc – Marcińczak, Dulęba, M.Piotrowski, Pasiut, D.Laszkiewicz – Wajda, Kozendra, Safarik, Cieślak, Witowski

Wojas Podhale: Rajski (Bartkiewicz) – Zamojski, Łabuz, Malasiński, Bakrlik, B.Piotrowski – Sroka, Wilczek, Różański, Zapała, Kacir – Buril, Jakes, Baranyk, Voznik, Łyszczarczyk – Piekarz, Łeśniowski, Iskrzycki, Malinowski, Sulka

Attendance: ca. 2000

25.02. WOJAS PODHALE – COMARCH CRACOVIA 2 : 4 (2:1, 0:1, 0:2 )

0:1 - Pasiut 5’ 1:1 - Buril 14’ 2:1 - Sroka 20’ 2:2 - L.Laszkiewicz 26’ 2:3 - Pasiut 55’ 2:4 - L.Laszkiewicz 60’

Comarch Cracovia: Radziszewski (Kachniarz) – Piekarski, Csorich, L.Laszkiewicz, Słaboń, Hartmann – Galant, Gil, Podlipni, Prokop, Pinc – Marcińczak, Dulęba, M.Piotrowski, Pasiut, D.Laszkiewicz – Wajda, Kozendra, Urban, Cieślak, Witowski

Wojas Podhale: Rajski (Bartkiewicz) – Zamojski, Łabuz, Malasiński, Bakrlik, B.Piotrowski – Sroka, Wilczek, Różański, Zapała, Kacir – Buril, Jakes, Baranyk, Voznik, Łyszczarczyk – Dutka, Piekarz, Iskrzycki, Malinowski, Sulka