After five games of play-off semi-final against Podhale Nowy Targ Cracovia is leading 3-2. On Tuesday Podhale won at home 4:2, but later Pasy won both games played in Kraków, 3:1 and 6:1 respectively. The footballers first lost in Kielce to Korona in Polish Extraklasa Cup 1:2, while the league’s inauguration game against Legia Warszawa was a goalless draw.

The Tuesday game played in Nowy Targ was a tight one, at least during the first two periods. In the first part Buril scored for Podhale in 14^th minute, but Pasiut equalized in the last minute of the period. Just a minute into the second period Podhale put their nose in front after Kacir’s goal, but again Cracovia equalized, this time it was Słaboń who scored in 29^th minute. Yet in the last period the team from Nowy Targ managed to score twice (goals by Zamojski and Zapała), leaving Pasy without response and Podhale took the lead in the series 2-1. Then the series moved to Kraków for two games. The Friday match was not a spectacular show, as both teams played with a big respect to the rival. At the beginning Cracovia gained a slight advantage, but it was Podhale’s Batkiewicz, who scored the opener after a swift counter-attack in 11^th minute. Pasy equalized some two minutes later during a power-play, as Słaboń scored a goal, which was allowed only after analyzing the video record. The second period was goalless, mainly thanks to Radziszewski’s perfect performance. Podhale showed some dangerous actions, but they could not beat Cracovia’s goalie. The last period was rather matched until the last minutes, when Podhale was punished by many penalties. During a long period of power-play Pasy scored twice. Daniel Laszkiewicz’s and Podhale’s own-goal gave Pasy a precious win, which equalized the series.

In general it was expected that the fifth game would also be a tight clash. But this time Cracovia crushed Podhale right at the beginning, winning the first period 5:0. This was a fantastic performance by our team, the best period played during the play-off, or maybe even during whole season. It reminded of the last season’s semi-final, when after very evenly matched first three games Podhale was leading the series 2-1, but then Cracovia demolished rivals scoring 8 goals in each of the games and won the series 4-2. This time Pasy did not try to get their tally up to 8, as they secured the victory during first 20 minutes and played economically during the rest of time. In the second period Bakarlik’s goal gave Podhale some consolation, but then Pasiut’s goal sealed the result, as the last period was goalless. Let’s hope that this game gave Cracovia a huge boost of confidence before the key games of the series. Game no. 6 is to be played on Tuesday in Nowy Targ, and the possible 7^th clash is to be held in Kraków on Friday.

The footballers did not perform as good as their hockey colleagues. In Polish Extraklasa Cup Group Stage game against Korona coach Majewski named rather second-choice players for the line-up, including some youngsters. Korona, one of the strongest clubs of the league, was clearly the better team and scored just after 18 minutes of play. In 23^rd minute Sławomir Olszewski saved Mariusz Zganiacz’s penalty, later into the game our goalie made some very good saves and allowed Korona to score only one more goal, as Marcin Robak scored his second of the day in 50^th minute. Pasy did not create many chances, but scored one goal, as Giza played the ball to the right, youngster Jeleń centered it into the area where another young talent Bartłomiej Dudzic scored on his debut with a perfect diving header. But it was it for Cracovia, as the game was Korona’s easy and confident win. After this game Pasy have almost no chance to make it to the play-off stage, as we need to beat Widzew Łodź twice (one game was postponed from December) and hope that Korona would beat Górnik Łęczna in an away game.

After a mediocre performance in the Extraklasa Cup, the fans hoped for a good league kick-off. It was 2006 champions Legia Warszawa who came to Kałuży Street to play the second round opener. After Marcin Cabaj’s poor game against Łęczna some days ago and Olszewski’s impressive performance in Kielce, it was a surprise to see the former in the goal and the latter on the bench. But it was Majewski’s wise choice, as Cabaj saved the day for as and was the man of the match. Legia created many perfect chances, but Cabaj was unbeatable on that night. He instinctively saved Jańczyk’s header, Edson’s powerfull free-kick or Roger’s shot from some 4 meters. His counterpart also had to show his skills as he saved Kłus’ low drive or Nowak’s smart try in one-on-one situation. In general Cracovia’s play improved when Giza substituted Wiśniewski in 62^nd minute. His creativity allowed Pasy to create some chances, but our indecisive and hesitant players failed to score. The stoppage time was again Legia’s show, fortunately without any consequence. First Włodarczyk was unmarked in the penalty area, but his header missed the goal. Some 60 seconds later Roger’s powerful first-time shot hit the post, and in the last seconds Grzelak’s shot was coolly kept by Cabaj. At the end of the day it was a lucky draw for Cracovia. Given the defense poor form it was Legia’s inefficiency and Cabaj’s world-class performance that gave us a point in this game.

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27.02.2007

WOJAS PODHALE - CRACOVIA 4 : 2 (1:1, 1:1, 2:0)

1:0 - Buril 14’
1:1 - Pasiut 20’
2:1 - Kacir 21’
2:2 - Słaboń 29’
3:2 - Zamojski 44’
4:2 - Zapała 48’

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

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

Attendance: ca.2500

02.03.2007

CRACOVIA - WOJAS PODHALE NOWY TARG 3 : 1 (1:1, 0:0, 2:0)

0:1 - Batkiewicz 11′
1:1 - Słaboń 13′
2:1 - D.Laszkiewicz 57′
3:1 - Witowski 60′

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

Wojas Podhale: Rajski (Batkiewicz) – Zamojski, B.Piotrowski, Malasiński, Koszarek, Bakrlik, – Sroka, Wilczek, Różański, Zapała, Kacir – Buril, Jakes, Baranyk, Voznik, Łyszczarczyk – Dutka, Smreczyński, Malinowski, Sulka, Batkiewicz

Attendance: ca..2000

4.03.2007

CRACOVIA – WOJAS PODHALE NOWY TARG 6 : 1 (5:0, 1:1, 0:0)

1:0 - Hartmann (Podlipni) 4’
2:0 - Słaboń (L.Laszkiewicz) 7’
3:0 - Słaboń (D.Laszkiewicz) 9’
4:0 - D.Laszkiewicz (Słaboń, L.Laszkiewicz) 15’
5:0 - L.Laszkiewicz (Słaboń, D.Laszkiewicz) 17’
5:1 - Bakrlik (Koszarek, Ł.Batkiewicz) 29’
6:1 - Pasiut (Dulęba, M.Piotrowski) 38’

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

Wojas Podhale: Rajski (Batkiewicz) – Sroka, Wilczek, Różański, Zapała, Kacir – Buril, Jakes, Baranyk, Voznik, Łyszczarczyk - Zamojski, B.Piotrowski, Ł.Batkiewicz, Koszarek, Bakrlik, – Dutka, Smreczyński, Malasiński, Sulka, Malinowski

Attendance: ca. 1800

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27.02.2007

Korona Kielce - Cracovia 2:1 (1:0)

Cracovia: Olszewski - Łuczak (72’ Baliga), Karwan, Baster - Joao Paulo Heidemann (46’ Jeleń), Wojciechowski, Kostrubała, Szwajdych - Giza (77’ Dzwonek) - Kurowski (46’ Dudzic), Bania

Korona: Mielcarz - Golański, Hernani, Djoković, Bednarek (46 Brzyski), Sasin, Hermes, Zganiacz (46 Nowak), Sobolewski, Kowalczyk, Robak (80 Bagnicki)

Booked: Kurowski, Karwan

Attendance: ca. 3000

02.03.2007

CRACOVIA - LEGIA WARSZAWA 0 : 0

Booked: Kłus, Moskała (Cracovia) - Hugo, Balde (Legia)

Cracovia: Cabaj - Wacek, Karwan, Radwański - Wiśniewski (62. Giza), Kłus - Pawlusiński, Baran (77. Szwajdych), Nowak - Moskała, Bojarski.

Legia: Fabiański - Edson, Szala, Hugo, P.Bronowicki (79. Balde), Roger, Vukovic, Surma, Radovic, Korzym (66. Grzelak), Janczyk (76. Włodarczyk)

Referee: Jarosław Żyro

Widzów: ca.6000