No paradise in Płock

"We are with you" sang the Płock fans, well maybe they were, but Lady Luck certainly deserted them. The game hinged on three separate incidents and in all three cases Gíslason must be wondering if he has a 'rabbits foot' in his pocket and 'Magic' Cadenas must be wondering when a black cat crossed his path.
 
Neither coach was particularly effusive about his team on match day. Both had suffered key injuries, Gíslason with Zeitz, and Cadenas with Nikčević, two huge losses for both teams. The list went on even further for Płock, but Gíslason was not without his problems.

"Pálmarsson can't run and Lauge can't shoot," he said. "If I could make a Lego man of the two of them I would have a great player for today."

You have to admire his humour in face of the rebuilding at Kiel, yet, he could still see the funny side. Ironically, it was "Peg-leg" Pálmarsson who stole the show, with a performance as a centre playmaker, that was reminiscent of Lövgren in his pomp.

"If this is how he plays on one leg, imagine how much we would have won by if he had two," quipped Gíslason in the press conference. A win puts you in great humour.

Cadenas, was also fulsome in his praise for his entire team, his astute signings of Jurkiewicz and Lijewski, both of whom, were exceptional, and the crowd. My own personal opinion is that Toromanović was brilliant.

His normal line player, tag team partner (Syprzak, amazingly pronounced Sipjaques) was injured and he ploughed a lonely furrow on the line, but caused the Kiel defence so much trouble and scored some top class goals.

But as I said at the start the game turned on three separate incidents, all of which went Kiel's way.

With Płock leading in the second half, Milas, who until this moment had had a great game playing out of position on left wing, steals the ball, has wide open spaces in front and somehow manages to drop the ball while straight through on goal.

Instead of Płock pulling further ahead Kiel manage to rein them back in.

The second incident came on the back of a Płock fast break which they had scored to go one ahead. Kiel attacked quickly from the throw and messed up a shot, Płock intercepted only for the refs to blow up for a time out for Kiel.

Unknown to his team Alfred had laid his green card on the table. Amazingly, to add insult to injury they take another wild shot, which hits the head of a Płock player and rebounds to Sigurdson who earns a penalty.

The heartbreak for Płock. Every time they thought they were pulling away, Kiel just about had the elastic on their shorts (metaphorically speaking of course).

The final act of this amazing mise-en-scene, which by the way will be remembered as much for the plethora of technical mistakes as it will be for some stunning handball, re-introduced young Milas again.

Never having fully recovered from the dropped ball on the fast break, he finds himself with 7 seconds to go wide on the left wing, with ball in hand. He inexplicably puts up a Hail Mary to the centre player.

However Jícha playing high in a 3-2-1 puts up a giant hand, akin to the Statue of Liberty and plucks the ball from the air.

Momentarily stunned to have the ball, he then dribbles towards goal and even in that final second Lady Luck could have smiled on Płock.

With both Vujin and Sigurdson better placed, to the right and left respectively, for the pass, Jícha opts to shoot over two defenders and past the goalkeeper. Goal. Game over, Gíslason must have rubbed all the fur from that rabbits foot.
 

I asked him if it's better to be lucky than good, he said if this is luck, then it's hell.

In the end it's no one player's fault, but on such small margins are tight games decided.

With 90 seconds to go Płock were in heaven. But at the end there was no paradise in Płock maybe just a few sleepless nights in purgatory for young Milas. He needn't worry. Wael 'Willie' Jallouz will be right there with him.