Poland’s PlusLiga is indeed one of the best male competitions in the world. It has more parity in it than many other top tier leagues, such as Russia’s for example. In PlusLiga, the current champs can lose a game to a team that was relegated the year before and this was just what happened in its opening day match against Skra Belchatow and Chemik Bydgoszcz.
Playing in front of 4000 supporters, the team from Bydgoszcz came back from behind to stun the current Polish champions, which boasts in its roster 5 World Champions. As was expected, the win was celebrated mightily. Bydgoszcz’s coach Jakub Bednaruk was, as always, very graphic of his feelings during the match:
“If were were to lose after our performance, along with our lucky breaks throughout the whole game, I would probably go to the roof of the arena and jump from it. Fortunately, we won, so I can now get ready for our game against Lubin.”
One can always count on Bednaruk to deliver dramatic entertainment during the season. However, as funny as the coach is, he knows that such a surprising victory, despite building a lot of confidence, has to be assimilated in a serious manner by his players, as to avoid a feeling of arrogance:
“We realized that we are at the beginning of the season. Even though Skra came out with its strongest team, we fought them as equals. However, we can not get excited about this win for too long, although it is something exciting because we played a very good match. I do not remember such a meeting here. Let’s enjoy it, but not too long. Although we are a team that will fight against relegation, we played as equals with the Polish champion.
We will not change our goals suddenly. We are still fighting against relegation, Skra for the championship. Nothing will change in this matter. However, we gained a lot of confidence and character with this match. This was a a big boost and shows that we are going in the right direction. We have gained the respect of the fans, but we can lose everything quickly. However, we can be sure that we can play well, achieve a level and maintain it. Now all we have to do is stay tuned and not go crazy. In a moment we are leaving for Lubin, and in four days we are playing with ZAKSA. Until midnight it’s time to cheer up, and then you have to focus on Cuprum, because if we get there thinking high of ourselves, no one will remember the match with the Polish champion.
This team is very mentally strong, we’ll see how we will look like when they break us twice. We’ve got people with a nice character here, who are very motivating players, they drive the team. In the match against Skra, I did not have to stimulate anyone for a moment, I just stood there and watched the match.”
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