Polish defiance unlikely to prevent exit

DORTMUND, June 15: Coach Pawel Janas finally got the commitment he had been seeking from his Polish team in yesterday's 1-0 loss to Germany but it probably comes too late to avoid a second early exit from the World Cup in four years.

The squad will watch today's other Group A match hoping desperately that Costa Rica can gain the three points that would keep Poland in with a chance of progressing.

But mostly they will rue their failure to show the same fight they did against Germany in their opening 2-0 defeat by Ecuador.

''The players finally gave us the commitment that we wanted from them. I can have no complaints about tonight,'' Janas told reporters after a contested red card for Radoslaw Sobolewski and Oliver Neuville's injury time goal sank the eastern Europeans.

''I think against Ecuador they felt it would be too easy. The difference was motivational. They thought they could win easily -- and as a result they didn't show the same heart.'' Motivation has been the Poles biggest problem for years and Janas had sought to shake up the team by controversially dropping goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek and striker Tomasz Frankowski before the finals.

But against Ecuador his squad were content to sit off for most of the first half -- and were made to pay by a well-drilled and more aggressive South American side.

''This sort of game (against Germany) shows that we genuinely can compete,'' said left back Michal Zewlakow.

''It shows there is something in this team and that we have a base on which we can build. We just need to maintain this level of effort.'' The Poles will go out if Ecuador get a point today or against Germany in Berlin next week. A win for Costa Rica in Hamburg would send the group down to the last game.

That would at least be one better than in 2002, when defeats by hosts South Korea and Portugal made the Poles' 3-1 victory over the United States irrelevant.

''We will go back to our base, analyse the German game and start preparing for Costa Rica,'' Janas said.

''Our main problem remains scoring goals. We need to show the fans, who have given us such tremendous support here, that we are capable of playing good football and scoring goals.''

REUTERS

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