Mariusz Staszewski: all hands on deck before the semi-final

Mariusz Staszewski can be satisfied with his players. ARGED MALESA Ostrów confirmed their good form in front of their home crowd by defeating H.SKRZYDLEWSKA ORZEŁ Łódź 51:39. Thanks to this, Ostrów advanced to the semi-finals of METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga, where their opponent will be ABRAMCZYK POLONIA Bydgoszcz.

In the return leg of the first phase of the playoffs, on their home track, the leaders of the Ostrów Wlkp team could not reach optimal speed. Fortunately, the second line of the home team worked effectively. Sebastian Szostak scored 10 points with a bonus, and Wiktor Jasiński 7 plus bonus. – Not always the same players will be scoring because this is sports and life, and everyone will have better or worse days. The point is for the rest of the team to take responsibility in those moments, and so far, we are managing that – Mariusz Staszewski said after the match.

For Gleb Chugunov, it was the worst match on his home track. This happened due to being excluded from the first race after contact with a player from the opposing team. – Gleb started with an exclusion, and usually, when the first race goes wrong, it sticks with you for the whole event because the rest of the races went by, and he could have made adjustments – the coach stated.

Victory over the team from Łódź means advancement to the next stage of the season. It enters the decisive phase where there is no room for errors. – Currently, every match is a new story. Each round will be very hard to pass. At the moment, our team is in good shape. The most important thing is to be in good shape on the days when the matches take place – announced Staszewski.

The worse form of the leaders of the Ostrów club may have been caused by different track conditions than usual. Key players from coach Mariusz Staszewski‘s deck in Sunday’s match could not find the appropriate speed to win individual races. – The track dried and hardened a lot in this weather. The times show that it was different than in the match with CELLFAST WOLVES, so we still have to consider that the track won’t always be as we wish. Because there is a jury, and really on the day of the competition, the track isn’t necessarily as the host wants – reported coach ARGED MALESA Ostrów Wielkopolski.

In the squad for the return match against H.SKRZYDLEWSKA ORZEŁ Łódź, coach Staszewski decided to rotate the second junior position. Gracjan Szostak was replaced by Tobiasz Potasznik.

– These are sixteen-year-olds, so it’s hard to demand that they score 10 points here. That will come in time. Before the season, we knew that the position of the second junior this year was to give them a chance to compete in league matches. They had zero experience before this season. They have better and worse moments, and the one who rides better junior matches during the week is the second junior in the lineup – our interlocutor explained.

The coach is focusing on the next task that awaits his team on the road to advancing to PGE Ekstraliga. The quarter-final table was arranged so that it will be ABRAMCZYK POLONIA Bydgoszcz that Ostrów will face in the semi-finals of METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga.

– You can see that in Bydgoszcz, there was a very fierce, quarter-final match, judging by the number of exclusions, so the pressure was really high there. I think it will be even higher next week when we go there. You have to be prepared for a really fierce fight and a very tough match. If we want to achieve the goal we set before the season, it doesn’t really matter because we have to beat every team. All hands on deck before the semi-final – announced Mariusz Staszewski.

Łukasz Kolski