Two Heroes of the Movement. This hasn't happened for 12 years
Although Dawid Szulczek, after Saturday's defeat by Wisła Kraków (0:5), uttered the most popular sentence in the world with a poker face about a fortunately quick opportunity for rehabilitation, he himself could not be sure what face of his team he would see in the competition with Korona Kielce. The defeat in front of 53 thousand fans at the Silesian Stadium just 77 hours earlier was more than another loss of points - it was devastation that called into question what the ambitious coach had achieved during the previous, promising six months of his work at Ruch. Before the match with Korona, Szulczek made seven changes to the starting eleven, but he had to reckon with the strength of the rival, who after four rounds of this year's PKO BP Ekstraklasa are still one of the few unbeaten teams. The effects of Tuesday evening indicate that the Blues are on the right track to regaining stability.
Two heroes of the Movement gave promotion– The hero today is the entire Ruch community, the fans, who applauded the players coming out for warm-up despite the last result – coach Szulczek shook his head in disbelief when asked whether he liked Jakub Bielecki or the author of the double in Tuesday's match more. Both turned out to be completely unobvious heroes, because they joined the team in the winter, when the priority was supposed to be only cosmetics of the team, not greater reinforcements after a successful autumn, but they quickly found themselves at a moment when their help had to come to the fore. Few people remember that Bielecki started the previous season as the first goalkeeper of Ruch Jarosław Skrobacz after promotion to PKO BP Ekstraklasa, but it quickly turned out that the quality he guaranteed in lower leagues would not be enough for the elite.
After the relegation, he terminated his contract and spent the entire autumn without a club, only to unexpectedly return to Cicha during the winter break. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he made history in Polish football against Korona, because defending two penalties in one match is definitely an achievement to remember. The last player to do so in the competition for points was Rafał Strączek, when he played for Stal Mielec in the 2021/22 season against Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza (1:0), although a year and a half ago Marcin Bułka also shone in this way on the pitches of Ligue 1. In the annals of Polish football, we can even find a case of three penalties saved in one match (although one of them was repeated for incomprehensible reasons) by Edward Szymkowiak, when he played for Polonia Bytom, although he started his great career in Ruch, with whom he won the Polish championship twice.
Cykało scored two goals for his previous club FK Teplice throughout the autumn round, before being loaned to Ruch, where he only had the opportunity to play as a substitute in the first two rounds. The precise, scoring reinforcement of the defense in the form of the Ukrainian is a masterpiece of the people responsible for scouting in the Blues' camp, which Szulczek speaks loudly about and emphasizes that Cykało's priorities for the match against Korona were primarily to take care of Adrian Dalmau. The Spaniard arrived at the Silesian Stadium in a good mood after scoring two goals that were important in the fight for relegation against Śląsk Wrocław (2:0). - Yes, we had a specific plan to keep this player. Jehor has similar physical conditions to Dawid Szymonowicz, with whom I worked at Warta Poznań. He dealt with him very well, he was very determined, and he also added positive accents in front of the opponent's goal - compliments Szulczek.
Of no small importance, especially in the first goal, was the role of the free-kick crosser Filip Starzyński, who is still trying to work out a form that harks back to his best years with the "eRka" on his chest. On Tuesday, he also caused a penalty, but Bielecki saved him from having to bring up this story for a long time, and Szulczek still maintains that as the season progresses, and most probably after the March break for the national team, we may once again see Figo as he was remembered from the pitches of PKO BP Ekstraklasa.
When Ruch last celebrated reaching the semi-finals of the Polish Cup, its current coach was just after his 23rd birthday, and before he began his coaching education at Górnik Wesoła or Rozwój Katowice. Szulczek, as an avid fan of the Blues in the 2012/13 season, probably crossed his fingers for the team from Cicha, when it ended its cup adventure in the semi-final two-legged tie with the later winner of the domestic double, Legia Warsaw (0:0 and 1:2).
You can bet that if someone had told him then that he would be the next coach to achieve such a good result in the Polish Cup with Ruch over a decade later, he wouldn't have really believed it, and yet the subsequent fate of the distinguished club has been such that the priority was to stabilize at the league level, and additional games were not particularly necessary for anyone. The situation is different now, because the Blues, with their organizational, infrastructural and fan potential, still don't fit into the First League in many areas, so the opportunity to play, and especially to win, with a representative of a higher league is a real treat.
Before the match with Korona, there were voices saying that Ruch had entered the quarter-finals somewhat through the back door, because all of its autumn rivals were placed much lower in the national hierarchy (Podhale Nowy Targ, Avia Świdnik and Unia Skierniewice). Ruch's result was turned a blind eye for incomprehensible reasons, because it is precisely against such opponents that the clear favourite for a capsize is easiest, only to recall the defeats of this year's newcomers to the PKO BP Ekstraklasa Motor Lublin and GKS Katowice in the earlier rounds in Skierniewice.
After reaching the semi-finals, which is not just a result, but also the effect of good style and an idea to cheat the experienced Jacek Zieliński (in the aforementioned 2012/13 season he was the coach of... Ruch), the appetite for a double, league and cup success this spring in Chorzów will only grow. At the same time, the Blues cannot be deaf to the polite words of warning coming from Reymont, because they know perfectly well what it is like to subordinate the entire spring to the Polish Cup, and at the same time fail all along the line in the fight for promotion.
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