It was an extremely epic time for Stal Mielec. As we all know, it ended with the fifth promotion to the Premier League in the history of the blue-and-white team, this time after the longest gap of 24 years. The previous two attempts to get promoted to the elite failed miserably, as the Mielec players finished eighth and third respectively in the premier league table in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons. The start of the season under the coaching care of Artur Skowronek was quite successful. In the first six games, in the autumn of 2019, the Mielczanie won four times (Warta Poznań 2-1, Olimpia Grudziądz 2-0, Miedź Legnica 1-0 /all at home/, Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza 2-1 /away/), drew 1-1 at home against Wigry Suwałki and recorded one slip-up in Bielsko-Biała, losing high 1-4 to Podbeskidzie.
Played under the spotlight on Sunday evening, the match in Niepołomice started with an unexpected loss of the ball by a guest defender in the corner of the penalty area. Fortunately for our team, Konrad Nowak, being at 13 metres, hit over the crossbar. Later, Puszcza’s midfielder Serafin tried his luck, but his shot on the ground from 30 metres lacked both strength and precision. Stal scored a few counter-attacks in this period, but their shot attempts were mostly blocked by local defenders. The locals continued to try to surprise our goalkeeper, but a strike from 11 metres by Black Embalo went high over the goal. Twice more the players from Niepołomice got into shooting positions, but all their shots missed our goal. The decisive action of this duel took place in the 25th minute. A corner kick was taken from the right by Getinger, he played a short pass to Mak, who cleverly played the ball backwards to Bartosz Nowak, who ran onto the 9-metre line and hit a powerful shot from half-volley.
The second half of this duel was also exciting. But all the shots by players from both teams were usually off target or went straight at both goalkeepers. Puszcza created more opportunities, but Seweryn Kiełpin was always on the spot. The most dangerous, however, was Prokic’s left-footed rally and attempted lob pass to Mak, who was running towards the goal line. In an eccilibristic way, our club’s alumnus Konrad Stępień prevented the second goal for our team.
01.09.2019 – Niepołomice (19:00), 7th round Fortuna 1st league, MKS Puszcza Niepołomice – FKS Stal Mielec 0-1 (0-1)
Referee: Paweł Pskit (Łódź) Audience: 1,380
Puszcza: Karol Niemczycki – Mateusz Bartków (72 Bartosz Widejko), Michał Czarny (ż), Konrad Stępień, Michał Mikołajczyk, Konrad Nowak (67 Maksymilian Sitek), Marcin Stefanik, Jakub Serafin, Wiktor Żytek, Jakub Bąk (ż, 83 Mykyta Wowczenko), José Embalo Coach: Tomasz Tułacz
Stal: Seweryn Kiełpin – Szymon Stasik, Mateusz Żyro, Lukáš Bielák, Martin Dobrotka (ż), Krystian Getinger, Mateusz Mak (61 Łukasz Janoszka), Bartosz Nowak (ż), Grzegorz Tomasiewicz, Andreja Prokić (81 Mateusz Bodzioch), Adrian Paluchowski (73 Josip Barišić) Coach: Artur Skowronek
Goal: Bartosz Nowak 25 min.
A shortcut to this meeting can be viewed here https://gol24.pl/fortuna-1-liga-skrot-meczu-puszcza-niepolomice-stal-mielec-01-wideo/ar/c2-14394731
Stal’s league balances against the Puszcza team at the three competition levels are as follows: in the premier league three matches took place (2 wins for Stali, 1 defeat, goals: 4-2), in the 1st league 6 times were competed (2 wins for Stali, 3 draws, 1 defeat, goals: 3-2). In the 2nd league, there were 4 matches (1 win, 2 draws, 1 defeat, goals: 5-6).
Leszek Śledziona
