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From sinner to hero: Lukasz Piszczek

06.06.2011, 10:11 Uhr von: Redaktion

It is May 13th in 2006, the last matchday of the polish Ekstraklasa. Ranked on third place Zaglebie Lubin needs at least one point to hold this third place, which would allow them to start in the first qualifing round of the former UEFA Cup. So the team council decided to offer the next opponent, the traditional KS Cracovia, a sum that would be today like 25.000 €, if they don't score. The manipulation succeeded, the Cracow team did not score, the match ended 0:0.

In Summer 2004 Lukasz Piszczek was sold from his home team Górnik Zabrze to Hertha BSC who loaned him for three years to Zaglbie Lubin. But he was not on the pitch on that remarkable day in May 2006. He was not even on the bench. But he took active part in the payments, which would turn back on him later. In December 2009 he reported himself to the police and meanwhile got judged.

2007 he won the polish championship with Lubin and returned to Hertha BSC to, at first, play on the left offensive wing – he got fielded 24 times. But he was injured in season 2008/09 and missed for a long time. The new coach Lucien Favre moved him to right back and played him 13 times before he finally became a regular starter in the following season. But after a great season, Hertha played a real bad season and was relegated whith only one home victory.
Last summer, when it was annouced that the Polish international would join Borussia, the enthusiasm was low. Pisczezk had not been the top player in a desastrous team and many fans thought of Pisczezk as no real reinforcement. How should a player of this team help us in Europe?

Unfortunately he had the chance to sus his capabilities very soon. At first he came from the bench in almost every match for someone in the right midfield, then he had to replace Patrick Owomoyela, who was injured after the match against FC Sevilla and missed the entire rest of the season. With that injury, a real big gap was opened since Owomoyela was statisticly the best left back of the league in 2009/10. And to make it short: Lukasz did much more than closing this gap.

Starting with the home match against FC Bayern the Pole worked his way up and down our right wing and helped to beat them. His aerial play is not quite as good as Owomoyela's but he compensates that with other skills.
It is hard to capture the ball from him. He harmonizes perfectly with Bender, Götze, Subotic or Kuba and shows a kind of speed which astonished the quite a few opponents. The learnt striker, whose name is often spelled wrong, is well known for quick attacks and precice passes or highly dangerous crosses into the box and he visits the box often himself. But he also does his defensive work and prevented more than once a goal in the very last moment. All together „Pischo“ got seven assists, which left him on third place of the internal assist-ranking. Still unforgotten are his assists against Kaiserslautern or Hamburg, and his cross for Barrios' 2:1 against Hannover which found the strikers head from the corner flag and whiped away all of the skepticism will remain unforgotten. Real brilliant was his chip against Frankfurt, which allowed the equalizer from Lucas Barrios. „Magic Moments“as someone from the TV or promotion trade would say.

Since friday he is 26 year old (all the best subsequently) and he dismissed all the sceptics. He was not just a substitute for his collegue Owomoyela with his stormy, aggressive but also fair play but replaced him. Even with all the sins in his history he is not just a great Bundesliga-player but now also German champion and so a hero in black and yellow. Thanks for this great season, Pischo.