Very short summer break

It’s hard to call this year’s summer break pre-season preparations. Many coaches have emphasised that this time it was more about maintaining the rhythm that has been built in the last few matches of the 2019/20 season. The global pandemic has significantly impacted football calendars and teams will be forced to kick off the upcoming campaign without much time to prepare. Lech played the last league game of the past season on July 19^th – a home clash during which the hosts beat Jagiellonia 4:0. Fast forward 27 days and Lech will reappear on the pitch in another official match, this time the 1/32 stage of Fortuna Polish Cup. The team from Poznań is going to face Odra Opole in an away game (Saturday, 8:30 pm). During those 27 days, the coaching staff managed to organise one training match. On Wednesday, the players who were residing in Opalenica, drew with Kickers Offenbach 1:1; Lech’s new striker Ishak scored for Lech.

Interestingly, it wasn’t the shortest summer break in the club’s history. The events from 15 years ago were even more shocking. Back then, Lech’s senior team that was led by Czesław Michniewicz, finished the 2004/05 season and got… a week’s rest! The players were forced to get back from holidays to play in Intertoto Cup and then travel to Azerbaijan where they were to face Karvan FK. Lech’s coach considered the two-leg clash with Karvan, and then matches against French side RC Lens, a part of the pre-season preparations. In fact, Lech organised a few days’ long training camp in France. The actual league kick-off was scheduled for July 26^th which was 1.5 month after the end of the previous campaign.

Whenever the club from Poznań had a shorter summer holiday, it was always because of international games. In the last decade, there was only one time when Lech had to cut their pre-season preparations short. In summer preceding the season 2017/18, the players from Poznań had a Europa League qualifying game scheduled at the end of June, less than a month after the previous campaign had finished. On June 29^th, Lech faced at home FK Pelister and managed to get a 4:0 win. However, what’s worth mentioning is that the 2017/18 league season didn’t start until mid-July.

However, none of these events quite match what happened back in the 70s. As a result of Polish National Team’s attendance at the 1974 World Cup in Germany, the league competition was suspended at the beginning of May and then resumed after nearly three months! Lech was forced to play three overdue matches, two of them being home clashes which the side from Poznań had to play at the Stadium in Golęcin since their home ground was being prepared for a national harvest festival. On August 7^th, the season has officially finished and 11 days later, the 1974/75 campaign kicked off.

SUMMER BREAKS OVERVIEW