Qualification: 1st in UEFA Group E. Poland finished top of what could have been a tricky group ahead of Denmark, Montenegro and Romania. They scored a lot of goals with 28 in total, many coming from Robert Lewandowski, however they also conceded a lot of goals with 14 conceded, the most of any top placed team in UEFA qualifying. They lost 4-0 to Denmark in Copenhagen but finished their campaign strongly to hold off the Danes challenge for automatic qualification.
World Cup Appearance: 8th (First, 1938; Most Recent, 2006)
Best Result at a World Cup: 3rd place (1974, 1982)
World Ranking: 10.
Coach: Adam Nawalka. The former Polish international has been in charge of Poland since late 2013 and has gotten the team to the quarter finals of the 2016 Euros, losing on penalties to eventual winners Portugal. He’s since led them to their first World Cup since 2006, a far cry from when he worked as a technician chopping down trees near power lines when he was plying his trade part time in the USA, or his subsequent job selling cars in his native Poland.
Captain: Robert Lewandowski. Lewandowski is one of the best players in the world and Poland’s main source of goals, scoring 16 in only 10 games in qualifying. A subpar tournament for Lewy would all but guarantee an early exit for Poland. He generally does show up for the national team however, with 53 goals in 94 appearances.
Key Player: Robert Lewandowski. As said above, Lewandowski is Poland’s main source of goals, but did you know he almost signed for Blackburn Rovers? He was set to fly to Lancashire to meet with then Rovers manager Sam Allardyce in 2010 but the Icelandic volcano eruption (the one with the long name) meant his flight was cancelled. A few months later he signed for Borussia Dortmund and the rest is history. Rumours are swirling about a potential exit from Bayern Munich, and I think a move to Blackburn to play with the likes of Bradley Dack and Elliott Bennett seems likely at this point.
One to Watch: Piotr Zielinski. The Napoli midfielder has been compared to Kevin De Bruyne and has garnered interest from a lot of big clubs. He has great control, speed and is a great passer of the ball. Look for him as Poland’s main playmaker in the forward third.
Miroslav Klose Award: Michal Pazdan. Pazdan is one of those players who also seems to play well above their talent level in international tournaments. He was excellent alongside Kamil Glik at the 2016 Euros though with Glik potentially out for the tournament with injury, he’ll have to take a big step up to be the leader of Poland’s defence.
A 4-2-3-1 formation seems to be the go for Nawalka’s side but 3 at the back has been trialled in recent friendlies.. They’re very good on the counter attack, but they’ll need to shore up their leaky defence or play a more possession based style at the World Cup if they want to find success.
Wojciech Szczesny will start in goals for Poland, he was primarily on the bench this season for Juventus but will get his chance next year with the departure of Gianluigi Buffon. Poland have strength in depth at keeper with Bartosz Bialkowski and Lukasz Fabianski in reserve. Defence is Poland’s biggest hole and that hole just got bigger with the loss of their best defender and on field leader Kamil Glik to injury the day squads were announced. Michal Pazdan and Jan Bednarek will be the likely starters, if Glik was available then Bednarek might have snatched Pazdan’s starting spot after an excellent spell of form at Southampton. Thiago Cionek and Artur Jedrzejczyk will probably be backups at centreback and could get a run if they play 3 at the back. Lukasz Piszczek is locked in at right back while the left back position is a little more up for grabs. Bartosz Bereszynski started during qualifying but Maciej Rybus may also play there, especially as he’s unlikely to start on the left wing. In the centre of midfield, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Karol Linetty will start in the centre of midfield, though Krychowiak’s form has dipped a bit in the recent years. Poland have a lot of talent in their front 4, packed with creativity, pace and skill, they are absolutely deadly on the counter. Piotr Zielinski will be the teams main playmaker in the centre of the park. On the left wing, Kamil Grosicki brings pace and explosive dribbling, while Jakub ‘Kuba’ Blaszczykowski has slowed down a bit but is still a classy operator. Up front, Robert Lewandowski needs no introduction. Arkadiusz Milik is back from injury and will be looking to make an impact off the bench along with the likes of Lukasz Teodorczyk, Rafal Kurzawa and Slawomir Peszko (a man who apparently has 4 kidneys).
Prediction: They have the ability to make it as far as the quarter finals but in a tough group I think they might actually go out in the group stage.
World Cup Moment: Poland’s great side of the 70s and early 80s came third at the World Cup on two occasions. In 1974, they started off with an unbeaten group stage run, defeating Argentina, Italy and routing a hapless Haitian side. They continued their form into the second group stage, with wins over Sweden and Yugoslavia, but a loss to hosts West Germany saw them miss out on a place in the final. They beat Brazil 1-0 in the third place playoff, thanks to a goal by Grzegorz Lato, his seventh of the campaign, securing the golden boot. 8 years later they started their campaign off a bit slower, with 0-0 draws against Cameroon and Italy, though they sprung to life against Peru, winning 5-1 and topping their group. In the second group phase, they beat Belgium 3-0 thanks to a hattrick by the great Zbigniew Boniek and another 0-0 draw against the Soviet Union saw them squeeze ahead of the Soviets on goal difference. They faced Italy again in the semi finals, but by now Paolo Rossi was in top form and he scored both goals as Italy ran out 2-0 winners. Poland again managed to win the third place playoff, this time against France winning 3-2. Poland have never been able to reach the same heights since but fans hold out hope for this current generation of players to emulate the likes of Boniek, Lato, Deyna and Zmuda.
World Cup Delirium 