Poland
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Age: 29
Position: Midfield
Country: Germany
Caps: 63
Goals: 30
Club: Chelsea
Previous clubs: Chemnitzer, Kaiserslautern, Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich
In his own words: It's all or nothing, but that's what we've been expecting all along. |  |
Thursday, 18, May 2006 03:41
Runners up in England's qualifying group, with the highlight being beating Austria 3-1 and Azerbaijan 8-0.
Group A Fixtures
Ecuador June 9th, 20:00 BST, Gelsenkirchen
Germany June 14th, 20:00 BST, Dortmund
Costa Rica June 20th, 15:00 BST, Hamburg
World Cup history
Third place in 1974 and 1982, quarter finals in 1978. Four years ago losses in the first two games against Korea and Portugal (2-0 and 4-0 respectively) came before beating the US with two goals in the first five minutes. Although managing to qualify at all was considered a victory.
Better results in the Olympics - Gold in Munich 1972 and Silver in 1976 and 1992.
The man in charge
Pawel Janas - defender in the team that took third in Spain in 1982. In management he took Legia Warszawa to the quarter finals of the European Cup in 1996 and was assistant manger for the silver medal winning team at the Barcelona Olympics.
After Poland's friendly defeat against Lithuania on May 3rd, he said: "I'm just left with headaches."
Team forte
The strike force of Celtic's Maciej Zurawski and Grzegorz Rasiak (on loan to Southampton from Spurs).
Achilles heel
Off the pitch, the Polish fans could provide a headache - with a hardcore of fans believed to be ready to pop across the border to cause trouble - trying to prove their worth on the international hooligan stage. This could hit Poland as the country's FA try to win the right to host the Euro 2012 with the Ukraine. A poor performance by the fans after the Ecuador could affect the team for the Germany game.
Likelihood of England match-up
Second round in Munich - if England wins Group B and Poland come second in Group A (or vice versa in Stuttgart).Otherwise in the final.
Player to watch
Janas will be hoping that Austria Vienna midfielder Sebastien Mila can provide the necessary flair in the centre linking up with team-mate Arkadiusz Radomski that can see the team shine against South American opposition.
Captain Jacek Bak, defender for Al-Rayyan in the Qatar league, is worth watching for the fact that Bak (pronounced bonk) means fart in Polish. Beckham means I belch.
Least likely thing to hear from the terraces
"I truly value the contribution of South American and German football and am in no way disappointed by three defeats."
Chances of victory
Will they win? Is the Pope Polish?
Squad:
1 GK BORUC Artur - (Celtic, SCO)
2 DF JOP Mariusz - (FC Moscow, RUS)
3 DF GANCARCZYK Seweryn - (Metalist Kharkiv, UKR)
4 DF BASZCZYNSKI Marcin - (Wisla Krakow, POL)
5 MF KOSOWSKI Kamil - (Southampton, ENG)
6 DF BAK Jacek - (Al Rayyan, QAT)
7 MF SOBOLEWSKI Radoslaw - (Wisla Krakow, POL)
8 MF KRZYNOWEK Jacek - (Bayer Leverkusen, GER)
9 FW ZURAWSKI Maciej - (Celtic, SCO)
10 MF SZYMKOWIAK Miroslav - (Trabzonspor, TUR)
11 FW RASIAK Grzegorz - (Southampton, ENG)
12 GK KUSZCZAK Tomasz - (Slask Wroclaw, POL)
13 MF MILA Sebastian - (Austria Vienna, AUT)
14 DF ZEWLAKOW Michal - (Anderlecht, BEL)
15 MF SMOLAREK Ebi - (Borussia Dortmund, GER)
16 MF RADOMSKI Arkadiusz - (Austria Vienna, AUT)
17 DF DUDKA Dariusz - (Wisla Krakow, POL)
18 DF LEWANDOWSKI Mariusz - (Shakhtar Donetsk, UKR)
19 DF BOSACKI Bartosz - (Lech Poznan, UKR)
20 MF GIZA Piotr - (Cracovia, POL)
21 FW JELEN Ireneusz - (Wisla Plock, POL)
22 GK FABIANSKI Lukasz - (Legia Warsaw, POL)
23 FW BROZEK Pawel - (Wisla Krakow, POL)
Daniel Barnes