Euro 2008 Team Profile: Poland

June 5th, 2008 | by: Laurie | Comments(4)

Nickname:Biało-czerwoni (”The-white-and-red”) and Orły “The Eagles”

Jersey: White with red (home); Red with white (away)

FIFA World Ranking as of May 2008: 27 (14th out of 16 teams)

Fixtures/Schedules: Group B: Germany, Croatia, Austria
Sun June 8th
20:45 Germany vs Poland, (Klagenfurt)
Thu June 12th
20:45 Austria vs Poland, (Vienna)
Mon June 16th
20:45 Poland vs Croatia, (Klagenfurt)

Coach: Leo Beenhakker

The Dutch-born Beenhakker has been coaching for a long, long time — almost thirty-five years. I count twenty-three coaching stints on his resume, in places as diverse as Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and Saudi Arabia.

He took over the Polish team after their rather miserable performance at World Cup 2006, where they went home after the group stage with only three points and a -2 goal differential. Since then, he’s shown that he’s not afraid to shake things up. He’s dropped a number of players who were considered untouchable, and brought in new faces as well.

Among his more controversial decisions was the choice to bring in Brazilian-born player Roger Guerreiro, who was given citizenship after only two years of playing club football in Poland. This didn’t set well with some Poles, who didn’t like seeing their native sons dispossessed. But they might change their minds if the team does well here.

Captain: Maciej Zurawski. Dubbed “Magic” by Celtic fans during his tenure in Scotland. Poland fans are hoping it’s true for Euros.

Expectations/History:

Poland does not qualify for major tournaments often, but when they do, they’ve proven they’re capable of doing well. They’ve been to only seven of eighteen World Cups, but they’ve managed to finish third, twice. Okay, yes, the last time was in 1982, and they’ve been trying to recreate those glory days ever since. But still. Third! Twice!

Yet this is their first time at Euros. Poland is one of two Euro virgins, (the other being Austria) making their first-ever appearance in this 2008 tournament. But they proved that they deserve to be here by finishing top of their group, even ahead of Portugal.

Germany is expected to go through easily in Group B, but the competition for the second slot is wide open. Croatia also had a solid qualifying campaign, but they’ll be without key player Eduardo da Silva, seriously injured playing for Arsenal. This means that Poland has at least a fair chance of going through to the quarterfinals.

Advancing beyond that, though, might require divine intervention.

Key Player: Roger Guerreiro. The decision to naturalize the Brazilian left / attacking mid is semi-controversial, but it’s got a lot of people excited. Here’s a little clip of Roger (one name, so he’s definitely Brazilian) in action for Legia Warsaw:

If he can run through Austrian, German and Croatian defences with that kind of ease then Poland will be alright.

Other Important Players: Well, Ebi Smolarek (pictured) is a man with a lot to live up to. His dad was famous ex-Poland striker Wlodzimierz Smolarek, part of the Polish team that finished third at the 1982 World Cup (see below). And the old man named Ebi after Eusebio (Ebi is short for Euzebiusz). But the Racing Santander attacker/winger is having a good go at meeting those standards, he was Poland’s top scorer in qualifying with nine goals. Keeper Artur Boruc has made himself popular in Scotland with Celtic, and Maciej “Magic” Zurawski (formerly Celtic, now with Larisa in Greece) can strike a free kick.

X Factor: Never underestimate the motivation possibilities of a good grudge. Relations between Poland and Germany are rocky to begin with, to the point that Austria is providing extra security for the Poland-Germany game. Poland has never beaten them before, and Germany beat Poland in World Cup 2006, essentially ensuring that they wouldn’t advance past the group stage. Poland would love some revenge — for that loss and perhaps a few other historical issues.

And not only that, if this priest has his way, they’ll have God on their side too. You don’t want to discount that.

Team Blogger’s Comments: Our comments come from Tomasz, who is keeping us fully informed on all the goings on for the team on our Poland blog.

Talent-wise, we’re surely behind both Germany and Croatia. We’re just a bit better than Austria; our matches were always very competetive. However, Poland under Beenhakker has proved that it can play against superior opponents: we managed to win and draw with Portugal, drew twice against Serbia and won against the Czechs in a friendly. That’s why it’s possible that we’ll advance to the knockout stages. Personally I don’t have any prescribed expectations. I just don’t want us to play boring and fearful football like in 2002 and 2006. I expect the lads to give their best and make the whole nation passionate about football for this couple of weeks. And if we win against the Germans, I won’t really care about the quarter finals.

Random International Moments:

The Poland-Portugal Euro qualifier, which Poland won 2-1, helped give them the confidence they needed to finish top of their Euro qualifying group. (I’m not sure I’d pick the same music, but it’s somehow appropriate.)

Poland’s 1982 World Cup campaign, where they finished third. Set to some very dramatic music.

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