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8 POLAND 2012
Poles You Should Know
Kazimierz Górski
(02.03.1921 – 23.06.2006)
A legend in Polish football, Górski
was the man famed for making
Poland a football power in the
seventies. Once a striker, he led
the Polish national team to third
place at the 1974 World Cup,
having won the 1972 Olympics.
Coached several teams in Poland
(mainly Legia Warsaw) and Greece
© PAP PA
(Panathinaikos and Olympiakos).
His record as the head-coach of
Polish national team was played 73, won 45. Author of
one of most famous Polish football quotes: “The ball is
round and there are two goals”.
Grzegorz Lato (08.04.1950)
Second in the all-time list of scorers
for the Polish national team
and also top scorer at the 1974
World Cup with seven goals, the
© Archiwum PZPN last of which gave his team a third
placed finish. As a striker for Stal
Mielec Lato won two Polish championships, as well as
a gold and silver Olympic medal. After a long one-club
career in Poland, he continued in Belgium (Lokeren) and
Mexico (Atlante FC). He played 100 official matches
for the country, scoring 45 goals. Since 2008 he is the
controversial president of the Polish FA.
Franciszek Smuda (22.06.1948)
The current coach of Poland’s national
team, Smuda was a defender for several
clubs in Poland, United States and
Germany. Started his coaching career
almost thirty years ago in amateur
clubs in Germany, with his big chance
coming at Widzew Łódź, where he was
the last coach to guide a Polish team to
the Champion’s League group stage.
Three times Polish champion (twice
© Archiwum with Widzew, once with Wisła Krakow),
PZPN Smuda was given the national team job
after an impressive spell at Lech Poznan (won the Polish
Cup, round of 16 in the UEFA Cup). His record with Poland
currently stands at 12 wins, 11 draws and 8 defeats.
Robert Lewandowski
(21.08.1988)
One of the biggest talents in
Polish football today. Striker who
once was sold by Legia Warsaw
to lowly Znicz Pruszków for only
5,000 PLN, Lewandowski moved
© Roger Gorączniak to Lech Poznan and quickly became
the club’s leading goal-scorer. Won the Polish
golden-boot in and Polish league title in 2010, before
moving to Borussia Dortmund. Under Jurgen Klopp’s
wings he has improved several aspects of his game and
after a steady first season that ended with the German
championship, he has become a regular and Borussia’s
top scorer as BVB won back-to-back titles. He made his
debut for the Polish national team in 2008 against San
Marino, also scoring in that game. At press time, he had
made 40 appearances, scoring 13 goals.
For Polish football fans, the last match of the 2010 World
Cup qualification campaign was a perfect example of how
low the country’s footballing stock had sunk. A 0-1 home
defeat to Slovakia, played in snow in front of just a few
thousand people, was the bitter end for a team that gave
Poland no hope for the rapidly approaching Euro 2012 finals.
The unenviable task of reviving belief in time for this summer’s
tournament was given to Franciszek Smuda, who had
previously impressed in domestic football at Lech Poznan.
His philosophy was a simple, yet ambitious one given the
horrendous form of a team that had finished above only San
Marino in its World Cup qualifying group. Smuda wanted to
make his team a dominant one, keeping possession and
relying on the skills of individuals. This plan, however, was
revised very quickly as just six months into the job, Poland
lost two successive games heavily - 0-6 against Spain and
0-3 against Cameroon. Smuda then switched tactics, adopting
a more suitable counter-attacking style. The early signs
were positive, with a 3-1 win over Ivory Coast.
Smuda originally received strong support from both the Polish
media and fans, but criticism was soon raised over a number
of different issues. Two strong personalities and key members
of the side were kicked out of the squad - Artur Boruc of Fiorentina
and Michał Żewłakow of Legia - for allegedly drinking
on the plane back from a tour of the United States. Then the
Polish tabloids reported Maciej Iwański and Sławomir Peszko
had been accused of spending the night drinking after a game
against Australia before abusing Smuda’s coaching staff. The
latter was allowed back into the team, yet was held by police
in Germany earlier this year following a drunken row with a taxi
driver after a game for his club side Cologne.
More poor performances - particularly in defence - resulted in
Smuda turning his attention to foreign born players with Polish
roots. This decision brought only greater criticism from the media
and fans. Damien Perquis (French-born, Socheaux), Sebastian
Boenisch (German U21 player, Werder Bremen) and Eugen Polanski
(German U21 player, Mainz) were given debuts by Smuda
in an attempt to strengthen the Polish defence, while Laurent
Koscielny (Arsenal) opted for France after also being approached.
A 2-2 draw with Germany and a goalless draw against Portugal
has given fans some hope, but defeats to Italy (0-2) and France
(0-1) suggest that Smuda’s team may not be able to compete
with the best teams at Euro 2012. It is only the draw for the group
stage which has made Poles a little more optimistic. Drawing the
less highly regarded Greece, Russia and Czech Republic led to
the Polish media to describe Group A as the ‘Group of Dreams’.
Hopes have also been raised thanks to impressive progress
of some of Poland’s key players. Wojciech Szczęsny (Arsenal)
is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League at only
22, while Robert Lewandowski is attracting the attention of
bigger clubs than Borussia Dortmund for whom he scored
more than 20 goals in the 2011-12 Bundesliga season.
Łukasz Piszczek and Jakub ‘Kuba’ Błaszczykowski are also
important members of the German champions, while Ludovic
Obraniak and Kamil Grosicki are having good spells at French
Bordeaux and Turkish Sivasspor respectively.
Support amongst the population will grow as Euro 2012 approaches.
The mistakes and dismal performances in countless
friendlies will be forgotten - although only briefly if defeat returns.
Smuda finds himself under enormous pressure, a situation not
helped by the controversial presidency of Grzegorz Lato at the Polish
FA. One of his most questionable decisions was to remove the
Polish crest (of the becrowned Polish Eagle) from the new national
kit only to replace it when confronted with widespread outrage.
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