Busy time for Leo.

It’s a busy time for the Polish national team and its supporters. Just after the friendly against Estonia, we’ve got an exhibition game against Polish league’s foreign stars to be held in Szczecin on the 11th of March. There were some fresh faces called up by Leo.

To start with, here’s the full squad for the game:

Goalkeepers: Wojciech Kowalewski (Korona Kielce), Sebastian Przyrowski (Groclin Grodzisk)
Defenders: Marcin Kus (Korona Kielce), Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw), Tomasz Lisowski (Widzew Lodz), Michal Pazdan and Mariusz Pawelec (both Gornik Zabrze), Grzegorz Bartczak (Zaglebie Lubin), Grzegorz Baran (Ruch Chorzow)
Midfielders: Radoslaw Majewski (Groclin Grodzisk), Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Cracow), Piotr Kuklis (Widzew Lodz), Konrad Golos (Gornik Zabrze), Lukasz Gargula (GKS Belchatow), Michal Golinski and Robert Kolendowicz (both Zaglebie Lubin), Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan), Grzegorz Bonin (Korona Kielce)
Attackers: Radoslaw Matusiak and Pawel Brozek (both Wisla Cracow), Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze)

As you can see, there are no lads playing abroad as this is an unofficial fixture. For the same reason Wisla Cracow didn’t want to release their players (originally six were called up). However, an agreement was reached and three Wisla players are allowed to play in Szczecin. Those staying in Cracow are Dariusz Dudka, Adam Kokoszka and Marek Zienczuk. It’s especially harsh for Zienczuk as he won’t be able to impress the coach and, therefore, his chances of securing a place in the Euro squad have taken a massive blow. Dudka is certain of his summer call up, whereas, in my opinion, Kokoszka will still get his chance (Leo seems to be a huge fan of him). Baran, Bartczak, Kolendowicz and Bonin were brought in to replace the Wisla stars. Baran is an entirely fresh face, doing good for the league’s newcomers Ruch Chorzow. Bartczak and Kolendowicz have already been given a chance by Leo but they haven’t been able to hold a regular place in the national team. Bonin has already played for Poland’s former coach Pawel Janas, but, as far as I remember, it’s his first Leo’s call up. Personally, I don’t think any of these players stand much chance of developing into important first team players, at least not in the near future. However, Leo has this ability to prove people wrong time and time again. The exhibition also sees the return of Kowalewski who is to fight with Kuszczak and Fabianski for the position of a backup goalkeeper. Moreover, Brozek will get what might be his last chance to impress Beenhakker. He’s doing great for Wisla (league’s leading goalscorer), but he still can’t prove himself on the international scene. It’s high time he started fulfilling his potential (anyone playing Championship Manager some time ago should be familiar with him). Other than that, there are no further surprises in the squad. What adds some spice to the game is the fact that Roger will play for the opposing team of foreign stars. We will be able to judge first handedly if he really is much better than Gargula or Majewski.

In other news; I’ve been observing closely Polish players’ reactions to the inclusion of Roger in the Eagles squad. From what I’ve read, Kuba Blaszczykowski thinks that the Brazilian is good enough to play for the team, whereas Ebi Smolarek just trusts Leo’s judgement. Good, so far there are no signs of Roger’s case affecting our team spirit. Talking about team spirit, I’ve recently read an article about Croats’ star Nico Krancjar. He boasts about the superiority of his team and admists that he doesn’t regard Poles as any threat to Croatia’s plans of advancing from the group stage. That’s a very positive sign, I just hope that the rest of the Croatian team has a similar attitude. Get ready for a surprise in June Niko.