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Poland’s Euro Squad Announced. Majewski, Bronowicki and Matusiak Left Heartbroken.

May 28th, 2008 | By: tomasz | 10 Comments »

We have it, our final Euro squad. Out of the 26 players that took part in the training camp the names of Grzegorz Bronowicki, Radoslaw Majewski and Radoslaw Matusiak were crossed out. Leo Beenhakker informed the players this morning about his decision and later justified it to the press.

Here is why this three won’t be with us in Swissaustria:
Grzegorz Bronowicki: he didn’t manage to recover from injury in time. Leo said that he needs players able to play three matches in a 9 day period, Brono is able to play only 60 minutes at the moment.
Radoslaw Majewski: Leo says that Maja has a lot of talent and potential but it’s a bit too early for him to take part in such a huge tournament. He’ll certainly be a part of the team in the next qualifying campaign.
Radoslaw Matusiak: had a horrible season at the club level and didn’t manage to come back to form during the training camp. Made some progress in a week’s training but it wasn’t enough for Leo.

The good news is that Wojciech Lobodzinki’s injury is not as serious as expected. He should be back in training in a couple of days time. Great.

Here is our final Euro squad:

Goalkeepers: Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow), Tomasz Kuszczak (Manchester United), Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)

Defenders: Jacek Bak (Austria Vienna), Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht Brussels), Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucharest), Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow), Adam Kokoszka (Wisla Krakow), Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw), Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)

Midfielders: Dariusz Dudka, Wojciech Lobodzinski (both Wisla Krakow), Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Mariusz Lewandowski (Shachtar Donieck), Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan), Lukasz Gargula (PGE GKS Belchatow), Jacek Krzynowek (VfL Wolfsburg), Euzebiusz Smolarek (Racing Santander), Michal Pazdan (Gornik Zabrze), Roger Guerreiro (Legia Warsaw)

Attackers: Maciej Zurawski (AE Larissa), Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze), Marek Saganowski (FC Southampton)

Biggest surprises: Adam Kokoszka, Michal Pazdan! and Marek Saganowski. What are your opinions?

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Comments

By ANTONIS | May 28th, 2008 at 5:00 am

MORE OR LESS EXPECTED, DOES ANYBODY KNOW THE OFFICIAL NUMBERS ON PLAYERS’ SHIRTS??

By tomasz | May 28th, 2008 at 5:23 am

Most of the numbers are allocated but I won’t dig them all up from memory (9 Zurawski, 7 Smolarek, 10 Gargula, 1 Boruc, 6 Bak). Saganowski, Kokoszka and Wawrzyniak had numbers outside of 23 so the will have to be given new ones.

Posted from Poland

By gregorio | May 28th, 2008 at 9:22 am

again, leo’s surprised, me at least. I thought radomatu being his favourite is enough, well it isn’t. another proof that the boss has the teams well being as a priority, respect.
bronowicki is a surprise too, but had we known about his physical shape, we could have easily predicted he’d have been sent home.
majewski’s dropping out was actually expected and is a good decision. he’ll be helpful in the future. butso far, has no senior international experience whatsoever, and debuting against Germans in what may be a historical game would by all probability be too much for him to bear.

great news about our right-wingers. things are beginnig to look up.
go polska!

Posted from Poland

By Smoga | May 28th, 2008 at 10:49 am

I think it speaks very highly of Leo that he left out three of his favorites but allowed players whom he doesn’t seem to like too much (Saganowski, Jop). It seems like he is really trying to do what is best for the team, and not just what may be best for individual players or if he likes someone or not. In that light I am very happy with the decisions.

By legia_piotr | May 28th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

I don’t like it that he left Majewski off the team… especially considering he took Pazdan (a 4th DM).

Posted from United States

By Méd'a | May 28th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

Being a BVB supporter, I have heavy mixed emotions since Blaszczykowski has been selected for the Poland NT although I am for the Czechs national team-wise…(also dig Germany NT. was scared out of shit when seeing Germany - Poland in Dortmund 2 years ago). Hope there won’t be any conflicts before and after the match…

Posted from Japan

By tomasz | May 28th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

@Gregorio
One could feel that Matusiak will go down after Leo called his initial form a catastrophe. It is also a good publicity move as Radek was the most criticised player by the press. Personally, I prefer Matusiak in form than Sagan in form, but probably the latter is in better shape (although I didn’t see it in the friendlies). I was surprised by Bronowicki as well, especially after he looked quite ok in the Macedonia game. It is possible that it took him too much time to recover after that. Good that Leo is thinking about all three games, I also hope that we’ll still have something to fight for before the 3rd match. Majewski is no surprise, he proved not versatile enough to be considered.
@Smoga
It was fair from Leo to give Matusiak, his biggest favourite, a chance in the camp. After all, we owe something to Radomatu (especially 3 points from Brussels). But it’s even better that he’s not blind like Janas was when he took Mila or Rasiak.
@Legia_piotr
Majewski can play only as an amc, that’s why I tink he was left out. He’s behind Zurawski, Roger, Krzynowek, Gargula and possibly even Murawski in pecking order for this position. He wouln’t even get a sniff of a ball during the Euros. It’s better to take players who can give some new dimension to the team. Having said that, I think that Pazdan will only be a spectator. We just needed two players for each position that’s why he’s going. Strange that he wasn’t given a decent chance in the friendlies.
@Med’a
If Kuba does well during the Euros you may not see him again in BVB shirt. I don’t think there will be any serious problems from the fans, I’m only sure that we’ll outclass the German supporters.

Posted from Poland

By gregorio | May 28th, 2008 at 3:47 pm

leo said the match against Germany to be the most important in his career, so I hope he really really really doesn’t want to lose it. so if he is optimistc, I’m optimistic as well. so the three games shouldn’t be what we end up with. and that is why the players axed are all good decisions.

I don’t suspect beenhakker wuold do such thing as dropping matusiak to please the press. I expected him to do otherwise, because he paid radomatu some attention in the last few days, so I thought it was a psychological game to motivate him, so that he can stay.

Sagan can be helpful coming in from the bench. physically strong and a fighter he is, he can be a threat to tired defenders, even to the Germans. matusiak wouldn’t work that way, and he wouldn’t make 1st line-up either.

pity bronowicki didn’t regain his shape. we aren’t rich in dl’s, but being able to play 1 game in 3, there was no point in keeping him.

I have nothing to add about majewski. I’m counting on him in the future.

Posted from Poland

By legia_piotr | May 28th, 2008 at 4:08 pm

I realize that we are discussing what is essentialy the 23rd spot on the squad but if we’re taking someone as a spectator, I’d rather it be Majewski. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see anything special in Pazdan (yet).

Of course, the biggest loss is BronoCop - it will be interesting to see who Leo picks as his LB now.

As for Radomatu, I reckon if he had been half decent, Leo would’ve taken him, as would most of us I’d presume, given that Radek is still one of our better forwards, if on form. He clearly failed Leo’s test.

Posted from United States

By tomasz | May 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm

There was always a lot of opinions of how essential it is to take young players to tournaments for them to have a taste of world class football. However, from our 2002 and 2006 experiences I can’t recall any bench player that would afterwards become a dead cert in the national team (Glowacki in 2002 or Mila, Brozek, Giza, Gancarczyk in 2006). Hopefully this time will be different and players like Majewski, Pazdan, Kokoszka, Wawrzyniak or Zahorski will be with us in two years time.
LB is now a big problem, as we know there are three candidates: Zewlak, Golanski and Wawrzyniak. None of them is a perfect option, but hey Bronowicki wasn’t either.
@Gregorio
At first I also thought that Leo wants to motivate Radomatu with his opinions for the press. But yesterday he said that he didn’t sleep well because of Radek, that was a hint for me.

Posted from Poland

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