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Squad Watch: Week 10. Smuda Picks The Squad To Face Romania And Canada.

November 2nd, 2009 | By: tomasz | 44 Comments »

Franz Smuda called up his first ever squad as the coach of the Polish national team. There were a few surprises such as the absence of Shakhtar’s Mariusz Lewandowski and the inclusion of the long time no seen Kamil Kosowski or less than impressive Janusz Gancarczyk. Smuda claims that the door is not closed for anybody and that no player is guaranteed future call ups.

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow)- not in the squad against Kilmarnock, injury
Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)- not in the squad against Tottenham, injury
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd)- on the bench against Blackburn
Sebastian Przyrowski (Polonia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 5
Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal London)- not in the squad against Tottenham
Lukasz Zaluska (Celtic Glasgow)- 90 minutes against Kilmarnock

Defenders:

Blazej Augustyn (Catania)- on the bench against Fiorentina
Piotr Brozek (Wisla Krakow)- not in the squad against Korona, injury
Dariusz Dudka (AJ Auxerre)- 90 minutes and an assist against Montpellier
Seweryn Gancarczyk (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Slask, note 5
Kamil Glik (Pisat Gliwice)- 90 minutes against Lechia, note 5
Arkadiusz Glowacki (Wisla Krakow)- not in the squad against Korona, injury
Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucharest)- on the bench against FC Timisoara
Tomasz Jodlowiec (Polonia Warsaw)- not in the squad against GKS Jagiellonia, injury
Adam Kokoszka (Empoli F.C.)- 90 minutes against Lecce
Marcin Kowalczyk (Dinamo Moscow)- on the bench against Amkar
Jakub Rzezniczak (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Ruch, note 6
Maciej Sadlok (Ruch Chorzow)- 90 minutes against Legia, note 4
Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)- 90 minutes against Atromitos

Midfielders:

Tomasz Bandrowski (Lech Poznan)- 45 minutes against Slask, note 5
Rafal Boguski (Wisla Krakow)- 7 minutes against Korona
Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)- 90 minutes against Hertha
Janusz Gancarczyk (Slask Wroclaw)- 90 minutes against Lech, note 5
Roger Guerreiro (AEK Athens)- 10 minutes against Ergotelis
Maciej Iwanski (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Ruch, note 7
Kamil Kosowski (APOEL Nicosia)- not in the squad against Aris, injury
Jacek Krzynowek (Hannover 96)- 5 minutes against FC Koeln
Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk)- on the bench against Czernomorets
Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Krakow)- 76 minutes against Korona, note 5
Radoslaw Majewski (Nottingham Forest)- 62 minutes against Cardiff
Patryk Malecki (Wisla Krakow)- 84 minutes and an assist against Korona, note 6
Rafal Murawski (Rubin Kazan)- 39 minutes against Krylia, got injured
Ludovic Obraniak (Lille)- on the bench against Grenoble
Sławomir Peszko (Lech Poznan)-90 minutes against Slask, note 6
Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin)- 79 minutes against Dortmund
Bartosz Salamon (Brescia)- match today
Jakub Wilk (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Slask, note 5

Attackers:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes and two assists against Korona, note 5
Kamil Grosicki (Jagiellonia)- 84 minutes against Polonia Warsaw, note 6
Dawid Janczyk (Lokeren)- on the bench against Anderlecht
Michal Janota (Excelsior Rotterdam)- on the bench against Fortuna Sittard
Ireneusz Jelen (AJ Auxerre)- 90 minutes and two goals against Montpellier
Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Slask, note 5
Dawid Nowak (GKS Belchatow)- on the bench against Cracovia
Grzegorz Rasiak (Reading)- 90 minutes and two goals against Coventry
Marek Saganowski (Southampton)- not in the squad against Leyton Orient
Ebi Smolarek (no club)- season not yet started
Artur Wichniarek (Hertha Berlin)- 11 minutes against Dortmund
Maciej Zurawski (Omonia Nicosia)- 90 minutes and an assist against APOP

Summary: Here’s the list of players called up by Smuda

Goalkeepers: Tomasz Kuszczak (Manchester United), Wojciech Szczesny (Arsenal)
Defenders: Marcin Kowalczyk (Dynamo Moscow), Jakub Rzezniczak (Legia Warsaw), Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus), Maciej Sadlok (Ruch Chorzow), Arkadiusz Glowacki (Wisla Krakow), Adam Kokoszka (Empoli), Piotr Brozek (Wisla Krakow), Seweryn Gancarczyk (Lech Poznan), Dariusz Dudka (AJ Auxerre)

Midfielders: Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund), Slawomir Peszko (Lech Poznan), Rafal Murawski (Rubin Kazan), Janusz Gancarczyk (Slask Wroclaw), Kamil Kosowski (APOEL Nicosia), Ludovic Obraniak (Lille), Roger Guerreiro (AEK Athens)

Strikers: Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan), Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow), Ireneusz Jelen (AJ Auxerre), Patryk Malecki (Wisla Krakow)

This was the first time that the fans have had the opportunity to learn about who Franz Smuda considers to be the best Polish players. What kind of conclusion can we draw from Smuda’s initial choices? First of all, Artur Boruc will have to work really hard to win back his nr 1 blouse. Smuda admitted that Artie wouldn’t have been called up even if he was healthy. Tomasz Kuszczak has suddenly become Polish nr 1 as our new coach claims that he loves the ManUtd keeper’s ambition and strong character. Smuda is also a huge fan of the young Wojciech Szczesny’s talent and as a result he’s making him our nr 2. That’s a very risky choice as both keepers have earned almost no playing time this season. In my opinion Smuda made his choice based on the character of the players, not necessarily the recent form. Lukasz Fabianski is still in contention for the starting spot, but Franz couldn’t pick him due to injury. Marcin Kowalczyk, Piotr Brozek and Maciej Sadlok are the three fresh faces in our defense. After very average recent performances by Seweryn Gancarczyk the search for the new left back continues. The other Brozek twin is by many considered the best left back in the Ekstraklasa; Smuda claims that he may use him both in defense and on the wing. He also wants to have as many good left footed players as possible. I’m quite happy about Brozek’s inclusion as I’ve wanted to see him in the national team colours for a long time now. No gurantee, however, that he’s going to be the answer for all our problems. Marcin Kowalczyk plays regularly in a strong league (Russian) and deserves a second look (he was tested by Leo more than a year ago). Maciej Sadlok, on the other hand, won his place in the team due to his never say die attitude. Smuda admitted that he called up the young Ruch centre back because he likes players that don’t allow to be shoved around by strikers. Arkadiusz Glowacki won’t be able to play in this month’s friendlies as he’s injured, the word is that the young Kamil Glik will be called up in his place. This would make Michal Zewlakow and Dariusz Dudka the most experienced players in the squad as Smuda realized after the last two games that our defense looks even poorer without them. Zewlak certainly can’t be considered a 2012 prospect, but Franz said that he wants to have a closer look at all the good players. This may also explain why Kamil Kosowski was brought back to the national team. The popular Kosiarka is experiencing a surprising return to form in the Cypriot league and is Polish football’s best representative in the Champions League. Kosowski’s style of play is both spectacular and irritating, nevertheless he may be our best option at the left wing till we fing someone younger. I don’t have high hopes for Janusz Gancarczyk, I think he was called up solely because of his speed. He may be useful if there’s a lot of free space on the pitch, but in modern professional football such situations are quite rare. Even though Smuda claimed that he’s against foreigners playing for Poland he decided to pick Roger who will now rival Ludo Obraniak to become our starting playmaker. Smuda’s call ups suggest that we won’t certainly play with two defensive midfielders (Dudka is the only one); I think he may go for 4-4-2 or 4-1-4-1. Franz picked the best strikers available, though some may be surprised by the absence of Grosicki or Janczyk. I think it was just time to give Patryk Malecki a chance to earn his first cap and the aforementioned duo are definitely in Franz’s books. How do you like Smuda’s choices?

Rumours are resurfacing about Smuda’s coaching staff. Former Bialo Czerwony Tomasz Waldoch is tipped to be the assistant manager whereas another former player Marek Kozminski is to be the technical director. Legia’s Krzysztof Dowhan (trained Boruc, Fabianski and Jan Mucha) is the hot favourite to become the goalkeeping coach.

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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 44 comments.

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By Tomek | November 4th, 2009 at 11:13 am

I think his parents are Polish, or at least one of them, though on the other hand his surname is 100% German. Dunno really.

He lately commented that he’s impressed that Smuda comes to Germany to meet him.

Posted from Netherlands

By zaraza | November 4th, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Radoslaw Majewski will replace the injured Murawski.
http://www.90minut.pl/news/107/news1073826-Radoslaw-Majewski-zastapi-w-kadrze-Rafala-Murawskiego.html
As for who’ll replace Glowacki, Smuda will make that decision after this weekend’s matches.

By Tomek | November 4th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

^Great callup. Smuda is probably counting on Boenisch replacing Glowacki but I really don’t think that will happen.

Posted from Netherlands

By zaraza | November 4th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

I have a feeling all the Boenisch stories are just media nonsense. I think Smuda just wants another look at the candidates from the Polish league. Glik is probably the frontrunner but he hasn’t been impressing lately.

By Tomek | November 4th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

You would think so Zaraza, but transfermarkt.de, which is mostly a believable site, posted those messages as well.

Posted from Netherlands

By ian | November 5th, 2009 at 2:17 pm

Hey guys, Zaluska is playing for Celtic now against Hamburg. Looking pretty good so far. He has 1 cap for Poland, during the South Africa trip earlier this year. Perhaps he should have gotten a call for the next 2 friendlies. Any thoughts?

By Hieronim | November 5th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Yah I saw the whole Hamburg-Celtic match. Zaluska saved Celtic from losing the game, the Scottish commentators loved him. He should get a shot on being ob the NT in the future.

Also, guess who scored a winning goal today in stoppage time in a Europa League game? Konig Artur Wichniarek. I didn’t see the goal yet, but it was big for Hertha, they have been struggling a hell of a lot lately. Hopefully he can have a good run in form.

Posted from United States

By rydzynski | November 5th, 2009 at 9:56 pm

zaluska should be called instead of kuszczak..i’m a little surprised that wichnarek scored, every time i check he either plays the last 10 min or not at all so good for him, hertha is garbage this year

Posted from United States

By SD | November 6th, 2009 at 1:30 am

Wichniarek was also influencial in the other two goals assisting one and I think assisting the other as well but no sure. He and his strike partner Domovchiyski ripped it up cause Domovchiyski later repayed the assists with an assist for Wichniarek. Jacek Bak also had a shot saved.Sucks for Murawski cause just when he was making real progress he gets injured but Majewski deserved a call up for some time now.

By JZ | November 7th, 2009 at 8:37 am

zaraza – you are correct there needs to be an exception for hosting countries like Poland & Ukraine, I was hoping somebody would prove me wrong about international player eligibility.
Players who played several friendlies for one country are now switching to another.
FC Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones, the son of an American father has appeared in 3 friendlies for the German NT but has never earned a cap in an ‘A’ international match is switching to team USA.

Club America (Mexico) left back Edgar Castillo, who has suited up for Mexico on various occasions,played in 4 friendlies and was called up for 3 qualifing games but did not play in those games is now switching to team USA.
And there are many French & Dutch players who played friendlies but did not play an ‘A’ international match are switching to various African NT’s.

My point is when I hear guys like Boenisch declare their commitment to Poland I am a little skeptical,will they switch back before Euro2012.

Posted from United States

By MarcinO | November 7th, 2009 at 11:36 am

I hear what you are saying. I haven’t heard of any special rules for teams in that situation. Even if you only play friendlies, you can establish your stating eleven or squad rotation. If a guy like Boenisch is a part of that then I don’t see him switching back. All these guys just want some kind of assurance that they are part of the team for the long run. If he did decided to flip, that would be the most disgusting display by a confused individual. You would think that at age 21 he could be a man and make a decision. The only way he would even think of switching back is if he would fail to earn a spot on the team, with no hope of breaking into the lineup in the future. Or maybe if he got into a fight with the coaches. At that point he would quit international football, and wait until there would be a new manager. FIFA probably would not let him switch back and forth like that anyway.

By zaraza | November 7th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Blazej Augustyn (Catania) came on in the 40th minute of today’s match against Napoli which ended in a goalless draw. It appears he did OK, one site gives him a 5.5, another gives him a 6. This is an improvement over his previous performances which were described as very shaky or even disastrous.
http://news.google.ca/news/search?um=1&cf=all&ned=ca&hl=en&q=augustyn+%2Bcatania&cf=all&scoring=n&nolr=1

By Adam | November 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

http://polandsports.blogspot.com/
ALL NEW!!!VIDEO AND HIGHLIGHTS

Posted from United States

By zaraza | November 8th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Brozek will not play in the upcoming friendlies due to some minor injury. No word yet on who’ll replace him and Glowacki.

By adam | November 8th, 2009 at 7:41 pm

Great callup! Boenish? No!

Posted from Poland

By mark | November 8th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

ALL NEW http://polandsports.blogspot.com/

Posted from United States

By Hieronim | November 9th, 2009 at 1:25 am

Ok is Blazej Patrick Nowak a fraud or not?

He is listed as one of the leading scorers on polish soca!, and his profile says has some statistics…

It’s just really frustrating and somewhat offensive to me if this guy is just a fraud.

Posted from United States

By Tomek | November 9th, 2009 at 1:43 am

Boenisch no? Sorry, you might not like the guy, but he would be one of the only Polish players regularly starting for one of the best teams in the Bundesliga. If we want to have any hope to at least do decently on EURO 2012 then those are the kind of players we need to call up. We have no choice really.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alek | November 9th, 2009 at 4:10 am

@Hieronim
Yes Patrick Novak or Nowak however he spells it now is fake. He just lies about “trials” he has a certain club like Legia and whatnot but happened to get an injury every time so he couldn’t play so they didn’t sign him. Now I follow Legia almost religiously and they never had a trail for him. And Polish Soca! is a joke too. If you look who owns the site its something like Steve Novak.

The people who did all the work to discover he was fake was here:
http://www.polishsoccer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13901&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

By zaraza | November 9th, 2009 at 4:27 am

Tomek, Boenisch may help us get better results but what meaning will these results have if he and other players who helped us achieve them don’t genuinely identify with our country? How can we be proud of that? Some countries may only care about getting the results, without concern for integrity. Germany, for example, has turned their national team into a joke, filled with players who are playing for the country only to enhance their career prospects, while identifying with another culture in private. But do we really want the same for our NT? I sure don’t. No to Boenisch. He has made it abundantly clear that he identifies more with Germany. He is an attention-seeker, not someone who really cares about Poland.

By Tomek | November 9th, 2009 at 4:41 am

I dunno man but how it goes now I’m 100% positive we’ll go out in the 1st round during EURO 2012, losing each match with at least 3-0. Don’t want that either, though I understand what you’re saying. It’s really stupid we’re even organising that competition anyway, were an absolute joke when it comes to football. Luckily at least were great in volley and handball.

Posted from Netherlands

By Peter | November 9th, 2009 at 9:30 am

Germany has players who actually have legit German links. We are the ones who have turned international soccer into a joke.

By Tomek | November 9th, 2009 at 11:36 am

http://sport.onet.pl/74327.2,1248703,2075021,,zaskakujacy_zwrot_ws_boenischa__klub_wywiera_presje,wiadomosc.html

This can’t be allowed, surely? That’s just rascism. Or another stupid media lie.

For those that can’t read Polish: Werder Bremen out right claimed they prefer a German Boenisch to a Polish one.

Posted from Netherlands

By zaraza | November 9th, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Peter, don’t be ridiculous, Poland didn’t start this trend, we just followed.
Anyway, Germany’s players may have links to Germany but many of them are rather obviously making the choice for career reasons. Two of Germany’s top goalscorers (Podolski, Klose) have openly stated they prefer to speak Polish at home and Podolski even gave a long list of his favorite things, almost all of them were Polish. How can Germans be proud of the accomplishments of a pair who openly prefer another culture? Their NT is a joke, just because other countries do so as well doesn’t make it any less so.

By Peter | November 9th, 2009 at 9:48 pm

Regarding Klose and Podolski. They speak perfect German, they live in Germany, they are ethnically German (at least 50% and that goes for almost every German NT player).

How many of our players can say the same thing? Podolski and Klose grew up “German” (obviously as well as polish) they spoke German, they went to German schools, they played on German youth clubs, etc. Say what you want about their preferences about culture (I personally don’t buy it and would categorize them as products of polish diaspora communities) but they are immersed in the culture for which they represent. Can you say the same about Obraniak? Roger? Boenich? Koscielny? even Smolarek. None of these guys will ever even live in Poland again (that again doesn’t even qualify for many of our players, how sad is that).