Squad Watch: Week 2. Kuba Blaszczykowski Superstar.

Not very often do we see a superb goal scored by a Pole against a top European club. This season we may witness it more often as Kuba Blaszczykowski is having a tremendous start of the season. Artur Wichniarek is currently Bundesliga’s top goalscorer with 3 goals to his name, not that Leo cares. Pawel Brozek strengthened his claim for the spot in the nt by scoring another goal in the Polish league. Finally, Polish starlet Michal Janota earned his senior debut for Feyenoord Rotterdam.

How did the Poles do before the first call ups for WC 2010 qualifiers?

Goalkeepers:

Artur Boruc (Celtic Glasgow)- 90 minutes against Falkirk
Lukasz Fabianski (Arsenal London)- on the bench against Fulham
Wojciech Kowalewski (Iraklis Thessaloniki)- season not yet started
Tomasz Kuszczak (ManUtd)- match on monday
Mariusz Pawelek (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes against GKS Belchatow, note 7
Sebastian Przyrowski (Polonia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against LKS Lodz, note 6

Defenders:

Grzegorz Bronowicki (Red Star Belgrade)- not in the squad against FK Banat, injury
Pawel Golanski (Steaua Bucharest)- not in the squad against Gloria Bistrita, injury
Mariusz Jop (FC Moscow)- 90 minutes against Amkar Perm
Adam Kokoszka (Empoli F.C.)- illegible to play
Marcin Kowalczyk (Dinamo Moscow)- 90 minutes against Spartak Moscow
Tomasz Jodlowiec (Polonia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against LKS Lodz, note 5
Piotr Polczak (Cracovia Krakow)- 90 minutes against Lechia, note 5
Marcin Wasilewski (Anderlecht)- 90 minutes against AA Gent
Jakub Wawrzyniak (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against Jagiellonia, note 5
Grzegorz Wojtkowiak (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Gornik, note 6
Michal Zewlakow (Olympiakos Pireus)- season not yet started

Midfielders:

Tomasz Bandrowski (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes against Gornik, note 6
Rafal Boguski (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes against GKS Belchatow, note 6
Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund)- 77 minutes and a goal against Bayern
Dariusz Dudka (AJ Auxerre)- 45 minutes against Nice
Lukasz Gargula (GKS Belchatow)- not in the squad against Wisla Krakow, injury
Kamil Grosicki (FC Sion)- not in the squad against Zurich
Roger Guerreiro (Legia Warsaw)- 90 minutes and an assist against Jagiellonia, note 6
Przemysław Kazmierczak (Derby County)- on the bench against Southampton
Jacek Krzynowek (VFL Wolfsburg)- not in the squad against Bochum
Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk)- 24 minutes against Vorskla Poltava
Wojciech Lobodzinski (Wisla Krakow)- 63 minutes against GKS Belchatow, note 5
Radoslaw Majewski (Polonia Warsaw)- 90 minutes against LKS Lodz, note 7
Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan)- 90 minutes and a goal against Gornik, note 7
Szymon Pawlowski (Zaglebie Lubin)- 90 minutes against Podbeskidzie
Michal Pazdan (Gornik Zabrze)- 77 minutes against Lech, note 4
Sławomir Peszko (Lech Poznan)- 83 minutes against Gornik, note 6

Attackers:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow)- 90 minutes and a goal against GKS Belchatow, note 8
Dawid Janczyk (CSKA Moscow)- on the bench against Spartak Nalchik
Michal Janota (Feyenoord Rotterdam)- 12 minutes against PSV in Dutch Supercup
Ireneusz Jelen (AJ Auxerre)- 90 minutes against Nice
Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan)- 81 minutes and a goal against Gornik, note 7
Radosław Matusiak (SC Heerenveen)- season not yet started
Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin)- not in the squad against Arminia, injury
Grzegorz Rasiak (Watford)- 90 minutes against Nottingham Forest
Marek Saganowski (Aalborg)- Aalborg didn’t play at the weekend
Ebi Smolarek (Racing Santander)- season not yet started
Artur Wichniarek (Arminia Bielefeld)- 89 minutes and a goal against Hertha
Tomasz Zahorski (Gornik Zabrze)- 26 minutes against Lech, note 4
Maciej Zurawski (Larissa)- season not yet started

Summary: Remember the poll on this site where I asked which Polish player will make his name in Europe this season? Apparently, the readers of Poland World Cup Blog know their football as most of you chose Kuba Blaszczykowski. The former Wisla player already showed great form in friendlies, but that never guarantees performing well in serious games. Luckily, Kuba managed to maintain his form and is now dazzling the Bundesliga pitches. I haven’t watched the game, but according to Witold, one of our readers, “he was a dominant player for Dortmund against Bayern”. And the goal is just magnificent, scored with the outside of his foot, pure genious if you ask me (especially if we consider the ususal entertainment quality of Polish football, or rather lack of it). Now it’s time to stay fit for the season and become the leader of the national team. Who knows, maybe in a year’s time we’ll finally have a Polish outfield player in one of European top clubs. Got carried away a bit.

Artur Wichniarek just doesn’t intend to stay quiet. He’s now Bundesliga’s joint top goalscorer after putting the ball in the net for the 3rd time this season. What’s best, he did it against his former club Hertha Berlin, which he criticised severely for almost killing his career. Does he have any chance to finish as the top goalscorer? Not really, Arminia is just too poor a club and they’ll have a lot of matches without scoring a single goal. Will those goals help Konig Artur to return to the national team? Negative, there no rumours at the moment of Wichniarek making his comeback. Regardless of that, I’m very glad he’s scoring, at least I’ve got someting to write about and goals to show you in the highlights section.

Pawel Brozek’s situation, on the other hand, is quite different. Similarly to Wichniarek, he has a great start of the season, but in his case the call up is very, very close. Today’s Przeglad Sportowy writes that Brozek will be included in the squad for the Slovenia and San Marino games. Leo is still searching for a new striker; Jelen didn’t convince him against Ukraine, Smolarek and Zahorski are out of form and Zurawski…..well Magic can almost be considered retired. Hence Leo is forced to give Brozek another go. Hopefully this time the Wisla player proves mature enough.

Michal Janota played for the first time in Feyenoord’s official senior game (they lost the Supercup 0-2 to PSV). I didn’t really expect that, but maybe he’s got a real opportunity to feature regularly for his club this season. At the same time, I don’t know if Supercup is treated seriously in Holland (it isn’t in Poland). If he doesn’t play for Feyenoord, he should be loaned out to some other club in Eredivisie. Seems like he’s ready to play some senior football.

Finally, our drink team. The news that you read on the WCB’s main page is not entirely true. The players are not banned for as long as Leo stays our manager but until further notice. Leo also says that if it was only 2-3 beers there wouldn’t be any case made of it. At least the guys are not behaving like idiots anymore and no longer claim that nothing happened. They issued an official apology. Still, they’re highly unlikely to play in our first qualifiers.

Highlights:

Kuba’s wonderstrike

Wichniarek’s 3rd of the season

Brozek is on fire

Murawski has a talent for beautiful strikes

Another proof that Robert Lewandowski is Poland’s future starter