The Polish League’s Mid Season Report.

Five teams still have a chance to win the Polish championship at the start of the winter break. Contrary to the last season there’s no one club that rises above the rest. Consequently, this season has been described as the most interesting in years. More and more players from the Polish Ekstraklasa become key members of the national team and attract interest from abroad. Have a look at who grabbed the headlines this term.

League table:

1 Lech Poznan 36 points
2 Legia Warsaw 36
3 Polonia Warsaw 35
4 Wisla Krakow 33
5 GKS Belchatow 31
6 Slask Wrocław 30
7 Arka Gdynia 23
8 Ruch Chorzow 22
9 Polonia Bytom 21
10 Jagiellonia Bialystok 18
11 Lechia Gdansk 18
12 Odra Wodzisław 17
13 LKS Lodz 16
14 Piast Gliwice 15
15 Cracovia 14
16 Gornik Zabrze 12

Top scorers:

1 Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow) 12 goals
Takesure Chinyama (Legia Warsaw) 12
3 Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan) 8
Filip Ivanovski (Polonia Warsaw) 8
5 Rafal Boguski (Wisla Krakow) 7
Grzegorz Podstawek (Polonia Bytom) 7
Hernan Rengifo 7

Most assists:

1 Maciej Iwanski (Legia Warsaw) 9
2 Sebastian Mila (Slask Wroclaw) 7
Semir Stilic (Lech Poznan) 7
4 Miroslaw Radovic (Legia Warsaw) 5
5 Maciej Malkowski (Odra Wodzislaw) 4
Marek Zienczuk (Wisla Krakow) 4

Best average rating (from Przegląd Sportowy):

1 Manuel Arboleda (Lech Poznan) 6,41
2 Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow) 6,35
3 Maciej Iwanski (Legia Warsaw) 6,29
4 Rafal Murawski (Lech Poznan) 6,23
5 Inaki Astiz (Legia Warsaw) 6,21

Best team:

Lech Poznan: they are the league leaders and play the most exciting football in Poland. They also have the highest attendance on their home matches and are the only Polish team left in the European competition (Uefa Cup). Lech is a team that provides players for the national team (Murawski, Bosacki, Bandrowski, R.Lewandowski, Peszko) and have one of the best foreign players in Poland (Stilic, Arboleda, Djurdjevic, Rengifo). Moreover, their stadium is being rebuilt; the new version is due to open in 2010. Lech plans not to sell their players in the upcoming transfer window, regardless of the value of the possible offers. They want to build a team that will successfully represent Poland in Europe for years to come.

Honourable mentions: Legia Warsaw, Polonia Warsaw, Wisla Krakow

Biggest surprise:

Slask Wroclaw: Ryszard Tarasiewicz, Slask’s coach, managed to form a team from average league players and guys who played in the 2nd division last season. He also resurrected Sebastian Mila’s career; a player who only five years ago was regarded as the most talented in Poland. Slask plays offensive football, regardless of the quality of their opponents. Janusz Gancarczyk (fast left winger), Piotr Celeban (central/right defender), Mariusz Pawelec (central/right defender) and Antoni Lukasiewicz (defender/defensive midfielder) are currently taking part in Polish “B” team training camp in Turkey. Ryszard Tarasiewicz openly states that he wants to take control of the national team in the future.

Honourable mentions: GKS Belchatow, Polonia Bytom

Biggest disappointment:

Gornik Zabrze: I predicted that they would be good enough to attack the fifth spot, whereas in reality they are the worst team in the Ekstraklasa. Gornik looked to possess a perfect balance between experienced players (Jerzy Brzeczek, Tomasz Hajto), good league players (Grzegorz Bonin, Przemyslaw Pitry) and youngsters with national team potential (Tomasz Zahorski, Michal Pazdan, Adam Danch). Unfortunately, Hajto “concentrated on” collecting yellow cards, Pitry scored only a single goal, whereas the youngsters weren’t good enough to become the new leaders of the team. Even a coach of Henryk Kasperczak’s reputation couldn’t stop Gornik’s downfall. Now Henry must perform a miracle to keep the Miners in the top flight. One person who still believe in Gornik is Leo Beenhakker who called up Zahorski, Pazdan, Danch and Mariusz Magiera for the upcoming friendly against Serbia.

Honourable mentions: Wisla Krakow, Cracovia

Best player:

Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow): it’s a tough choice, but I think that Pawel Brozek is currently the league’s biggest star. He was the top scorer in Poland last season and is on the best way to become one this season. He’s matured enormously since the beginning of the year; his positioning improved, he drops back for the ball more often and is more confident in front of the goal. Wisla’s whole strategy is based on Brozek’s goalscoring abilities. Moreover, Broziu finally managed to win a strong position in the national team after scoring against the Czech Republic. Now Leo Beenhakker considers him the starting striker, at least for the next couple of games. Brozek will probably stay in Krakow till the end of the season, but after that he should take a chance and try his luck abroad. He’s waiting for his dream offer from Primera Division, but there were only speculations about an interest from Bologna and FC Nantes.

Honourable mentions: Rafal Murawski, Manuel Arboleda and Semir Stilic (Lech Poznan), Takesure Chinyama, Maciej Iwanski and Jan Mucha (Legia Warsaw), Rafal Boguski (Wisla Krakow), Sebastian Mila (Slask Wroclaw), Tomasz Jodlowiec (Polonia Warsaw), Lukasz Gargula (GKS Belchatow)

Best newcomer:

Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan): a player that took the Polish league by storm. The former 2nd division top goalscorer managed to confirm all the hype surrounding him in the top flight. In only half a year he became Lech’s best scorer managing to find the net both in the Polish League and Uefa Cup. This was enough for Leo Beenhakker to make him a backup striker in the national team. So far R.Lewandowski has scored twice for the Bialo Czerwoni; especially the goal against Ireland is the one that shows the vastness of his potential. If everything goes according to plan and Lewy continues to develop he’ll become the most expensive Pole to be transferred from the Polish league.

Honourable mentions: Janusz Gancarczyk (Slask Wroclaw), Kamil Glik (Piast Gliwice), Marcelo (Wisla Krakow), Janusz Gol (GKS Belchatow), Daniel Maka (Polonia Warsaw)

How do you like this season? Any players I should have mentioned?