The return of the Dude(k)

King Leo of Poland has spoken, and he has looked kindly upon the Dude(k).

After avoiding press contact for some three weeks, new Team Poland coach Leo Beenhakker came out of hiding to announce eighteen players making up his squad for the Denmark friendly in Odensk slated for 18 August.

Chief among the headline grabbers is the same guy who was grabbing headlines in the lead-up to and playing of World Cup 2006, despite his exclusion from the national squad altogether: Liverpool’s second-string goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.

Sixty-four year-old Beenhakker had his birthday celebrated along with the naming of the eighteen, a group which includes eight from the hapless World Cup squad. Beenhakker has included Dudek and striker Tomasz Frankowski (Wolverhampton), two notable “omissions” from Pawel Janas’ squad.

When questioned as to the wisdom of including a fair number from the failed Cup team (Radosław Sobolewski, they’re talking about you here), the imminently quotable Dutchman stated that “the players can’t be the only ones blamed for the defeat in Germany.” In justifying the inclusion of the 33-year-old Dude(k), Beenhakker explained that he’s essentially taking an approach of “the future is now.”

“It’s time to begin new work and build a team for the elimination rounds of the European Championships,” said Beenhakker, going on to explain that, “If I were to build a team for the World Cup in 2010, I would take the 23- or 25-year-olds into consideration. For now, age isn’t the most important [factor].”

“In a country of 40 million, there are 40 million coaches,” the skipper philosophized. “I respect all opinions, but at the beginning of my work I have to be fair to those who took part in the World Cup and earlier performed superbly in the eliminations. I am nominating those, who regardless of their age are at the time being the best on their positions.”

The team is as follows, with World Cup players in bold.

Goalkeepers: Jerzy Dudek, Wojciech Kowalewski

Defenders: Michał Żewłakow, Mariusz Jop, Jacek Bąk, Seweryn Gancarczyk

Midfielders: Radosław Sobolewski, Mariusz Lewandowski, Mirosław Szymkowiak, Arkadiusz Radomski, Sebastian Mila, Damian Gorawski, Euzebiusz Smolarek, Jacek Krzynówek

Forwards: Tomasz Frankowski, Maciej Żurawski, Marek Saganowski, Ireneusz Jeleń.