Pole PositionUnder Leo Beenhakker, Poland have a belief and a swagger they have not shown in a quarter of a century.
Jonathan WilsonMarch 30, 2007 11:07 AM
The Guardian
After five straight wins, Poland are within touching distance of Euro 2008. The home victory over Portugal in October remains the high point of the campaign, but this past week has been immensely important for Lee Beenhakker's side. With Serbia slipping up in Kazakhstan on
Saturday, then holding Portugal to a draw on Wednesday, and Finland suffering an unexpected defeat in Azerbaijan, they now lead Group A by five points.
With the three teams sharing second place all having played a game fewer, the job is not done yet, but in a group in which every team is seemingly capable of taking points from everybody else, the importance of their lead should not be underestimated. Not only that, but there
is a confidence about the side, a belief and a swagger they have not shown in a quarter of a century.
Wednesday's 1-0 win over Armenia was not, in truth, particularly enthralling, but, with Grzegorz Rasiak missing through illness and Ebe Smolarek through injury, Maciej Zurawski, restored to a front-line attacking role, found his first international goal in 18 months. Pretty it wasn't, but this was one of those ground-out victories that says more about the personality of a squad than half-a-dozen comfortable wins. "Polish fans can expect big things from this team," Beenhakker said afterwards. They already are. "Whatever happens in qualifying, whether we get to Euro 2008 or not, appointing Beenhakker is the best thing the PZPN (the Polish football federation) has ever done," said Maciej Iwanski, a commentator for TVP.
Of course, as the carpers point out, Poland have qualified impressively for the last two World Cups, only to flop having got there. In 2002, that was largely down to an idiotically self-destructive dispute over the way the federation (PZPN) had sold the players' image rights without consulting them. That then undermined their Euro 2004 qualifying campaign as Zbigniew Boniek, who had represented the PZPN in the dispute, was appointed as national
manager. "How," as Jan Tomaszewski, the goalkeeper turned all-purpose media moaner, pointed out, "can you play for a man you were trying to sue a month earlier?" Boniek lasted three games, including a home defeat to Latvia, and cleared out, but by then the damage was done.
In 2006, though, there were no such obvious excuses and, as Poland were embarrassed by Ecuador and lost narrowly to Germany before - as they had in South Korea four years earlier - salvaging some dignity by winning a meaningless third group game, the problem seemed, as much as anything else, to be an inferiority complex. In a qualifying group in which they won eight games and scored 27 goals (10 more than England), it was significant that the only two they lost were against England.
There is a curious belief, rooted in the memories of Bobby Moore's gaffe in Chorzow in 1973, Tomaszewski's heroics at Wembley later that year and, perhaps, Gary Mabbutt's own-goal in Poznan in a Euro 92 qualifier, that Poland are England's bogey team. In fact, the 1973
debacle remains England's only defeat to Poland; if anything England are their bogey team. It's not just England, though: faced with big names, Poland have a habit of wilting.
Victory over Portugal in October, a thoroughly merited one at that, suggested that the sense of inferiority may be behind them. Yet things did not start well for Beenhakker.
After friendly defeat to Denmark, a qualifying defeat to Finland and a home draw against Serbia, critics were queuing up to mock the appointment of a 64-year-old whose previous job was leading Trinidad and Tobago. Beenhakakker, though, has done a remarkable job of uncovering talent in the Polish leagues.Pawel Golanski of Korona Kielce made his debut in that defeat to Denmark, but was outstanding against Portugal, when he was widely credited with marking Cristiano Ronaldo out of the game. The forward Radoslaw Matusiak and the defender Marcin Wasilewski have earned moves to Palermo and Anderlecht on the back of their international performances, while the 21-year-old Wisla Krakow midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski has impressed enough to join Borussia Dortmund for £2m in the summer. Dariusz Dudka, previously regarded as an
unspectacular centre-back, was deployed to great effect as a holding midfielder in the away victory over Belgium. Against Armenia, Poland's best player was Lukasz Gargula, a midfielder unheralded until this season.
The dark side, as ever, is administrative. The government has, finally, lifted its suspension of the PZPN board, removing the threat that Poland might be expelled from Fifa and Uefa, but a new date for elections has yet to be set. This being Poland, of course, there was farce even this week, with Jerzy Dudek still caught up in legal wrangles with TP, the leading Polish telecommunications company and the main sponsor of the national team, over whether he should be paid as an individual as per an earlier agreement, or accept part of a collective payment.
Generally, though, the mood is positive, and the Dudek issue is seen as an entertaining sideshow rather than as an indicator of prevailing chaos. Beenhakker has said this could be his last job in football. It looks like being an enjoyable one.
Selected feedbackoranjehype
March 30, 2007 11:56 AMNewmarket/gbr beenhakker is a real legend.
he managed to get the best out of T&T. they might have got a draw against england had it not been for peter crouch (no english players never cheat) blatant foul going unpunishedgood luck to him. wonder what england could do with a pragmatic coach who knows how to play with flair as well.
Wazy
March 30, 2007 2:10 PMWith regards to Beenhakker, he has done fantastically well with Polska since he's taken over, and lets hope it continues.
He is very tactically astute, and brings out the best in the players that he has to work with.
