World Cup 2006 Groups: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H

Group A Team Profiles: Germany | Costa Rica | Poland | Ecuador

Poland

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Poland team kit

Just pipped by seeds England to Group 6 qualification with a scoring record to rival that of any in Europe at least, Poland's class of 2006 are nonetheless limited compared to finalists past.

Playing contemporaries of coach Pawel Janas such as Wladislaw Zmuda, Zbigniew Boniek, the celebrated keeper Jan Tomaszewski, Grzegorz Lato, Andrzej Szarmach and the late Kazi Deyna ensured the Poles carved a niche in World Cup history - and last time (West) Germany were hosts their neighbours came third.

But this will be a less confident bunch entirely, despite Maciej Zurawski and Tomasz Frankowski having scored seven each in qualifying and Portsmouth gambit Emmanuel Olisadebe providing competition for their places besides Grzegorz Rasiak.

They may not fear Group A's Ecuador - having coincidentally dispatched them in a Barcelona friendly prior to the draw - but then Klinsmann's men and even Costa Rica won't yield points as easily and memories persist of Japan/Korea when Jerzy Engels saw his side's high hopes collapse around an ignominious 4-0 defeat to Portugal. Since then, despite the presence of quality pros such as Jacek Krzynowek and Tomasz Klos, the Poles failed even to qualify for Portugal in 2004.

The man now in possession of Tomaszewski's old role, Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek, having made such crucial shoot-out saves in May's Champions League final, must regain regular match action of some description if he is not to risk abetting a repeat of the ignominy.

Poland Matches

Match # Date & Time Group Teams Result Venue
2 Fri 9th Jun 21:00 A  POL  ECU 0 - 2 Gelsenkirchen
17 Wed 14th Jun 21:00 A  GER  POL 1 - 0 Dortmund
34 Tue 20th Jun 16:00 A  CRC  POL 1 - 2 Hanover

Match times shown are local times for Germany (CEST/GMT+0200). Click on match date/time to view match statistics.

Past World Cup performance

Key Players

World Cup 2006 Qualification

Squad

Total World Cup 2006
# Posn Name DOB Club Caps Goals Pld Goals OG YC RC
1 GK Boruc Artur 20-02-1980 Celtic SCO 22 0 3 0 0 2 0
2 DF Jop Mariusz 03-08-1978 FC Moscow RUS 14 0 1 0 0 0 0
3 DF Gancarczyk Seweryn 22-11-1981 Metalist Kharkiv UKR 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 DF Baszczynski Marcin 07-06-1977 Wisla Krakow POL 37 1 3 0 0 1 0
5 MF Kosowski Kamil 30-08-1977 Southampton ENG 47 4 1 0 0 0 0
6 DF Bak Jacek 24-03-1973 Al Rayyan QAT 77 2 3 0 0 1 0
7 MF Sobolewski Radoslaw 13-12-1976 Wisla Krakow POL 23 1 2 0 0 1 1
8 MF Krzynowek Jacek 15-05-1976 Bayer Leverkusen GER 63 9 3 0 0 1 0
9 FW Zurawski Maciej 12-09-1976 Celtic SCO 55 15 3 0 0 0 0
10 MF Szymkowiak Miroslav 12-11-1976 Trabzonspor TUR 32 3 2 0 0 0 0
11 FW Rasiak Grzegorz 12-01-1979 Southampton ENG 31 8 1 0 0 0 0
12 GK Kuszczak Tomasz 20-03-1982 Slask Wroclaw POL 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
13 MF Mila Sebastian 10-07-1982 Austria Vienna AUT 27 6 0 0 0 0 0
14 DF Zewlakow Michal 22-04-1976 Anderlecht BEL 61 1 3 0 0 1 0
15 MF Smolarek Ebi 09-01-1981 Borussia Dortmund GER 18 4 3 0 0 1 0
16 MF Radomski Arkadiusz 27-06-1977 Austria Vienna AUT 25 0 3 0 0 1 0
17 DF Dudka Dariusz 09-12-1983 Wisla Krakow POL 9 0 1 0 0 0 0
18 DF Lewandowski Mariusz 18-05-1979 Shakhtar Donetsk UKR 28 1 2 0 0 0 0
19 DF Bosacki Bartosz 20-12-1975 Lech Poznan POL 14 2 2 2 0 0 0
20 MF Giza Piotr 28-02-1980 Cracovia POL 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
21 FW Jelen Ireneusz 09-04-1981 Wisla Plock POL 14 2 3 0 0 0 0
22 GK Fabianski Lukasz 18-04-1985 Legia Warsaw POL 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
23 FW Brozek Pawel 21-04-1983 Wisla Krakow POL 9 1 3 0 0 0 0