U20 World Cup to Start This Week

Roster named for the tournament

Paweł Adamiec, Bartosz Białkowski, Tomasz Cywka, Adam Danch, Maciej Dąbrowski, Jakub Feter, Jarosław Fojut, Dawid Janczyk, Łukasz Janoszka, Krzysztof Król, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Patryk Małecki, Artur Marciniak, Adrian Marek, Damian Rączka, Mariusz Sacha, Ben Starosta, Krzysztof Strugarek, Jakub Szałek, Wojciech Szczęsny, Przemysław Tytoń

Poland's opening match is this Saturday against Brazil, followed by matches against the United States and Korea next week.

Armenia and Azerbaijan Forfeit Points

Due to a disagreement on where to play their upcoming matches, FIFA have lost patience with the two associations and canceled both games, causing both to lose points. Although it seems to be mostly Azerbaijan's doing, as Armenia was willing to play a home and away match (The main cause for concern stemmed from the history of war these two countries have had, and some parts of Azerbaijan are still home to many Armenians). Whether or not it was just cause, both lose 6 points each for the time being and ensure themselves that they will not be moving from the bottom of the table.

Transfer Rumours

Kazmierczak to Join Portugese Champs

Loaned out to Boavista where he played the past season, he will stay in Portugal on a three-year contract with Porto who will pay 1.4 million euros for him to Pogon Szczeczin. Boavista would have kept him but could not afford the 1.1 million euro price tag. Kazmierczak played in 29 matches for Boavista, finding the net 5 times. This deal is still to be official, however it does appear imminent.

From One Bench to Another

Dudek is supposedly close to a deal with Real Madrid. Sounds good, except when you remember they already have a first choice keeper in Casillas. Dudek still has offers from other clubs - including Benefica who have long been linked to having interest in him. But after so much time on the bench one would think Dudek would go to a club where he at least would get a very good chance at competing for the top spot, rather than warming another bench and serving as cheerleader.

Smolarek Back to Holland?

Bert van Marwijk, the new Feyenoord trainer is interested in re-acquiring the player who he lured to Dortmund when he coached there in 2005. Feyenoord is a familiar club for Smolarek, who played there from 2000-2005. He has scored 12 times in 68 matches for Feyenoord, while netting 25 for Dortmund in 79.

Zurawski to Stay Put

Despite the rumours, 'Magic' wants to say with Celtic. Coming off a poor season, and a lot of competition for his spot, a decision like this could be what finishes what little is left of a once promising career. Struggling both at the club level and internationally, he has done little to prove his worth at either end. And if he does not improve at the club level (and even if he does), he might be hard pressed to find a spot. If he has trouble finding his form for the club, it could mean only a matter of time before the Captain of the Polish national team is replaced there as well.

Other Sports Update

Volleyball

Another week in the World League, and another series of wins for Poland who remain perfect with Bulgaria in their group. Poland will finally face off with the Bulgarians on June 23rd, the start of 4 straight matches against one another which will determine who finishes first and who finishes second in the pool.

The top ranked team in each pool qualifies for the final round. However, as hosts, Poland is guaranteed a spot in the final round. Meaning that both Poland and Bulgaria are pretty much guaranteed seats there.

Just under 2 weeks of matches remaining for Pool D, but it likely won't change much in the way of who will advance and who will not.

Boxing

Tomasz Adamek is set to fight on September 15th against Steven Cunningham who recently defeated another Pole - Krzystof Wlodarczyk. The fight will be in Wroclaw for the IBF title. Golota is set to fight there as well, but his opponent is still to be determined.

Formula 1

Robert Kubica says he feels fine to race in the GP this weekend but doctors did not agree as they did not give him the OK he needed. Kubica was involved in a horrific accident in Montreal last week, but escaped with his life and only minor injuries to show for it.

There is still no word on when he will race next.

Poland 0:1 Armenia

Poland suffered another Finland-like setback against Armenia. Although Poland dominated the match they were unable to finish off the opportunities they had - which weren't plentiful as the wall that was the Armenian defense was difficult to penetrate. The goal scored by Armenia was off a free kick that was so well placed Boruc had little chance to stop.

With Poland struggling Beenhakker decided to put the struggling Zurawski up front while taking Smolarek off. Beenhakker has made some odd choices before, but this one was ridiculous. Zurawski hasn't been able to do much up front since he was separated from Frankowski, so to put him on at a time Poland was in desperate need for a goal was an odd choice to say the least.

Regardless of players though, the problems stemmed from the strategy. Beenhakker had the troops attempting to run through the Armenians who were simply waiting for them outside the box, and when confronted, resulted in wasted opportunities or turnovers. Had Poland tried to play more creatively on the wings or lobbed balls over the Armenia defense, more successful opportunities would have likely resulted. Alas, Poland was left scrambling and did not muster up much.

And when they did come up with glorious opportunities, they were wasted. Saganowski was the goat this game. With a wide open net all he had to do was connect with the ball and it could have changed the game. Instead he slipped and managed to waste a golden opportunity. He had another similar opportunity in the game that was stopped by the keeper, but for this one there was no excuse. And in the end it was the difference between Poland coming away with something and coming away with nothing.

Poland's lead in Euro has evaporated, as their lead is thanks to playing in more games than both Portugal and Serbia, as both teams have 2 games in hand and only 5 points back. Poland's road has got a lot tougher with most of the matches also away from home, including stints in Portugal, Finland, and Serbia. Instead of leading the pack, Poland may now find itself chasing it.

Other Sports Update

Volleyball

Continuing with the World League, Poland has continued its perfect record with defeats over Argentina and China again. They are tied with Bulgaria who also hold a perfect 5-0 record. Poland has more matches against Argentina and China scheduled before they'll finally face off with their main competitors in the group, Bulgaria - who they will play 4 consecutive times. So the group is still very much undecided.

Boxing

Tomasz Adamek has recaptured a belt - the IBO Cruiserweight after defeating Luis Pineda in 7 rounds on Saturday. Andrew Golota (39) also showed up in the ring for the first time in a couple years (2005). He defeated a rather unknown and unspectacular Jeremy Bates (21-14-1) in a 2nd round KO in the first match of his comeback. Golota wasn't impressive, but his opposition didn't require him to be.

My first thought at this was that Golota must be low on money if he's returning back to the ring, because even at his prime he wasn't good enough to challenge the greats. The mental part of his game was always lacking, and there's no reason to believe it has gotten any better. Combine that with deteriorating physical attributes, and that makes for a pretty good likelihood of him lasting only a few matches before going out in shame...again.

Poland 3:1 Azerbaijan

Highlights

Poland took another 3 points from Azerbaijan on Saturday in a tense match that saw Poland trail for the majority of it. Unfortunately for Portuguese and Serbian fans, Poland rallied back with goals by Smolarek and Krzynowek that were only minutes apart.

The surprise goal came only minutes in when the Azeri attacker was coming in from the wing against Boruc on a fairly tight angle. Boruc foolishly played for the pass (despite the Azeri player in front being covered) and allowed the attacking player to simply shoot it past him. It's obvious what Boruc was thinking, it's also obvious that he didn't give the player the respect he should have by failing to treat him as a threat from what he probably perceived as an angle he would not dare try to score from. Boruc had some gaffes later in the match too when he completely fumbled a ball and almost gave the Azeri a two goal lead! Thankfully he was at least lucky, since he definitely wasn't good.

But Poland did manage to make up for the goal. Now the Azeri will cry foul that the Smolarek goal was caused from a questionable free kick when Lobodzinski went down a little easily. Whether he did or not, it still took a great free kick and a pretty big mistake to leave Smolarek unmarked to allow for such a goal. The Azeri were no angels in this department either, with at least half a dozen times finding the ground against a fairly disciplined Polish team.

The third goal was the highlight of the match that saw Saganowski downright embarrass the Azeri defender and Krzynowek for seconds later to do the same. That gave Krzynowek a hand (or a foot more accurately) on every goal scored for Poland.

What is surprising is how Zurawski could be considered the 'captain' on this team ahead of Krzynowek, which proves that even Beenhakker is not as flawless a coach as he may come off. Zurawski who unsurprisingly had to be pulled from the match in favour of Saganowski. Surprising in one sense though as Zurawski was quite invisible all match, or rather, the portion that he accounted for.

Poland's next match is on Wednesday in Armenia. Saganowski should have earned a spot in the starting 11 for that match, while Zurawski and Rasiak should have earned spots keeping the bench warm.

News In Other Sports

World League 2007 - Volleyball

Poland finished 2nd to Brazil last year in the World Championships. For 2007, Poland has been drawn into Pool D for the Intercontinental Round with China, Argeintina, and Bulgaria.

Poland has defeated China twice already, and Argentina most recently. Currently they sit tied with Bulgaria at the top of their group with 3 wins and no defeats. Round play continues until June 30th. Poland's next matches are June 3rd against Argentina, followed by a pair of matches against China on the 9th and 10th.

The final round will take place July 11 - 15 in Katowice.

Boxing News

Poland's Krzysztof Wlodarczyk lost his IBF cruiserweight title on Saturday to Steve Cunningham. Wlodarczyk had won a controversial result against Cunningham earlier in Poland but was unsuccessful in the rematch (also held in Poland).

Wlodarczyk's record is 37-2