2008/2009 Ekstraklasa Season Concludes

Wisła Kraków has won the Polish Ekstraklasa title for the 12th time in their history. They claimed the title by defeating Śląsk Wrocław 2-0. Wisła will not have another chance to qualify for the Champions League next season. Legia Warszawa, Lech Poznań, and Polonia Warszawa followed in the standings respectively, and will have the opportunity to qualify for the new Europa League next season.

Unfortunately, for Cracovia Kraków and Górnik Zabrze, they will not be playing in the Ekstraklasa as they have been relegated. Arka Gdynia will play a relegation playoff with the 3rd placed team of the Polish 1st League.

Top Goal Scorers:

1. Paweł Brożek (Wisła Kraków)...................19
-. Takesure Chinyama (Legia Warsaw)..........19
3. Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznań)..........14
4. Filip Ivanovski (Polonia Warsaw)..............12
5. Dawid Nowak (GKS Bełchatów)................10
-. Dariusz Pawlusiński (Cracovia Kraków).....10

Daily NewsWatch: May 29, 2009

- Robert Lewandowski has apparently rejected a move to SSC Napoli, the 13th place team in the Serie A. He is said to be eyeing a move to Ligue 1, with Auxerre as a strong possibility.

- Tomasz Kuszczak looks to be on the outs at Old Trafford. The Polish keeper failed to press Edwin van der Sar for the #1 spot and in fact lost the #2 job to English keeper Ben Foster. Foster, however, is fairly injury prone so Kuszczak was the de facto #2 for much of the season. Regardless, TK is a solid keeper who deserves to be starting more frequently, in my opinion. It has been rumoured that he would be loaned out to another Premiership club in the coming season.

- Anderlecht and Poland RB Marcin Wasilewski is being linked to a few clubs in the English Premiership. However, the RB has quite the reputation at his current club and one of the club directors has said Wasyl won't go for less than 2 million euro. Personally, I think Wasyl is a great character, a hard-worker, decent in supporting the offense (he scored 8 goals for Anderlecht this year) but ultimately, a very frustrating defender at the NT level.

- Polish youngsters Tomasz Cywka and Tomasz Kupisz have signed improved extensions at Wigan Athletic. 21-year old Cywka, in particular, should press for a spot in the first team squad next season, assuming he stays healthy.

Young Polish Duo Stay at Wigan

Tomasz Cywka and Tomasz Kupisz both extended their contracts with Wigan Athletic for another year. "These boys are the future of this club" said Wigan coach Steve Bruce.

Cywka came to Wigan three years ago, and Kupisz one year later. They play regularly for the reserve team. Kupisz made his first team debut on August 26, 2008 in a Carling Cup match against Notts County and scored the final goal in a 4-0 win. Cywka was close to breaking into the first team until he suffered torn knee ligaments this season. In 14 games this season, he scored 6 goals. "I am pleased. Until I had my injury, I had a very good season. Now my plan is to fight for a place in the first team" said 21 year old Cywka.

"I am happy at Wigan and I would like to play for the first team" added 19 year old Kupisz.

"We wouldn't have offered them new contracts if we didn't believe in them" concluded Bruce.

In the 2008/2009 season, Wigan finished 11th place in the Premier League.

Poland U-21 Squad Announced

Polish U-21 coach, Andrzej Zamilski, has announced his squad for a friendly against Sweden (June 5th in Malmo, Sweden) and their first qualifying match for the 2011 European Under-21 Football Championship against Lichtenstein (June 9th in Pruszkow, Poland). Poland are in a tough group with Spain, Netherlands, and Finland also in their qualifying group.

Only two of the players selected are currently playing outside of Poland; Wojciech Szczęsny (Arsenal London), and Grzegorz Krychowiak (Girondins Bordeaux).

The squad:

Goalkeepers: Michał Gliwa (Polonia Warszawa), Wojciech Szczęsny (Arsenal London)

Defenders: Adrian Basta (Polonia Bytom), Mariusz Gancarczyk, Adam Marciniak (both Górnik Zabrze), Kamil Glik (Piast Gliwice), Mateusz Pielach (Avia Świdnik), Tadeusz Socha (Śląsk Wrocław), Mateusz Śliwa (Rega Trzebiatów)

Midfielders: Mateusz Cetnarski (GKS Bełchatów), Grzegorz Krychowiak (Girondins Bordeaux), Patryk Małecki (Wisła Kraków), Maciej Rybus, Ariel Borysiuk (both Legia Warszawa), Kamil Wilczek (Piast Gliwice)

Forwards: Kamil Biliński (Śląsk Wrocław), Tomasz Chałas (Znicz Pruszków), Kamil Grosicki (Jagiellonia Białystok), Maciej Korzym, Marcin Wodecki (both Odra Wodzisław Śl.).

Reserve List: Daniel Brud, Sebastian Janik (both Wisła Kraków), Piotr Charzewski (Elana Toruń), Piotr Grzelczak (Pelikan Łowicz), Norbert Jędrzejczyk (Start Otwock), Przemysław Kotlarz (Polonia/Sparta Świdnica), Szymon Matuszek (Jagiellonia Białystok), Grzegorz Sandomierski (Ruch Wysokie Maz.).

Daily NewsWatch: May 25, 2009

Some news from the world of Polish soccer this morning....

- Wojciech Łobodziński is back in the kadra, after his impressive performance over the weekend for Wisla. Łobodziński, who came on as a sub and scored 2 goals for Wisla in a 4-2 win over Lechia Gdansk, replaces his Wisla teammate Rafal Boguski.

- Tomasz Kuszczak is a Premier League champion yet again, but will not gather a medal as he did not play in enough games this season for the Red Devils. He looked solid in United's 1-0 win over Hull on Sunday.

- Ireneusz Jelen continues his recent run of good, if not great, form. He was chosen man of the match as Auxerre defeated Saint-Etienne 1-0 over the weekend. In addition, Jelen was chosen Auxerre's player of the year by the fans. Good for Irek... hopefully, his club translates to the international level as well.

- As reported earlier on PFO, Ebi Smolarek is done at Bolton. Gary Megson has confirmed that the Polish forward will not be returning to the Reebok Stadium.

The Daily Kickabout: Fri May 22

- Poland and Dundee United keeper Lukasz Zaluska has a chance to become a Dundee United and Celtic hero on the same day. The keeper, who is headed to Celtic Park this summer on a free transfer, has the unique opportunity to help his current team secure a place for the UEFA Europa League and simultaneously can help his future team win the SPL title, depending on how he does against Rangers this Sunday.

- Sticking on the topic of Polish keepers, Lukasz Fabianski has recovered from his minor injury and will be the starting keeper for Arsenal as they battle Stoke this Sunday. Fabianski has been solid for the most part this season - here's hoping he can finally pip ahead of Manuel Almunia next season.

- Jakub Wawrzyniak stood before the Greek Superleague disciplinary committee today, pleading his doping case which came to light last week. I feel sorry for Kuba but, at the same time, he is a professional athlete and really, has no one to blame but himself for taking supplements without consulting the Pana doctors beforehand.

- The Ekstraklasa title chase is heating up... unfortunately for Legia, they will be missing their top striker Takesure Chinyama as they travel to Wroclaw to play Slask. Wisla and Lech play Lechia Gdansk and Polonia Warszawa, respectively.


this is just an example of what i think the "Daily Kickabout/MediaWatch/whatever we decide to call it" should look like. Sometimes there'll be more newsworthy articles, sometimes there will be less...
also, each bullet point could have a link set up to an appropriate topic in the forums.

The sad decline of Ebi Smolarek continues...

No one wants Ebi Smolarek, from the looks of it. Not Bolton, not the team that owns his rights, Racing Santander, not even the rumoured Greek teams that wanted him a few weeks back.

The 3-time Polish Footballer of the Year (2005-2007) has garnered one starting appearance at Bolton and has been an unused substitute far more often than not. And if you are one who easily gets depressed at the plight of our footballers abroad, you may not want to look at the following numbers:

2008/09 Season Totals
Starts: 1
Sub Appearances: 11
Shots: 5
Shots on Goal: 1
Fouls Committed: 6
Fouls Suffered: 2
Yellow Cards: 1

"Ouch" does not begin to describe those numbers. And yet, he has garnered another call-up from Leo Beenhakker for the kadra's June friendlies in South Africa. I am a huge Ebi fan and know he has played well for the bialo-czerwoni more often than not, but you have to question what Leo's basis is for selecting Smolarek? He is clearly out of form and does not deserve to be on the NT at this moment in time.

Notes
Discuss whether Ebi should be called up here -- link to forum topic.

could also create a poll : Does Ebi deserve to be called up?
Yes
No
Unsure

Squad announced for June friendlies in South Africa

Leo Beenhakker has announced the NT squad for the June friendlies in South Africa. The team will take on the home team Bafana Bafana on June 6 in Johannesburg, followed by a game against Iraq 3 days later in Cape Town.

Of note, the mercurial Artur Boruc is not included in the squad (at his own request) while Jakub Wawrzyniak, who has recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons, is in.

Jakub Blaszczykowski, who has been back in the Borussia Dortmund squad for the last month or so, is not included, but I think it might be a good pre-caution to take, given Kuba's propensity to get injured.

The Boruc decision seems to indicate that Fabianski is our de facto #1 and as much as I like Fabian's potential, the fact is he does not feature regularly for Arsenal, which worries me. Other than that, I am most interested to see how Leo lines up our midfield considering that apart from Boguski, none of the called-up players are experiencing a rich vein of form.


Full squad below...

Goalies. Ł. Fabiański (Arsenal), Ł. Załuska (Dundee), S. Przyrowski (Polonia W.).

Defenders: M. Wasilewski (Anderlecht), D. Dudka (Auxerre), T. Jodłowiec (Polonia), B. Bosacki (Lech), J. Wawrzyniak (Panathinaikos), M. Żewłakow (Olympiakos), J. Krzynówek (Hannover).

Midfielders: M. Lewandowski (Szachtar), Ł. Trałka (Polonia W.), R. Guerreiro (Legia), R. Boguski (Wisła), R. Murawski (Lech), S. Peszko (Lech).

Strikers: E. Smolarek (Bolton), R. Lewandowski (Lech), D. Nowak (Bełchatów), Paweł Brożek (Wisła), I. Jeleń (Auxerre), M. Saganowski (Southapmpton).

Reserves: A. Stachowiak (Odra), J. Rzeźniczak (Legia), P. Polczak (Cracovia), Piotr Brożek (Wisła), T. Bandrowski (Lech), D. Janczyk (Lokeren), Ł. Sosin (Anorthosis), J. Wilk (Lech).