Poland’s June internationals: A farewell for Grosicki and consternation as Lewandowski takes a rest (plus U-21 Euros chat)

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

With just over a week to go until Poland play their first match of the June international break, Michał Probierz announced his squad yesterday with one real surprise: the absence of captain Robert Lewandowski after what has been a long and successful season for the 36 year-old striker.

It’s also a very peculiar and tiring time to try and write about football in general with so much still occurring at what is normally the start of a period of downtime, with most domestic leagues ending and usually the finals of the Uefa club competitions having taken place towards the end of May. 

Yet tonight we have the Conference League final in Wrocław, we have Polish participation to look forward to in the Champions League final on Saturday night, and we also have Fifa’s new-look Club World Cup, the Women’s European Championships and the U-21 Euros kicking off shortly as well.

For all these reasons and more it’s been a long time since an article was published on this website, as with so many things to try and get ahead of, I wanted to take some time to think as how best to cover this myriad of football in a period which would usually not be so hectic. In due course, there’ll be an end-of-season retrospective and I’ll be endeavouring to cover this summer’s international tournaments for the U-21s and the women’s team as fully as possible.

Now though, we look ahead to the senior men’s side, and their international friendly against Moldova on June 6th and their World Cup qualifier with Finland on the following Tuesday, June 10th. 

Rather than go through the whole squad as I usually would, I’ll merely address the inclusions and exclusions we didn’t necessarily expect to see, as well as the specific exclusion of Lewandowski.

Defensively, we knew that Kamil Piątkowski was struggling with injury and would not be in this squad, but I am disappointed we don’t see Jan Ziółkowski after his fantastic breakout season with Legia Warszawa. In light of the fact he is not in Adam Majewiski’s U-21s squad either, it does seem like a bit of a missed opportunity. 

In midfield Kamil Grosicki is named for his farewell match against Moldova, and we have two holding midfielders from the Ekstraklasa in great form: Oskar Repka and Maxi Oyedele. We’ve seen Oyedele in a Poland shirt before and I’m pleased he’s back in the fold here, and the form to which Repka ended the season means I hope he will get an appearance in one of the two matches.

Kacper Urbański is also absent from both the senior and U-21 squad after a lost season in Italy, especially depressing given how important he seemed to be to Probierz’s plans and the way Poland were playing last summer, and in the early stages of the autumn too.

Up front and undoubtedly the biggest story is Lewandowski’s decision to pull out. You can’t really argue that someone in their mid-to-late 30s who has played nearly 4,000 minutes at the highest level of club football does not deserve a rest, especially considering how maniacal Lewandowski is towards fitness and longevity. 

However, it’s not stopped some people from lining up to take swipes at this leave of absence from Poland’s captain. In my opinion, it makes a degree of sense considering Probierz and Poland would likely rather rely on Lewandowski later in the year compared to now, but it is a cause for concern when you remember the disappointing results Poland suffered last time Lewandowski was not present in the team.

Turning our attention to the U-21 team, and there are a number of names there that I’d have liked to have seen in the senior squad. It’s understandable though when you consider that the U-21s are preparing for a tournament in Slovakia, and had any of them been included by Michał Probierz they would likely just have been sat on the bench. Hopefully in the autumn we might see Kacper Kozłowski, Jakub Kałuziński or Dominik Marczuk reintroduced to the senior squad.

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

For now though, we look ahead to the deserved farewell for Kamil Grosicki, after he retired from international football following last summer’s Euro in Germany. He had recently been making the suggestion he could come out of retirement if needed, given he is still one of the more standout players in the Ekstraklasa despite his advancing years. Nonetheless next Friday night in Chorzów will be a great send-off for Grosicki, and one well earned through a number of years when he was undoubtedly just as much one of Poland’s stars at a level comparative to any of the more household names from the 2010s. 

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