Poland, led by the head coach Pawel Janas, have qualified for their seventh World Cup Finals appearance.

The golden era for Polish football began in the 1970s when, under the leadership of Kazimierz Gorski, the side won gold at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and followed this with a third-placed finish at the 1974 World Cup Finals in West Germany.

Further success followed through the late '70s and early '80s, with a fifth-placed finish at the 1978 World Cup preceding their 2nd third-place finish at the World Cup in Spain '82. Antoni Piechniczek directed from the bench whilst Zbigniew Boniek ran things on the pitch.

A period of decline followed, and after crashing out to Brazil 4-0 in the 1986 World Cup Finals, Poland failed to qualify for another major tournament until the World Cup in 2002. Despite an impressive qualifying campaign the Poland team were disappointing in Korea, and were eliminated in the first round after only one win, against the United States and losses against South Korea and Portugal.

Pawel Janas has been head coach of the Poland national team since December 2002, and even though Poland failed to qualify for Euro 2004, Janas has now formed a solid squad of players.

Poland qualified as best second-placed team in the qualification for the 2006 World Cup behind England in Group 6.

The only matches they lost were to England, with eight wins and no draws in a group that also contained Wales, Austria, Azerbaijan and Northern Ireland, scoring 18 goals and conceding 9 goals en-route.

Pawel Janas has Poland playing at the top of their game going into the World Cup and players like Tomasz Frankowski from Wolverhampton Wanderers and Celtic striker Maciej Zurawski have been key to their success. Both have proved to be a potent strike-force for Poland, with seven goals in qualifying.

Fellow striker Emmanuel Olisadebe, 27, made history as the first black player to represent and score for Poland. Although Nigerian-born, Olisadebe was spotted by Polish scouts and signed for Polonia Warszawa, where he made an immediate impact, helping them to an improbable League and Cup double in 2000. Olisadebe signed for Portsmouth from Panathinaikos on a short-term contract in January 2006.

They will be joined in what proves to be a very skillful attack by Pavel Kryszalowicz, Andrzej Niedzielan from NEC Nijmegen and Grzegorz Rasiak from Southampton.

Captain Tomasz Klos and Marcin Baszczynski from Wisla Krakow, along with ADO Den Haag's Tomasz Rzasa lead a sometimes shaky Poland defence and this could be their downfall if they give up soft goals as they have done in the past.

The key for success for the Poles could be their ability in midfield where Jacek Krzynowek of Bayer Leverkusen can dazzle with the best of them when on top of his game and scored three goals in qualifying.

He will be joined in midfield by Euzebiusz Smolarek from Borussia Dortmund and Trabzonspor's Miroslaw Szymkowiak, who scored two goals in qualifying.

It is yet to be seen if Liverpool's Jerzy Dudek will be the number one choice for Janas in goal, but the hero of the 2004/05 Champions League final has since been relegated to the Liverpool bench behind Spanish keeper José Reina. He is likely to be contesting the spot with Celtic keeper Artur Boruc.

Poland did get the benefit of a favorable draw in Group A, where they have been drawn with the hosts Germany, along with Costa Rica and Ecuador and should be able to get past the group stages.

Their showdown with neighbours Germany should be a great game to watch with a lot of emotion. Poland will, however, be hard-pressed to get further than the last sixteen of the tournament.

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Poland Match Fixtures in the World Cup 2006 Finals

09-Jun-06	Poland v Ecuador	21:00 BST
14-Jun-06	Germany v Poland	21:00 BST
20-Jun-06	Costa Rica v Poland	16:00 BST

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Historic Facts

First International appearance: Hungary 1 - 0 Poland (Budapest, Hungary; 18 December 1921)

Largest win: Largest win Poland 9 - 0 Norway (Szczecin, Poland; 4 September 1963)

Worst defeat: Denmark 8 - 0 Poland (Copenhagen, Denmark; 26 June 1948)

World Cup Finals Appearances: 1938, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 2002

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Poland Match Results - Europe World Cup Qualifiers Group 6

Date	Match	Result
12-Oct-2005	England - Poland	2:1 (1:1)
07-Sep-2005	Poland - Wales	1:0 (0:0)
03-Sep-2005	Poland - Austria	3:2 (2:0)
04-Jun-2005	Azerbaijan - Poland	0:3 (0:1)
30-Mar-2005	Poland - Northern Ireland	1:0 (0:0)
26-Mar-2005	Poland - Azerbaijan	8:0 (3:0)
13-Oct-2004	Wales - Poland	2:3 (0:0)
09-Oct-2004	Austria - Poland	1:3 (1:1)
08-Sep-2004	Poland - England	1:2 (0:1)
04-Sep-2004	Northern Ireland - Poland	0:3 (0:2)

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