It’s safe to say that there are two kinds of teams that will make their presence known at the FIFA World Cup 2018. Depending on which kind of a football fan you are, some teams will appeal to you more than others.
Some of the Russia-bound teams play fantastic team football, where all the best players stick to a system and follow the coach’s formation and rules to a T. These are the Germanys and the Spains of the world: they are squads of elite footballers that thrive off each other in an organised system.
The other qualified nations live and die by the one superstar that single-handedly carried them past the qualifiers. The squad and the formation are done around the star, the team plays off the star, and their success (or failure) all hinges on said star’s ability to perform.
Both types of squads can lift the trophy when the World Cup 2018 results are all done and dealt with, but everything hinges on the performance. It all depends on whether the team can stick to the philosophy they hitched themselves into and its stars play their ideal games.
This time, SBOBET is zeroing in on Poland and their chances of making it past a dangerous group stage. It’s obvious that the Bialo-czerwoni will be heavily relying on the Bayern Munich striker to pull through for them.
The question is this: can Lewandowski’s goals do enough damage through a particularly challenging Group H?
It’s All About the Star Man
There’s no doubt that Poland have the quality required to book a ticket to Russia, but only Lewandowski is the only man uttered on the lips of the Poland faithful and every pundit assessing their potential to get out of the group stage.
The team captain and talisman has been scoring like nobody’s business ever since he started playing in Varsovia Warsaw’s youth system. The almost Blackburn Rovers striker has made his mark in the Polish circuit and the Bundesliga, where he has found success with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t see much joy during his stint with the national team. He went through three coaches ever since making his senior debut for Poland in 2008 and struggled to find his scoring boots as the Bialo-czerwoni missed out of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.
It didn’t take long before he and his peers turned things around. They made an impressive quarter-final run in Euro 2016, losing to Portugal on penalties. His sixteen goals during the qualifiers ensured an automatic ticket to Russia.
This World Cup also has a lot going for the Pole than just national pride and glory. It can be argued that Lewandowski is the last of a dying breed of strikers. With that being said, it is important to see how a player that is purely dedicated to attacking does his work.
His desire to leave Bayern Munich is also hinging on his performance at the World Cup. If Poland wins the entire thing on his back, the world is his oyster and he can go wherever he wants.
Can Poland Pull Off the Impossible?
Of course, you cannot win a football game with only a single person doing all the work, so the rest of the team has to make sure that Robert’s work up front will be as light as possible.
Goalkeeping responsibilities will be shared by Arsenal alumni Lukasz Fabianski and Wojciech Szczesny. Borussia Dortmund man Lukasz Piszczek has to step up now that Monaco defender Kamil Glik is ruled out of the World Cup with a shoulder injury sustained in training.
Kamil Grosicki, Karol Linetty, Grzegorz Krychowiak and Piotr Zielinski would have to do a lot of work on the midfield in order to supply Lewandowski with through balls and lobs to allow him to combat with some of the world’s best defenders.
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The must-win fixture in the group stage for the Pole easily has to be Colombia. James Rodriguez, Robert’s team-mate at Bayern, will pose an incredible threat for them. Winning this game is a must for them if they want to have an easier road to the World Cup trophy.
What’s Next for the Poles?
Of course, many World Cup 2018 predictions don’t have Poland making it even past the first round of the knockout stages. There is a high chance that their dark horse status will remain as such: a status. With that being said, it is important for us to look into the future.
Many of Poland’s key players are at the twilight of their peak years, and a change of the guard is inevitable. The future of the national team is likely hinged on the midfield. Zielinski and Linetty are playing big minutes in the Serie A and will likely grow to become important players for club and country.
The country’s youth system must also be kept up. The Polish FA is enjoying a huge amount of involvement from the nation’s youth after Lewandowski’s heroics. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if the next Polish football star will emerge from this young crop in the next five to ten years.
However, those things are only for when they are out of the World Cup. Right now, everyone should cherish Robert Lewandowski’s importance to Poland. Without him, they wouldn’t be even playing at the World Cup in the first place.
He is the man. He is Poland.
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