Goalkeeper Dudek back for Poland

AFP - 25 septembre 2009 14:55

Real Madrid goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek (seen here in 2008) has been recalled by out-of-the-running Poland for their two remaining 2010 World Cup qualifiers, after Dutchman Leo Beenhakker was sacked as coach, the Polish FA announced.

WARSAW (AFP) - Real Madrid goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek has been recalled by out-of-the-running Poland for their two remaining 2010 World Cup qualifiers, after Dutchman Leo Beenhakker was sacked as coach, the Polish FA announced Friday.

Dudek, 36, remains iconic for his Champions League-winning penalty shoot-out performance with Liverpool in 2005 but has been out of favour with the national team over the past three years.

Glasgow Celtic's Artur Boruc was Beenhakker's goalkeeper of choice, but found himself under fire because of some nightmare performances during the Poles' botched drive to qualify for South Africa.

Beenhakker, 67, was sacked on September 10, a day after Poland crashed 3-0 away to Slovenia.

The Slovenia game, which came after a sloppy 1-1 draw at home to Northern Ireland, left Poland second-from-bottom of Group Three and mathematically unable to catch up in their two remaining games against leaders Slovakia and the Czech Republic next month.

Beenhakker -- formerly at the helm of the Dutch national team, Real Madrid, Ajax and Feyenoord -- became the first foreigner in charge of Poland when he was appointed in July 2006 to shake up the side after their first-round exit from the World Cup in Germany.

Former Poland international Stefan Majewski, 53, is currently acting as caretaker boss. He is a throwback to the glory days of Polish football, having been on the team that finished third at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.

Poland's predicament leaves them without a competitive match until 2012 -- as they qualify automatically as co-hosts along with Ukraine of that year's European championships.

Majewski on Friday named the following 26-man squad for the qualifiers against the Czech Republic on October 10 and Slovakia on October 14:

Goalkeepers: Jerzy Dudek (Real Madrid/ESP), Wojciech Kowalewski (Iraklis Thessaloniki/GRE), Sebastian Przyrowski (Polonia Warsaw)

Defenders: Jaroslaw Bieniuk (Widzew Lodz), Seweryn Gancarczyk (Lech Poznan), Arkadiusz Glowacki (Wisla Krakow), Tomasz Jodlowiec (Polonia Warsaw), Adam Kokoszka (Empoli/ITA), Mariusz Pawelec (Slask Wroclaw), Piotr Polczak (Cracovie Krakow), Jakub Rzezniczak (Legia Warsaw)

Midfielders: Jakub Blaszczykowski (Borussia Dortmund/GER), Roger Guerreiro (AEK Athens/GRE), Maciej Iwanski (Legia Warsaw), Mariusz Lewandowski (Shakhtar Donetsk/UKR), Rafal Murawski (Rubin Kazan/RUS), Ludovic Obraniak (Lille/FRA), Slawomir Peszko (Lech Poznan), Lukasz Piszczek (Hertha Berlin/GER), Euzebiusz Smolarek (Currently no club), Jakub Wilk (Lech Poznan)

Strikers: Pawel Brozek (Wisla Krakow), Kamil Grosicki (Jagiellonia Bialystok), Dawid Janczyk (Lokeren/BEL), Ireneusz Jelen (Auxerre/FRA), Robert Lewandowski (Lech Poznan)