Anastasi’s Polish Team

Shocking! Seriously!

Coach Andrea Anastasi’s 25 player roster excludes a few Polish superstars and we are quite surprised. We don’t know what real deal is on why the STARS are not on the roster but hopefully they will rejoin the squad later in the season knowing that Poland will need its best squad to defend the European crown they won  in 2009.

(image: milanoweb.com0

Tough 2011 season ahead but we are confident with Anastasi‘s choices.

The absentees are opposite hitter Mariusz Wlazly (pictured) , midde blocker Daniel Plinski, outside hitter Michal Winiarski and star setter Pavel Zagumny.

(image: chip.pl)

Below is the complete 2011 Roster for Poland’s Men’s National Team:

Setters: Fabian Drzyzga (Tytan AZS Częstochowa), Grzegorz Łomacz (Jastrzębski Węgiel), Paweł Woicki (PGE Skra Bełchatów), Łukasz Żygadło (Trentino BetClic)

Lukasz Zygado’s Story: The Best Setter of the 2009/2010 edition of the Champions League publicly expressed his interest to rejoin the National Team after his dramatic exit due to conflict with former coach Daniel Castellani. With the absence of veteran Zagumny, we expect Lukasz to step up his game and win a spot on the team which is scheduled to host the Final Round of the 2011 World League as well compete in the 2011 European Championship. Our source says that Lukasz and Anastasi had a serious talk in Italy about his plan to represent Poland again. We’re glad Lukasz is back and we definitely want to see more of him in 2011. Welcome back bb!

(image: znane-osoby20.bloog.pl)

Opposites: Marcel Gromadowski (Indykpol AZS UWM Olsztyn), Bartosz Janeczek (Tytan AZS Częstochowa), Jakub Jarosz (ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle), Piotr Gruszka

Gruszka’s Leadership: He is the most experienced player on the team and therefore his leadership plays a very important role this season. With Sebastian Swiderski missing on the list, Gruszka needs to become the leader that he should be. Since playing for Poland in 1996, Piotr’s experience will definitely help the youngsters and neophytes gain the wisdom they need to help Poland achieve a successful 2011 after a lackluster performance last year.

(image: znane-osoby20.bloog.pl)

Middle Blockers: Patryk Czarnowski (ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle), Karol Kłos (PGE Skra Bełchatów), Grzegorz Kosok (Asseco Resovia Rzeszów), Marcin Możdżonek (PGE Skra Bełchatów), Piotr Nowakowski (Tytan AZS Częstochowa), Piotr Hain (Indykpol AZS UWM Olsztyn), Łukasz Wiśniewski (Tytan AZS Częstochowa).

Poland’s Great Wall: No Kadziewicz. No Plinski. Can Możdżonek do it for Polska? We hope so! The Best Blocker from the 2009 Club World Champs has been Poland’s key middle blocker since 2009. Marcin’s “Great Wall” will play a huge role for Poland this year knowing that Poland is not know for its blocking. He better step up and show the rest of the world what he’s really made of.

(image: fakt.pl)

Receivers: Michał Bąkiewicz (PGE Skra Bełchatów), Michał Kubiak (AZS Politechnika Warszawska), Bartosz Kurek (PGE Skra Bełchatów), Mateusz Mika (Asseco Resovia Rzeszów), Michał Ruciak (ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle), Wojciech Ferens (Indykpol AZS UWM Olsztyn), Zbigniew Bartman (AZS Politechnika Warszawska)

Will The Power of 3 Set Them Free? We certainly hope so! Such a young group of outside hitters but we hope they have what it takes to perform an effective all around game to their fans as well to their opponents. Bakiewicz, Bartman and Kurek lead this new breed of outside hitters & these 3 players have showed great power but lack dependability in crucial situations. Kurek choked big time against Zenit Kazan in the Playoff match of the recently concluded Champions League. Bartman is having a great Polish season and to prove his improvement his team beat Belchatow a few nights ago in a 5 set marathon. As for Bakiewicz, we believe he’s the most underrated hitter on the team but he has a lot to prove. He could be the next Gruzska – not the strongest hitter but very smart – and we hope he can validate our claim. Anastasi really needs to work on the confidence of these 3 talented hitters.

(images: siatkarskieplusy.pl/ sebafoto.com)

Liberos: Krzysztof Ignaczak (Asseco Resovia Rzeszów), Paweł Zatorski (PGE Skra Bełchatów), Damian Wojtaszek (AZS Politechnika Warszawska).

Reliable: We don’t know much about the other 2 liberos, but Ignaczak has been Poland’s most reliable libero for the last couple of years. Coach Anastasi knows how to develop great liberos just like what he did he coached Italy.

We wish Poland the best this season. The roster looks good but we thought having a few more veterans would be more beneficial knowing it’s a very crucial year. If Poland defend its European crown then they represent Europe at the 2011 World Cup which is the first qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics. It won’t be an easy path for Anastasi and his new group of guys but we’re optimistic for them.

Dang! Europe has lots of great teams this year: Russia under the a new coach Alekno, Bulgaria, Italy, Serbia and Germany to name a few.