Why you should watch every team at the 2018 World Cup

Poland

The question facing Poland is not too dissimilar from the one Sweden were asked to answer for years: Can they find success with their star number 9? For Sweden, that star was Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and given their absences at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the answer to that question was no. Poland, the home country of arguably the best striker in the world, Robert Lewandowski, have been unable to do so up to this point.

But they managed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, their first since 2006, and they took Portugal to penalties in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Euros. In 2018 qualification, they won eight of 10 games and took 25 of a possible 30 points, beating Denmark by five for first place. Lewandowski was the catalyst, scoring 16 goals (of Poland’s 28) and scoring more total goals than Romania, Armenia and Kazakhstan did as a team. He tied for the world lead in qualifying goals.

There are some good players on this Poland team. Wojciech Szczesny, fresh off a season backing up Gigi Buffon at Juventus, will start in goal, and Dortmund defender Lukasz Piszcek will anchor the backline alongside Monaco’s Kamil Glik. Jakub Blaszczykowski, a former Borussia Dortmund winger and current starter for Wolfsberg, joins Lewandowski in attack.

Questions revolve around their ability to produce goals from players outside of Lewandowski. They masked those struggles in their cruise through a weak qualifying stage, but when higher quality opponents mark Lewandowski out of the game, it will be up to players like Blaszczykowski and Hull City’s Kamil Grosicki to pick up the load.

In a weak group with Colombia, Japan and Senegal, the path is there for Poland make a run. To take that path, they have to get production around Lewandowski.