Most of us thought Russia or USA or Brazil or France would win the recently concluded World Championship. Poland was on our list but not really a favorite to medal mainly because the Poles have NOT been successful in recent years.
The last major title they won was 4 years ago when they became World Champions led by Polish volleyball legends Mariusz Wlazly, Pawel Zagumny and Michal Winiarski. Between 2015 and prior to the 2018 World Championship, Poland NEVER won any international medal. The rest of the volleyball world somehow forgot about them with the rise of Serbia, France and Russia.
The results below would validate our claim that Poland lost its dominance in men’s volleyball after the 2014 World Championship.
2015 FIVB World League 4TH
2015 European Championship 5TH
2016 FIVB World League 5TH
2016 Olympics 5TH
2017 FIVB World League 8TH
2017 European Championship 10TH
2018 Volleyball Nations League 5TH
What we didn’t know was that Poland was working hard in silence when Vital Heynen was hired as their new coach in February 2018. The Belgian was very open with his choices on who would represent Poland under him. He did not want to invite 2014 World Championship MVP Mariusz Wlazly (37 in 2020) and Lukasz Zygadlo (41 in 2020) because he believed that they’d be too old to play in the 2020 Olympics. Coach Heynen included young players and new faces instead on his preliminary roster. The list included the now World Champions Aleksander Śliwka & Damian Schulz.
He took a lot of risk but also did not make promises to the Polish Federation and to Polish volleyball fans on his first year as the new head coach. He and his team with veterans Michal Kubiak, Bartosz Kurek & Fabian Drzyzga worked hard in silence so their success in Turin made the noise. A lot of noise.
With Poland’s second consecutive World Championship title, we’ve listed the REASONS on how Poland did it in no particular order.
Reason #1: Invited New Faces & Young Players
Coach Heynen stayed true to his word on inviting young players to the national team. Poland’s World Championship roster included Artur Szalpuk (23 yo), Aleksander Śliwka (23 yo), Jakub Kochanowski (21 yo), Bartosz Kwolek (21 yo) and Mateusz Bieniek (24 yo). He had so much faith on these players and guided them to well to play against the world’s best players. Szalpuk and Kochanowski were regular starters throughout the World Championship.
Reason #2: The Kurek Effect
When Kurek played well, it made it so much easier for the rest of his team to play their game. Kurek’s performance during The Final 6 and in the Semifinal Round was just phenomenal. Who would’ve thought that the most criticized Polish player would unleash the beast in him and become a World Champion plus an MVP? Not a lot of people did. Not a lot of fans believed in him since he got cut from the 2014 World Championship roster or missed that backrow attack at the 2013 European Championship that got Poland eliminated from the continental tourney.
After all these years, Kurek was never a mentally strong athlete and he was never reliable. He was forgotten until he started to show what he’s become of since the World Championship began.
In his most recent IG post, we can already tell we’re going to see a much STRONGER and a much BRAVER Kurek from hereon now.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Reason #3: Captain Kubiak
His attitude towards his opponents may not be very likeable but team captain Michal Kubiak was a true leader on the court for his teammates. He was the team’s emotional spark plug throughout the tournament. The louder he roars after every spike or after a block, the more confident the rest of his teammates become.
It was fun to watch Kubiak encouraging the young ones on the team and to also pump up the veterans in every match.
Reason #4: Work Hard In Silence
While the rest of the world was busy praising Russia’s performance at the VNL, the volleyball tricks of Earvin Ngapeth, how Zaytsev & Italy would perform at home and the doubts on how Brazil would perform without Lucarelli and Mauricio Borges, Poland was busy working hard in silence.
Winning the 2018 Hubert Wagner was A SIGN that Poland could win the World Championship but we believe it was disregard since Poland has not had any success in recent years.
At the press conference after the World Champs gold medal match, Coach Vital Heynen, known for tough training sessions behind closed doors, shared a few words that describe his team:
“Other coaches have great players, I have a great team, able to play the very best match of the tournament in the Final.”
We’d also like to add that Poland never really felt any pressure since they were not the top favorites to win. Poland handled their destiny in every match very well compare to the disappointing performance of Maxim Mikhaylov and Russia.
Reason #5: The More You Push Them…
The stronger they become.
In their Final 6 match against Serbia, there were some questionable calls made by the referee towards Poles. In that match, the players were not happy with the calls and Kubiak even got a red card for his reaction. As Poland started to see that it was not a fair match to them, they started to play better and learned to ignore the referee.
The more they knew what they were up against, the more focused they became until the very end.
Inside Pala Altipour during the Final Round matches, Poland was not a crowd favorite until some Polish fans finally showed up in the gold medal match to cheer and witness their team win the CROWN.
Reason #6: Destiny To Become World Champions – AGAIN.
With all they’ve gone through, it was their destiny to become the Volleyball Kings Of The World for another 4 years. The next time they compete, watch out for LEON standing side by side with these world champions.