: WORLD CUP HISTORY

All things considered, Poland has enjoyed a fairly storied history in its previous six appearances. In 1938, their first Cup appearance, the Poles were knocked out in the opening round, losing to Brazil 6-5 in one of the more intriguing encounters in Cup history as both teams boasted players who scored four goals apiece. Ernst Willimowski scored his quartet for Poland, Leonidas da Silva countered for Brazil. It was 36 years before Poland's next World Cup appearance, but it was worth the wait. During a ten-year span in which the country captured silver and gold medals at the Summer Olympics and reached the World Cup semifinals, the Poles finished third in 1974 and again in 1978 behind the likes of Grzegorz Lato, Kaz Deyna and Zbigniew Boniek.