Paweł Janas is a football manager and former footballer of Polish nationality.
From 1976 to 1984, he won 53 international caps for Poland. Janas played at centre-back in all seven of Poland's games at the 1982 World Cup in Spain where the team achieved an unexpected third place.
On 20 December 2002, he officially took charge of the Polish national team. He was heavily criticized in the beginning of his national team spell, despite achieving good results. Nonetheless, under Janas the Poland team qualified for the 2006 World Cup, finishing second in a qualifying group behind England. They qualified as the best second placed team, scoring 27 goals in the qualifiers, 10 more than the group leaders England.
In the final tournament, Poland were drawn with Ecuador, hosts Germany and Costa Rica. Their first game, against Ecuador in Gelsenkirchen, ended in a disappointing 2–0 defeat, and Janas received criticism from the Polish press for his team selection and tactics, which involved leaving striker Maciej Zurawski alone and unsupported up front. He played a 4–5–1 formation, which he said "safety first". Poland played well with 4–4–2 in the qualifiers, which resulted in flowing football.
Poland played much better in their second game, against the Germans in Dortmund, but again lost, this time 1–0 to a late goal by Oliver Neuville, despite a magnificent performance by their goalkeeper Artur Boruc. This meant that the third match, against Costa Rica in Hamburg, was meaningless; Poland won 2–1 with two goals by defender Bartosz Bosacki. Janas was sacked from his post by the Polish FA after the tournament.
