  We study the meson contribution to the equation of state of the 2-flavor PNJL
model, including the full momentum dependence of the meson polarization loops.
Within the Beth-Uhlenbeck approach, we demonstrate that the contribution from
the quark-antiquark continuum excitations in the spacelike region $\omega^2 -
q^2 < 0$, i.e. the Landau damping, leads to an increase of the pressure for
temperatures $\gtrsim 0.8\,T_c^\chi$ and a significant meson momentum cut-off
dependence in the mesonic pressure and the QCD trace anomaly. We investigate
the dependence of the results on the choice of the Polyakov-loop potential
parameter $T_0$. From the dependence of the mesonic pressure on the current
quark mass, by means of the Feynman-Hellmann theorem, we evaluate the
contribution of the pion quasiparticle gas and Landau damping to the chiral
condensate.
