Football in Wonderland. Sport Blog by Przemek Pozowski

No good news from the last two games of Śląsk Wrocław… Our local team only managed a draw with Arka in Gdynia and lost 1:0 to Cracovia. Two big opponents of Śląsk stayed unbeaten and Śląsk lost their chance to jump into the desirable sixth position in the League…

Saturday, though, sees the last game for Śląsk in front of the home crowd. One highlight of the event will be the visit of the former Barcelona captain, Jose Mari Bakero, to the stadium. Of course, he will not be wearing his Blaugrana jersey this time, as he is now the coach of the away team, Polonia Warszawa (known as Groclin to some of their fans). Before we go further, though, let’s take a look at a couple of Bakero’s greatest moments on this video clip:

So now that I’ve got you interested, how did it happen that this famous player or even, one might say, legend from one of the best European clubs ended up in the Polish Ekstraklasa? The answer is simple…Just like that Polish National Team hero from the 80’s, Zbigniew Boniek, Bakero was a great football player, but hasn’t yet achieved much as a coach. And that’s actually what makes him different from the Pole. Bakero has started well with Polonia and perhaps this might be a good launchpad for him to get a job in better clubs… Perhaps!

Another thing is that his boss, Polonia (Groclin) owner Józef Wojciechowski, is a very inpatient man. As well as having a swimming pool in his house, this businessman, who made his fortune in the building industry, likes to keep his influence over his employees, including telling coaches which players should play in the game. Add to that, Bakero is the sixth coach of Polonia in this year alone! Wojciechowski waved goodbye to all the others after just a few bad games in a row, or even after one tie, as happened with Bogusław Kaczmarek this spring…

However, this is Bakero and Polonia’s problem… Śląsk’s problem is, as usual, scoring goals, which seems to be quite difficult for the team this season, especially when striker Vuk Sotirovic is out. And yes, you guessed it, regular readers of “Football in Wonderland”… the Serbian is injured again and won’t be ready to play again until next spring. Perhaps, Amir Spahic can help them to beat Polonia somehow… But, if you are interested in getting some opinions about Wrocław, football and Poland from the Swedish goalkeeper, Ivo Vazgec, you should listen to Friday’s Arwin Rahi “God A Feelin’” show on www.radiowroclove.com, where Śląsk football player will be a guest.

PS. This is not Bakero’s first visit in Wrocław. In 1987, he played against Śląsk in the Cup’s Winners Cup at the Olimpijski Stadium in front of 40 thousands of spectators. One of the big guns of the Wrocław team at that time was Ryszard Tarasiewicz, the Śląsk coach for Saturday’s game. Bakero’s Real Sociedad San Sebastian went through to the next round…

Football in Wonderland. Sport Blog by Przemek Pozowski

Śląsk – 4, Odra – 0. Those are the games that the home crowd like the best… and, after more than a year, it finally happened again. The Lower Silesian team beat the Silesian one the same way Mike Tyson used to beat his opponents in boxing. All four goals were scored in the first half of the game, two of them came from the Śląsk midfielder, Sebastian Mila, whose daughter was born just 48 hours before the game started, who said, “I haven’t been eating much and I was so tired that I fell asleep with an un-opened bottle of beer on my bedside table that day, but when the game came, it gave me extra energy”. This energy was good, since Sebastian not only scored two goals, but also got two assists. “I dedicate those goals to my daughter, Michalina, and my fiancée, Ula”, said Mila to the journalists and promised he will play the video of this game to Michalina, when she’s older.

Here is the video showing highlights of another Śląsk Wrocław game from 2007, when they trashed Motor Lublin in Division 1 leading to a 10 – 1 score. This was the biggest Śląsk win I have ever seen…

So what’s going to happen now? …Another big game for the club! On Sunday in Gdynia, Śląsk plays against their biggest rivals – Arka. There are a lot of stories behind this and most of them pretty sad. First of all, because the hard core fans of both teams hate each other, there was a street fight in Wrocław in 2003, in which one of the Arka supporters was killed. The second connection with the Śląsk – Arka games is to do with the ongoing corruption scandal in Polish Football. It was Arka who paid the biggest bribe in the history of the Polish League to the referee to win the game. In fact they won 2-1 and kept their place in Division One. The amount of money that the referee took was over PLN400,000 (€100,000) and this all happened in the infamous 2003/2004 Season. A few years later both the club members and the referee were sentenced at Wrocław’s court.

But this was history and Sunday is another game… There are still some players in Śląsk team that remember the scandalous game from 2004, in which two of the Wrocław players were sent off, but an obvious penalty was not given to our team. Now, they just need to play the best they can… and hopefully win!

Football In Wonderland. Sport Blog by Przemek Pozowski

Yes, it finally happened! The Polish National Football Team scored a goal! It took time though…400 minutes to be precise! Those were crucial minutes for our football though. Dutch-born Polish National Coach, Leo Beenhakeer, finished his era with a humiliating loss  against Slovenia. Then “Doctor” Stefan Majewski arrived with his laptop, but failed to find the way to a Czech or Slovakian goal. November 14^th saw the debut of Franciszek “Franz” Smuda as coach and he is going to be in charge of the National Team right up to Euro 2012, which Poland and indeed Wrocław are hosting. However, Smuda, known for the offensive style of his former teams, also failed to score a goal in his first game against Romania. He needed a weak team such as Canada for his break-through. Poland won 1:0, but let’s face it – for Canadians, there is only one sport that is important and apparently, it is hockey not football!

And what about Honduras? What about Algeria, New Zealand or North Korea? Have you ever heard of their football teams? Probably not, woud I be right? However, in the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 those teams will be playing, but Poland – unfortunately not. The same is true of the Republic of Ireland, who lost their chance thanks to a terrible mistake by the referee, who didn’t notice the handball from Thierry Henry, which helped France to score in the overtime (watch below). Henry sees no problem, but the Irish Ministry of Justice is officially protesting.

And what about our Ekstraklasa? Śląsk Wrocław is doing better. Our boys won against the local opponent – Zagłębie Lubin and  then – Piast Gliwice. But most important of all – they started scoring goals! Or rather, our Serbian striker, Vuk Sotirovic, came back after his injury and scored 3 of them. Is Serbia going to play in the next World Cup? It will…but most probably without Mr. Vuk…

Football in Wonderland. Sport Blog by Przemek Pozowski

Another month of the football year is behind us. From the perspective of Polish football, it was a crucial month. However, let’s start with what’s been happening to the Śląsk Wrocław team. There has been no win since my last blog was published in September, but our football players established a new precedent – they got a red card in almost every game! The one to initiate this series of events was defender, Piotr Celeban, who got a red card during the game with Korona Kielce, missed another game, and came back with another red card in the game against Polish Champions, Wisla Cracow, as early as in the 24^th minute of the game. Celeban wasn’t the only guilty man though – Śląsk lost this home game 1:3, and it could have been even worse for them. Then there was a two week break for the National Team, where defender Mariusz Pawelec was among the players called up to play in theses games, and another loss in Bełchatów (0:2). This time, Śląsk finished without its captain, Krzysztof Ulatowski, after twice attacking his opponents a bit too harshly. To add to those two losses, there was also a 0:0 tie with an unexpectedly strong Ruch Chorzów, but this game also showed that the offensive potential of the Wrocław team is not high this season. Anticipating the derby game against the local Zagłębie Lubin, the fans are still unsure whether the team will be able to score at least once…

Anyway, the most interesting event in Polish football during the last month was the chaos that built up around the National Team. First of all, the new coach was chosen, but only in time for the last two games of the World Cup Qualifiers. The coach, Stefan Majewki, the former National Team defender and the pupil of all the tough heads in the Polish Football Federation never gained the acceptance of either the fans or the players. No surprise then, that he lost against Czech Republic 0:2, and against Slovakia 0:1, which simply means that the next important game Poland will play will be as the hosts of Euro 2012. But what was interesting was what happened on the internet and at the stadium in Chorzów during the last game against Slovakia. There were almost no people watching the game from the giant 50-thousands-seater stadium. This was all because of the fans’ protest against the PZPN (The Polish Football Association) and its selection of the coach. The protest spread across the net, endorsed by a huge amount of the people fed up with the humiliating standards by which Polish Football is represented…

Indeed, I made my own protest… Instead of watching the full game against Slovakia, I watched a 5^th Division game between Orzeł Lubawka and Olimpia Kowary. The level of the game was pretty amateur, but the crowd were treated to 6 goals (the final score being 3:3), the ball hitting the post twice, the ball hitting the bar and three penalties – all in just one game. Also, it was interesting watching a game played in a small stadium built by the Germans before World War II, which had been used as a camping site by the best Polish teams in the 60’s. Now it’s a virtually forgotten place, since not much has changed there in all those years, but at least with a local crowd of 10 thousand-people, Lubawka had its weekend attraction, watching the game with bottles of beer in their hands and screaming so loudly that the referee can easily hear what they think about him when he gives a penalty to the opponents’ team. Too bad Orzeł Lubawka have only won once this season with 10 games already behind them…

Football in wonderland. Sport blog by Przemek Pozowski

It’s been a long time, I know, but so many things have happened. First of all, the humiliating loss for the national team in Slovenia, what means the end of the era for “the man from the bright side of the moon”, or the man that never lived in a wooden house, the Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker. It also means there is no chance for a serious game for the fans to enjoy in three years time, as we didn’t qualify for the South Africa World Cup in 2010 and, as a host team, we will not play in the qualification round for EURO 2012.

Then EuroBasket 2009 started in Poland and Wrocław, so I transfered my attention from football to basketball with a chance to report from the European Championships for the first time. I was as happy as a child about it. Then, along with all these EuroBasket games, there was another Śląsk Wrocław home game. Our team played against the most famous polish club – Legia Warszawa, The result was 0:0, but the interesting thing to know, especially if you are from abroad, is that Legia is one of these teams you don’t really like. Simply because, all through the communism era they were taking the best Polish players from the other clubs for themseleves, pushing them into playing for Legia, just because they were the so-called Central Military Sports Club (CWKS). However, let’s not exaggerate with this hatred and let’s not behave like the brainless Polish fans in the 1970’s during the National Team game against Portugal. During this match, they were whistling for Legia’s player Kazimierz Deyna (then tragically deceased Polish football legend), even when the guy scored an incredible goal directly from the corner kick…

As you can see now, this part of “Football in Wonderland” will be pretty much chaotic, with no clear angle or direct questions asked in a journalistic manner. This piece won’t mention about our radiowroclove.com colleague, Englishman Philip Fairweather’s story, who experienced a thrilling train journey with Górnik Zabrze fans travelling for their away game. – “Can you, please, get out of your sitting place” – they were “kindly” asking those who were in the train for reasons other then the trip to the Flota Świnoujście – Górnik Zabrze game. This time I will let you know about the other situation that might probably happen only in the Polish football league. Recently on www.sport.pl, I read the headline: “He knocked down his teammate”. A good one, isn’t it, but what happened? During the second division game ŁKS Łódź – Flota, the Nigerian player knocked down his teammate with two fast hooks. After receiving the red card, he openly said: “I did so, because he (his partner from the attack line) screamed to me offendedly: “pass me the ball, you fuckin’ nigga”. The player who screamed didn’t want to comment on the case. Poland is a country of tollerance and some of our footballers are its ambassadors. Cross: true or false and get a million. Bye!

PS. Saturday, September 19^th, Korona Kielce – Śląsk Wrocław 1:1

Football in wonderland. Sport blog by Przemek Pozowski

Football is sometimes about imagination. It’s not just about a refeere’s vivid imagination, when he sees a penalty, when there is obviously no penalty or about the crowd’s imagination when it screams no offside, when their striker is at least two steps behind the offside line, but about a very personal sort of imagination.

That was my experience during the last Śląsk Wrocław away match. As it was in Białystok, which is far away from Wrocław, I could tell my girlfriend we could go away for the weekend and spend it at her parents house in beautiful Lubawka in the mountains on the Polish-Czech border. The only thing I wanted to guarantee during those days was to see the game against Jagiellonia on Saturday evening. Unfortunately, I could’t find anybody in the town, who had the the pay TV – Canal + Sport – on which the game was to be broadcast. I wasn’t unhappy though, because in the 21st century that’s no big deal – there are various websites that give you possibility to watch the game with only a couple of seconds of delay. Not this time, though! Out of 19 proposed streams, none was valid. Either they were busy or inactive. The closest I got to watching Jagiellonia –Śląsk game was when I saw a green pitch for couple of seconds, but I quickly concluded that it was the Lechia Gdańsk game wrongly broadcasting on this channel.

The only thing to do, then, was to follow the text transmission… and that’s why this game was a serious test for my imagination. Sitting behind the desk at the reception of “The Magrani Roadhouse” I had to not only imagine the actions being described in a short sentence once or twice in a 3 minute time period, but also answer other guest’s questions about free rooms and prices as well (luckily my answer was simple here – “I am just trying to WATCH the game” – I stated every now and then). But when the game was over, I came to an unexpected conclusion. I am a lucky guy, because usually I can watch the game without any problems. I thought about handicaped people, or to be more precise, blind people. Today, they were not able to go to the stadium and cheer their team, while understanding what’s happening at the field at the same time. And another thought came – this would be possible on Wrocław’s new Maślice Stadium, where the blind will have a good seats and a professional radio commentary on their headphones…

But what about the Jagiellonia – Śląsk game? This time Białystok team won 2 – 0, even though the two stars of the team, Frankowski and Grosicki, finished without a goal. They were replaced though by two foreigners with an interesting background. The scorer of the first goal was a Brazilian, Bruno, a player that started his career in Gremio Porto Alegre along with Anderson, who is playing for Manchester United this season. Coming back to Bruno, though, when he has arrived in Poland for the first time… he escaped back to Brazil right away. This was just because he was disappointed with the football and organization level of the Polish league. However, when pushed by the club, he came back and started to play according to his true talent…

The second goal for Jagiellonia was from Marcelo Reich, who has had spell in the German National Team and used to play for Werder Bremen. The guy have the air of a brilliant but lazy player. “He will sniff your league if he feels like” – sports daily “Przegląd Sportowy” quoted a German journalist as saying of him. Unfortunatelly for Wrocław fans, in the game against Śląsk, he felt like doing something. The next chance for league points Śląsk will have on Saturday in Gdańsk against an unexpected 2nd place Lechia, but hopefully, I will be able to see this game on TV with some friends, instead of following text transmissions?

Football in Wonderland. Sport blog by Przemek Pozowski

If there is only one league in the world, where the most interesting things happen before or after the games, then it is the Polish Ekstraklasa. Not that I am trying to say that the recent Śląsk Wrocław game was not interesting – of course it was – but what media was most excited about was a little criminal incident that happened just after the players left the pitch. Let me start with a little introduction though.

Since this is my first piece on “Football in Wonderland” I should let you know a couple of important things. I am a big Śląsk Wrocław fan, so you can read a lot about Wrocław’s club games here. However, It will never be only just about scores, goals and lousy referees. It will give you an insight into why you haven’t heard about Polish clubs invading the Champions League in more than a decade, even if you’ve heard about the upcoming Euro 2012 that Poland is going to host.

So now I return to the events following the second home game of Śląsk Wrocław. After our team won 2-1, the players were leaving the pitch and stopping in the Mixed Zone for a couple of interviews, before heading towards the locker rooms. There was one player, though, that never reached the locker room… and he was obliged to answer different kinds of questions.
- Are you Mr. Mushroom? (to use his nickname, because I’m not allowed to publish his full name) – this was the question from two officers from the CBA

The CBA – you should know – has nothing to do with the CIA, nor with the NBA; to fully clarify – this is the governmental institution founded to deal with different kinds of corruption. Coming back to Mr. Mushroom though – the present captain of the Polonia Bytom team – having agreed that the two mysterious men had stated his name correctly, he left the stadium with them, wearing handcuffs. Then he was accused of selling the game from spring 2005, when he was an unknown 22 year-old player from a small club in the eastern division of the third Polish league.

Now it is time to raise the question: is this the end of this young, talented midfielder’s career, a polytechnic graduate, whose skills so impressed the Polish National Team coach, Leo Beenhakker? Perhaps not, but it clearly shows why the polish football league is ranked so low. For years, even before prosecutors started a huge investigation into corruption in the league, each season was full of surprises. In other words, if you wanted to make your mark on the map of Polish football, you were obliged to buy the games from the opponent players or coaches, pay the referees for penalties and red cards to help you win, etc. The whole corruption system was like a huge factory with highly specialized employees: players, coaches, referees and club principals. There were people – probably quite a lot of them who, deep down inside, never accepted these rules, but their opinion was less important. The bosses were having fun. The crowd was cheering. Today, after three years of investigation and the first sentences, over 250 people of football have been accused of selling or buying games. Some of the others, guilty of developing this system are still playing, but can never be sure who is going to interview them after a game – no matter how old are they and where they played before, as we can see from Mr. Mushroom’s arrest.

At the start I promised to write about Śląsk Wrocław, and so I will. The next game Śląsk will play is in Białystok against Jagiellonia, a club that started the season with minus ten points – a penalty for buying games in the past. Hopefuly, this time we will be excited only by great action and great goals. Fast Grosicki with the experienced and technically magnificent Frankowski on the Białystok side guarantees a good match. Likewise the Śląsk coach – Ryszard Tarasiewicz and his players characters. But this is the Polish Ekstraklasa, so you never know whether the show will start after the game or not.