Open wide for some soccer!

[Piotrek]

13 hours ago, Homer said:

Dang, everyone talking about the big games and here am I packing my stuff to go watch some amateur Dutch and German football

Well, at least this time you don't have go all the way to a small island close to a Polar circle  

[Raedwald]

On 5/11/2019 at 3:42 PM, Moonman said:

@Wikkit How did Peterborough do this season? Weren’t they in the Championship recently? I’ve been wanting to visit that city for a while because it’s only 70 miles from where I live and I hear it’s really nice there.

 

I hope both Norwich and Sheff Utd stay up, there are sides in the Championship spending considerably more money. Plus I like their manager, he’s worked his way up and it’s nice to have a “grassroots” English manager in the Premier League.

 

 

I hope Norwich stay up but I'm definitely biased as I'm a season ticket holder at Carrow Road. I think this past season has been my favourite season since first going about 20 years ago.

[Piotrek]

@antheap

As for weather, this game on a waterlogged pitch is a part of  football mythology in Poland. Never has Poland come closer to the World Cup final.

Spoiler

Most of the video are interviews with the Polish players (one of them refers to the match as "waterpolo") and, save for one scene, you won't see many blatant examples of water hampering the game, but it's the best I've found after a cursory search.

 

 

As for snow, here's one more recent and closer to home (literally, just 3 tram stops from where I live  ) Europa League, last match day, Lech needed a draw to make it to the next round (the game commentary starts at 0:31)

Spoiler

 

 

As for the goals from the video. To understand the importance of the goal by Citko, you need to know that the ENG-POL drawn game at Wembley in 1973 is, just like the "waterpolo of 1974" a huge part of football history here. This game gave Poland the qualification to the World Cup. (It is also brought up at nauseam whenever Poland is to face England). EDIT: Interestingly, though, Domarski's goal from that match is not the video.

 Perhaps more importantly in this context, it was also the last time Poland scored a goal against England in an away match. You may perhaps remember that in late 80s and early 90s Poland and England were basically welded together in all sorts of qualifications. The usual result was a draw in Poland and a goalless deafeat away. Then that unhappy spell was broken in this 1:2 game, lost as it was. Additionally, late '80s and the whole of '90s were a drab and gloomy period in the Polish football. Hooliganism,  low attendance, accussations of  match-rigging, the 92/93 season ending in a huge match-fixing scandal, that was the general landscape we're talking about. Marek Citko playing for the-then champion, Widzew, was THE league star. The media were abuzz about his goals and where he might possibly be tranferred next. All this made it so that he actually won the prestigious athlete of the year 1996 plebiscite ahead of a two-time Olympic shooting champion! It didn't go well for Citko from then on, though. Before he could show his skills abroad, he suffered a serious injury and never recovered his former form.

 

I don't blame England for not caring about the Olympic football competition. Until '80s it was really an unequal contest in which the Eastern block countries would field first national teams passing the players off as "amateurs" while the rest of theworld would stick to lesser-known players. For the results of this policy, just see the list of medalists  Even so, the 1972 gold from Munich is still remembered in Poland, also because it opened the era of successes under the coach Kazimierz Górski and, later, Antoni Piechniczek. The Olympic rules were changed in late '80s so Poland's silver in Barcelona '92 was actually finally achieved against equals. (I remember watching the final against Spain as a kid. The loss hurt, especially as Poland was leading after the first half).

 

Poland's 21st century apppearances in major tournaments were, with one exception, a string of disappointments, aggravated by the fact that they were preceded by saber-rattling by the media and bluster from the players. This was compounded with the perception of "the Polish group" as being easy and, seemingly everone focusing on who best to avoid in LATER games🙄 This was especially painful to watch in '12 when Poland co-hosted the tournament and it seemed that, in many people's view, they should go far just on this one merit....

Spoiler

 

The one exception was of course the Euro '16, which finally saw serious performance from Poland, with few goals scored, that's true, but with an impenetrable defence. Defensive players such as Pazdan and Glik, were "the talk of the town", while Lewandowski's and Milik's performance was seen as disappointment. Milik's misses, in fact, became something of a meme. People know that he plays great for Napoli, but his performance in the national team is often seen as disappointing.

 

EDIT: If you're also interested in old football, check out the first striker of the video, Ernest Wilimowski. His life shows what happens when you just want to play football in the war times and make a choice that makes you anathema in your native country... 

Other noteworthy goals: 

0:28 and next goal - victory against USSR in WC'58 qualifications is another part of the football mythology here. Poland wasn't a willing member of the Eastern Bloc and ANY victory against Soviets was bound to be more than just sport.

2:02 WC'74 3rd place game - to date, Poland's only victory against Brazil

2:14 WC'78 qualification - goal directly from the corner

6:26 and next goal - to-date Poland's only victory against unified Germany

[antheap]

On 5/25/2019 at 12:28 PM, Piotrek said:

@antheap

As for weather, this game on a waterlogged pitch is a part of  football mythology in Poland. Never has Poland come closer to the World Cup final.

  Reveal hidden contents

Most of the video are interviews with the Polish players (one of them refers to the match as "waterpolo") and, save for one scene, you won't see many blatant examples of water hampering the game, but it's the best I've found after a cursory search.

 

 

As for snow, here's one more recent and closer to home (literally, just 3 tram stops from where I live  ) Europa League, last match day, Lech needed a draw to make it to the next round (the game commentary starts at 0:31)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

As for the goals from the video. To understand the importance of the goal by Citko, you need to know that the ENG-POL drawn game at Wembley in 1973 is, just like the "waterpolo of 1974" a huge part of football history here. This game gave Poland the qualification to the World Cup. (It is also brought up at nauseam whenever Poland is to face England). EDIT: Interestingly, though, Domarski's goal from that match is not the video.

 Perhaps more importantly in this context, it was also the last time Poland scored a goal against England in an away match. You may perhaps remember that in late 80s and early 90s Poland and England were basically welded together in all sorts of qualifications. The usual result was a draw in Poland and a goalless deafeat away. Then that unhappy spell was broken in this 1:2 game, lost as it was. Additionally, late '80s and the whole of '90s were a drab and gloomy period in the Polish football. Hooliganism,  low attendance, accussations of  match-rigging, the 92/93 season ending in a huge match-fixing scandal, that was the general landscape we're talking about. Marek Citko playing for the-then champion, Widzew, was THE league star. The media were abuzz about his goals and where he might possibly be tranferred next. All this made it so that he actually won the prestigious athlete of the year 1996 plebiscite ahead of a two-time Olympic shooting champion! It didn't go well for Citko from then on, though. Before he could show his skills abroad, he suffered a serious injury and never recovered his former form.

 

I don't blame England for not caring about the Olympic football competition. Until '80s it was really an unequal contest in which the Eastern block countries would field first national teams passing the players off as "amateurs" while the rest of theworld would stick to lesser-known players. For the results of this policy, just see the list of medalists  Even so, the 1972 gold from Munich is still remembered in Poland, also because it opened the era of successes under the coach Kazimierz Górski and, later, Antoni Piechniczek. The Olympic rules were changed in late '80s so Poland's silver in Barcelona '92 was actually finally achieved against equals. (I remember watching the final against Spain as a kid. The loss hurt, especially as Poland was leading after the first half).

 

Poland's 21st century apppearances in major tournaments were, with one exception, a string of disappointments, aggravated by the fact that they were preceded by saber-rattling by the media and bluster from the players. This was compounded with the perception of "the Polish group" as being easy and, seemingly everone focusing on who best to avoid in LATER games🙄 This was especially painful to watch in '12 when Poland co-hosted the tournament and it seemed that, in many people's view, they should go far just on this one merit....

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The one exception was of course the Euro '16, which finally saw serious performance from Poland, with few goals scored, that's true, but with an impenetrable defence. Defensive players such as Pazdan and Glik, were "the talk of the town", while Lewandowski's and Milik's performance was seen as disappointment. Milik's misses, in fact, became something of a meme. People know that he plays great for Napoli, but his performance in the national team is often seen as disappointing.

 

EDIT: If you're also interested in old football, check out the first striker of the video, Ernest Wilimowski. His life shows what happens when you just want to play football in the war times and make a choice that makes you anathema in your native country... 

Other noteworthy goals: 

0:28 and next goal - victory against USSR in WC'58 qualifications is another part of the football mythology here. Poland wasn't a willing member of the Eastern Bloc and ANY victory against Soviets was bound to be more than just sport.

2:02 WC'74 3rd place game - to date, Poland's only victory against Brazil

2:14 WC'78 qualification - goal directly from the corner

6:26 and next goal - to-date Poland's only victory against unified Germany

Brilliant knowledge, sir, and that sort of reply is exactly the reason why I started this thread! I really enjoyed that clip of the Lech vs. Juventus match, too. *doffs cap*

 

It was also interesting to spot that Nordic countries generally performed strongly in Olympic Football until the early 1960s!

 

And I never knew that a few Premier League clubs - Blackburn, Liverpool and Sunderland – tried to sign Marek Citko at the beginning of 1997. His valuation of £2.5 million was actually more than some transfer fees for foreign strikers in 1996 and 1997 (£600,000 for Paulo Wanchope, £800,000 for Egil Ostenstad, £1.5 million for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, £2 million for Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, £2.3 million for Steffen Iversen), so he was clearly highly regarded.

 

I have an interest in old football, too, and Willmowski's story is definitely fascinating!

On 5/24/2019 at 8:49 PM, Homer said:

Dang, everyone talking about the big games and here am I packing my stuff to go watch some amateur Dutch and German football

Sounds great - I hope that you had a good time! What matches did you see, out of curiosity?

[Homer]

1 minute ago, antheap said:

Sounds great - I hope that you had a good time! What matches did you see, out of curiosity?

Nothing spectacular. Match #1 was VV Rijssen-Vooruit vs VV Drienerlo. I don't even know what level that was. Went there because they have a wooden stand from the 1920s. The club will merge with some other local team and their ground will be torn down, so it was the last chance to see this beauty. Went there straight after my night shift, so I wasn't really in top shape

 

Sunday was 6th div football in Germany, FC Remscheid vs ASV Süchteln. Remscheid's ground is right up my alley but I heard that they're going to tear that one down as well. Argh. Fun fact - I bumped into an old pal from Homertown I hadn't seen in a while. He moved to Western Germany a few years back and is now assistant coach of the reserves of ASV Süchteln. This planet can be such a small village at times.

[antheap]

5 minutes ago, Homer said:

Nothing spectacular. Match #1 was VV Rijssen-Vooruit vs VV Drienerlo. I don't even know what level that was. Went there because they have a wooden stand from the 1920s. The club will merge with some other local team and their ground will be torn down, so it was the last chance to see this beauty. Went there straight after my night shift, so I wasn't really in top shape

 

Sunday was 6th div football in Germany, FC Remscheid vs ASV Süchteln. Remscheid's ground is right up my alley but I heard that they're going to tear that one down as well. Argh. Fun fact - I bumped into an old pal from Homertown I hadn't seen in a while. He moved to Western Germany a few years back and is now assistant coach of the reserves of ASV Süchteln. This planet can be such a small village at times.

Those are nifty grounds - I particularly like the Röntgen-Stadion! There's a tenth division ground in England that has a supermarket trolley park for a stand, which is, erm, interesting. 

[Homer]

Dang I love this non-league nonsense

[Piotrek]

@antheap

Make sure to watch the whole Lech-Juve video. The snow is getting progressively worse  

 

As for Citko, that's his CL goal against Atletico Madrid (one of only three cases when a Polish club has made to it the CL).

Spoiler

 

Btw., Blackburn was one of Legia's CL group rivals a year earlier (1:0 for Legia and 0:0, Legia made it to the second round, as the only Polish club to date).

 

And here's another long-range goal that can easily go to some compilation. I'm talking about no. 1

Spoiler

 

 

And as for the future of the Polish national team, keep your eyes on Krzysztof Piątek!

Spoiler

 

He finished his first season in Serie A with 22 goals or thereabouts.

[Homer]

I can't deal with successful football. No idea what to make of it. Winning a few games straight is such a weird feeling. How about this instead:

 

When 90 minutes are up and the score is 3-3, but your goalkeeper is Tomislav Piplica.

 

Spoiler

Cottbus ended up losing 3-4 and this is the first thing that pops up when you type "Piplica" into the YT search bar

 

Also, there's legendary footage of Arminia Bielefeld's keeper Goran Curko's last match for the club. Backstory in a spoiler:

Spoiler

Bielefeld's fans are known to be very demanding and particularly hard to entertain. That's partly because they're located in Northrine-Westphalia, where there's a shitload of clubs with great history right around the corner. Their mindset kind of is "There are 20 better clubs just a few miles down the road, but we're still here watching you. We don't have to do this, y'know..."

 

Things weren't going well, so they sacked their manager, which their supporters had been calling for. Goran Curko wasn't happy, as this manager always supported him. Then they had a home game...

 

...and this happened.

[Piotrek]

Here's a selection of awesome goals, including the aforementioned overhead-kick by Ibrahimovic, Roberto Carlos' incredible curl during Tournoi de France, and... Maradon'a "Hand of God".

Spoiler

 

 

And while we mention Maradona's (in)famous handball, Poland has its own too, which may have spared the Polish team from the ignominy of losing a point to San Marino.

Spoiler

 

 

And who could forget this last minute earthquake:

Spoiler

 

 

Seaman was no stranger to letting in long-distance shots, and there's a Polish trace there too, as this UEFA Cup match between Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski and Manchester City shows. (Groclin eliminated MC with 1:1 in London and 0:0 at home).

Spoiler

 

 

A bit of stream of consciousness in this post  

[Piotrek]

In the football news today:

 

U-20 World Championships only have 8 teams left now. (A few weeks ago I visited Gdynia, one of the host cities, and saw the posters advertising the tournament).

 

Women's World Cup begins in France today with the host facing S Korea. 

 

The next matchday of the EURO 2020 qualification campaign is on. I'm not too fond of the new rules of qualification involving the League of Nations. I think it's too convoluted and demotivating to some (Poland as the LofN Pool A participant would have to try really hard not to qualify as per the new rules).

[Homer]

With the Euro blown up like that, we can just have one play-off round and be done with the qualification... keeping my fingers crossed for Iceland though

 

In other news, my new season ticket arrived today. Here's to 19 more instances of facepalms and disappointments.

In even otherer news, this is my plan for the weekend:

 

Sat June 8, 13.00 Esbjerg fB U17s v FC Nordsjælland U17s (Denmark U17 level 1)

Sun June 9, 14.00 SV BW Zorbau v VfL Halle (Germany level 5)

Mon June 10, 14.00 B93 København v Aarhus Fremad (Denmark level 3)

Mon June 10, 19.00 FC Rosengård v FK Prespa Birlik (Sweden level 4)

[Piotrek]

@Homer

That is some serious schedule O.o

 

Also, how much research about the teams do you tend to do before going to matches like these? Is it more like "Oh, these guys look like fun so I may just as well go and see them" or are you following their play in general?

[Homer]

I'm slightly grumpy though because I had to pick between tomorrow's U17 and two matches in Sweden, but there was no decent match for Sunday nearby, so. Grml. The most serious part will be the 5km walk from the station to the ground (and back) on Sunday.

[Piotrek]

@Homer

You replied while I was editing my post so you probably didn't see the question I added. I'd be interested to know the answer.

[Homer]

I'll just go for places I haven't been to yet. Mostly it's picking one or two matches I want to see and then fill the gaps around that, depending on travel options, accomodation and the like. I also have to factor in that I'm not 20 anymore, so some sleep comes in handy every now and then  

 

No real research on the teams except when I expect difficulties regarding ticket availability. Then again, it's really rare that there's no way into the ground at all

[Piotrek]

.@Homer

So how was it?

[Homer]

35 minutes ago, Piotrek said:

.@Homer

So how was it?

I'll write something tomorrow. Still on mobile and I don't want to spend the next 6hrs typing

[Piotrek]

@antheap

Re: our earlier conversation about Polish football I've just found a montage of all the goals in Poland's games during WC'74.

Spoiler

 

It is important to point out that under the-then rules, Polish players were not allowed to play in foreign clubs! The first Polish player to get a permission was Gadocha in 1975. The rules of transfer eligibility were originally very restrictive, a player had to be over 32 years of age and a transfer fee needed to be substantial. These restrictions were then gradually loosened and, at some point in late '80s, disappeared altogether. 

On the one hand this hampered the players' careers; after all the medalists from '74 were an object of interest of such clubs as AC Milan, Inter Milan, Real or Bayern. On the other hand the Polish clubs hugely benefitted from this policy as they were (at least in early 70s) able to compete with the best in Europe. Suffice it to say that the season 69/70 Eurpean Cups saw two Polish clubs in semifinals (Górnik against AS Roma and Legia against Feyenoord Rotterdam) and then the only appearance of a Polish club in a final (Górnik against ManCity). There's no use trying to imagine something like that now!

[Piotrek]

@Homer

Hello?

 

Also, how often do you guys watch clubs from Andorra, Gibraltar and such?  Here are goals from 2 match Europa League Preliminary Round matches.

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Skycaptain]

@Piotrek, next summer the Greenland football championships 

[Piotrek]

EURO 2020 groups were drawn yesterday, so it may be a good idea to resurrect this thread

 

In case you've missed it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020#Group_stage

 

Your thoughts?

Poland ended up in a difficult group, but I like the upside of it, namely nobody (at least nobody sane) is going to consider their further promotion to be a sure thing. The way it would go in the earlier 21st century tournaments was that after the drawing euphoria would set in and people would start debating who best to avoid in the next round  🙄

[Homer]

This Euro Cup qualifying mode is a disgrace. The tournament setup is a disgrace. Everything about this is a disgrace. Fuck everyone who had a say in this.

[Luciad63]

On 4/21/2019 at 8:42 PM, JamieF1 said:

My beloved Crystal Palace somehow won at the Emirates today and we're safe for another year [url=http://www.comparateur-mutuelle-assurance-sante.com/mutuelle-travailleur-independant]mutuelles profession liberale[/url], still can't quite believe it's all going quite this well! Now if we can hold onto Zaha and Wan-Bissaka and next season might be even better 😄🔴🔵🦅

What luck ! If everyone could win or get that kind of privilege, the world would be a lot better.
 

[Homer]

The city of Madrid has a flat earth football team

[Piotrek]

🤦‍♀️

 

I still struggle to believe that some people actually believe Earth is flat. I always think they must be pulling a prank...

 

Also, what do you all think about the idea of the Conference League, i.e. the third-tier competition focused on low-ranked federations? It's supposed to run starting from the 21-22 season. I'm glad because Polish clubs will finally get a chance to get farther than the 3rd qualifying round (though one should never underestimate their potential for screw-ups  ). Wthat concerns me is that federations ranked 1-6 in the UEFA rank will still get one berth, and the 3rd-ranked teams from the Europa League group stage will make their appearance at a later stage, which may easily end up in those teams monopolising the competition the way the teams relegated from the Champions League tend to win the Europa League...

[Homer]

Just stumbled upon Scott Sterling 

[Homer]

Holy shit, Tranmere Rovers was an amazing experience yesterday. I missed every train or coach that could have gotten me back to my bed 100 miles away, but eff it. Why can't British football always be like this. (Answer - because the cheapest tickets I found for West Ham v Liverpool were 67 quid). But holy cow Tranmere. I might have to buy a shirt now.

 

TEQUILA!

[Homer]

Okay now I'm royally miffed.

 

Went to see West Ham against Liverpool. Obtaining a ticket wasn't a problem, except that it was ridiculously expensive, but. I had to collect my ticket from a booth at the ground, which is something I had done numerous times before without any issues at all whatsoever. However the lady behind the counter felt the need to make sure that everyone collevcting a ticket was a die-hard United supporter. If you weren't able to provide "proof" that you're a Hammers fan, she flat out refused to give you your ticket. That you've paid for. That you had the booking confirmation for. She asked crap like whether one could name a player or the current manager or if you had any pictures of yourself in United gear on your phone to prove that you're a West Ham fan.

 

Not only did this take ridiculously long, but (a) if we're having a quiz, I'd like to have known about this beforehand, (b) I can barely do that for Homertown FC until well into the season and (c) you can just go eff yourself. It's a different thing if I came to the counter wearing a Liverpool jersey or some such, but one should be expected to support the team they're getting tickets for until proven otherwise. Never had anythig like that happen in 20 years and I've been to games where I officially wasn't allowed to be.

 

I used to really like West Ham, but this evening ruined it for me. Atmosphere would have been non-existent anyway if it hadn't been for the away support. I can only imagine how hard it must be for a true Hammers fan - having your ground taken away from you, moving into a posh "arena" away from your quarter and having to trade a kidney just to watch your team play in an atmosphere that makes every library seem like a vibrant place of excitement.

 

I don't expect anything atmosphere-wise when it comes to the Premier League, the fun days are long gone and it's just a league for tourists these days.You see more Asians jumping around there than English folks. But this was a new low. At West Ham, of all clubs.

[Piotrek]

On 1/24/2020 at 2:24 PM, Homer said:

(Answer - because the cheapest tickets I found for West Ham v Liverpool were 67 quid)

I know it's useless to just convert foreign prices into one's own currency and realities, but 67 pounds for a single-game ticket does sound much. How much did the ticket for Tranmere cost, for comparison? 

 

Also, I'm assuming you passed the "ticket-worthiness test"? Or did you just straight up tell her "gimme my my ticket, b****. I f*****ing paid for it"? 

 

Also also,

Quote

I've been to games where I officially wasn't allowed to be

that sounds intriguing