The Polish Inspection - Part 1

In less than 24 hours, the draw for the EURO 2012 will take place. There will be 4 groups and it has already been decided that Poland and Ukraine are the top seeds in Group A and D. Spain and Holland are the other top seeds. Whoever gets the top seed in Group B will play all their first round games in Gdansk. The other will play in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

I am sure that fans from Spain and Holland are praying for their team to get in Group B. Gdansk is a very attractive city on the Baltic Sea.

I went to Gdansk last weekend to inspect the new stadium. When I arrived at the little airport on Friday, I was impressed to see people working to build a new terminal - it was after midnight.

under construction

The next day, I walked around this charming town - lovely architecture. One of my favorite buildings was this one:

the oldest KFC in the world?

But I had to look hard for any sign that the EURO is coming. It was almost like Gdansk wanted to keep this a secret.

old town in Gdansk

The stadium in Gdansk was brand new. It was in a run-down industrial area and I took a tram to get there. Along the way, I saw people working on laying down new tracks for more tram lines. It was Saturday!

This stadium reminded me of Soccer City in Joburg. The orange-yellow color represented amber for which Gdansk is famous.

Lechia Gdansk had a home match last weekend but the Polish League decided (only a few weeks before) to play this game on Monday night. My return flight was in the afternoon.

So I checked the schedule and saw that there was a match in Poznan on late Sunday afternoon. Poznan is another Polish host city for the EURO and it is about 300 km south of Gdansk. According to UEFA guide to the EURO, a train between these 2 cities would take 4 hours.

When I got to the Gdansk train station, I found out that the fastest Polish train would take 6.5 hours. I bought a first class ticket to go on Sunday morning. It was cheap and the train was old. But first class was not crowded and there was also a dining cart.

Much to my delight, the train arrived in Poznan 6 minutes ahead of schedule. Poznan has a nice big square in the old town. I went there for a nice lunch before the match.

pierogi lunch

I found out that Aida was being performed that night and as my return train was at 2.30 AM, I decided to go both to the soccer match and to the opera.

After lunch, I walked around the city a bit more and like Gdansk, I saw no signs about the EURO.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the opera house to buy a ticket. From there, I took a bus to the stadium and arrived 30 minutes before kick-off.

There was a long line of people at the ticket window (Kasa) but after several minutes, I noticed that it was moving very slowly. Then I saw another window with less people but the word above it was 'Karta Kibica.' I wondered if this meant credit card?

I asked a friendly polish fan in line 'what is karta kibica?'

He pulled what looked like a credit card out of his jacket and said to me 'it is a fan card. you need one to buy a ticket. do you have one?'

I told him I came from Vietnam to see this game so he took pity and he went to ask an official what I could do. When he came back, he told me I had to go first to the 'karta kibica' window to apply a fan card and I would get a temporary card and with that, I could go back to the 'kasa' window and buy a match ticket.

At that moment, I could hear the stadium announcement of the players. It was 5 minutes to kick-off and I estimated that I would not get in until half time. There were still so many fans waiting to buy tickets.

 pilka nozna (polish for soccer)

I decided to skip the game and went back to town to relax and enjoy Aida.

Aida 1 Pilka Nozna 0.

The opera was fantastic. The game, I read later, was not so good.

At 2.30 AM, I boarded the train to get back to Gdansk for my 1 PM flight. I managed to sleep and when I woke up at 7AM, the train was not moving. After some time, it moved at the speed of a slow bicyclist. Then it speeded up and then it stopped again.

And I had no idea where in Poland I was. The train was scheduled to arrive at 9 AM. When I found a conductor and asked him for news, he said to me 'we will be about 3 hours late'

300 km in almost 10 hours. should I have walked?

There will be a lot of fans traveling between Gdansk and Poznan as all the group B matches will be played in these 2 cities. I hope there will be faster trains next summer.

I arrived in Gdansk and went to the airport but missed my flight by about 20 minutes. I got another ticket to travel with LOT. First I had to fly from Gdansk to Warsaw and when I saw the old airplane, I wondered if it would be faster to take the slow train.

Luckily, I got to Warsaw on time and there, I really enjoyed waiting at the modern airport terminal. and unlike Gdansk and Poznan, Warsaw had a few EURO signs.

I have a feeling Spain will get Group B and Spanish fans will be happy in Gdansk. Send the Dutch to Kharkiv.

Let the draw begins!

Meeting a Swiss Star in Amsterdam



The Swiss did not qualify for EURO 2012 for 3 reasons:

1) in matches in Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Wales, they scored zero goal

2) the coach did not rebuild the team right after the World Cup and

3) for a long time, the captain of the team created tension and division within the team

so for the next 10 months, the Swiss have only friendly games to look forward to. First friendly game was against Holland, the number 2 team in the world.



I went to Amsterdam last Friday to see this match. I bought the most expensive seat possible from the Swiss Federation and before the game, the camera woman put me on the big screen several times.



The Swiss played well and held Holland to a 0-0 draw. They already beat the number 1 team in the world, Spain, in last year's World Cup and they played England at Wembley to a 2-2 draw early this year.

From my seat, I was very close to the players. But I wanted to get closer. I could not find where the Swiss team was sleeping in Amsterdam but I did find out where they were going to train the next morning.

So on Saturday, I went there early to wait for the Swiss players. It was a big park and there was supposed to be a sportsground. I found the park but I could not find the sportsground.

I spent more than one hour walking around the whole park. I was so disappointed. I gave up and went to the stamps market to look for some dutch soccer stamps. At least here, I was successful. I found stamps of van der Vaart and Kuyt as well as a stamp of that famous wizard.

  

The next day, I left Amsterdam. The Swiss team was also leaving Amsterdam but their flight was around noon (to Luxembourg for the next friendly game) and mine was before 10 AM (back to Zurich.) So no chance of meeting the team at the airport.

As I walked toward my gate, somehow my soccer radar told me to turn around. I did and I saw the Swiss Star Innocent Emeghara. He was walking very slowly. I stopped and chatted with him.



We spoke about his injury (inflammation of the left foot) and about his learning french. I said to him 'Innocent, we miss you at Grasshoppers!' and his facial expression and his reply (Grasshoppers, uh?) left me in no doubt that Innocent does not miss Grasshoppers.

We also spoke about the game against Holland. He agreed with my view that the Swiss plays well against the top teams but it is against the smaller countries that they have troubles with motivation.

for the WC 2014 in Brasil, the Swiss is in the same group with Norway, Slovenia, Cyprus, Albania, and Iceland. They will need to change their mindset if they want to go to Brasil.

Next week, the Swiss will face Luxembourg and early next year, Argentina comes to Bern. Let's see which game the players will be motivated for. I hope the answer is Luxembourg. 

Meetting Snow White in Yangju

Once upon a time, there was a championship soccer game in South Korea. It took place in Yangju, a small town north of the capital. The game was the first of two to decide the champions of the Daum Challengers League 2011.

Daum is the name of a popular Korean internet search engine (sort of like Google). The word Daum means 'next' in Korean and the Daum Challengers League is the third division of South Korean soccer.

The match was between Yangju Citizen and Gyeongju Citizen and when I saw the logo of the home team, I had to go to Yangju to see the onion-look-a-like and the blonde korean fans. 



So last Saturday, I took the metro from the capital and the trip took almost 90 minutes to get to Yangju. During the trip, I was amazed to see almost everyone, even the senior citizens, had an iphone. They could talk, send and receive text messages, watch TV, or play games even when the train was underground. South Korea is an amazing high tech country.

When I got to the stadium, I found out the tickets were free and the organizers were also giving away free pens, free cakes and free drinks. One of the organizers said someting to me when she gave me the free stuffs. I shook my head to indicate that I did not understand. She then pointed out a number (6002) printed on my ticket. I guessed there will be more free stuffs I can win with this number.

Next to the ticket table, I saw a woman dressed as Snow White. She was busy blowing up a lot of balloons. I wondered if the ballons were free.

Then I saw 4 young cheerleaders. And none of them was blonde. They were with a guy. And he did not look like an onion. He was carrying some drums and noisemakers.

When the home team came out to warm up, this man took the cheerleaders over to introduce to the players. Now I had no idea what the players said but the girls all screamed and ran back to the tent where Snow White was still busy filling up the ballons.

By now a lot of school kids and families had arrived so I entered the stadium to get a seat near the main stand.



Shortly before kick-off, Snow White and the cheerleading boss came in and gave all of us (yes, including me) free ballons.

then some local politicians arrived and the teams came out and they all posed for a group photo. The politicians sat in the VIP stand and in front of it, I could see the items that looked like prizes to be given away. More free stuffs!!!

The game started and the visiting team dominated and scored in the 12th minute. The politicians look amazed. For me, the amazing part was the score board in the stadium. It was the only score board.

South Korea is a very high tech country.

Half time. Yangju Citizen 0 Gyeongju Citizen 1. Despite the domination, the visitors could manage only 1 goal.

Many fans left the stadium to go buy snacks and I was trying to decide if I should do the same when the stadium announcer spoke. I did not understand everything but I could tell that the raffle was about to start.

One by one, the politicians were invited to pick a number out of a box and the number was read aloud. Now I have learned to say the numbers in Korean but at that moment, I was too excited to remember how to say '6002' in Korean.


Luckily there was a boy standing next to me and so I showed him my ticket every time a number is read, and he would look at me and shake his head every time.

Actually we were the only two people standing in front of the VIP stand (the rest was in their seats). We stood there because we both wanted to win a prize.

I saw some autographed soccer balls that I would love to have one.
I could tell that the boy wanted to win one of the bicycles.
and I could tell that neither of us wanted to bring home that big bag of rice.

but the strange thing was that no one came up to claim the prize. After reading about 5 or 6 numbers, the raffle was stopped. May be the people with the winning tickets have left to go buy foods.

The second half started and the home team improved. The cheerleaders tried to get the crowd excited but I noticed that some of the kids were busy playing video games and some of the adults were busy chatting. I was watching the game but it was more fun to watch the people.

With about 15 minutes left, Yangju got a free kick and they scored. Big celebrations. All the balloons were released. Well almost. Some kids wanted to keep the ballons to bring home despite being yelled at by the director of cheerleading.

As I released my 3 balloons, I remembered Snow White and thought it was strange that she had disappeared. So I decided to go look for her.

Now this was the Championship game of the Daum Challengers League 2011 so there were a few policemen around. But they were busy protecting the politicians. There was nobody to stop anybody from wandering anywhere, except you could not go into the VIP stand.

I could not find Snow White anywhere. Where did she go?

Back in the game, Yangju pressed for the winner in the last 15 minutes but the visitors held on for a 1-1 draw. The return game will be in Gyeongju this weekend.

I will not be able to be there. But I hope Snow White will. And if she meets the mascot of Gyeongju Citizen FC, they will live happily ever after...





Emirates Cup 2011 - The Break-Up

I think sometimes one has to move on. In any relationship, if the other person does not want to be with you anymore, you have to let go and move on. It is not easy but...

well at Arsenal football club, there is not one but two players who want to break up with their 'beloved' team. And the club is trying to hang on to them but knows realistically that the best they can do now is to get a good transfer price.

One of those players is Samir Nasri, a French player who came to Arsenal in 2008. The other is Francesc Fabregas i Soler, the captain, a player who played for Arsenal since he was 16 years old.

Why do they want to leave such a great club? Money, probably not. Weather, may be. Trophies, YES.

They both feel Arsenal will not win any trophy under the current trainer Arsene Wenger and Arsene is not going anywhere.

Arsene has been at Arsenal for about 15 years and have won many many trophies. But none since 2005.

Every season, new players come and the hope is in the air that Arsneal will win another trophy under Arsene. His style of attacking football is lovely to watch but his defense has been very hard to watch. Still fans of attacking football root for Arsenal.

So this past weekend, I came to London for the 2011 Emirates Cup. I came to see if the 2011-2012 edition of Arsenal is the same as the last few years or if there is hope for the romantic fans.

When I got to the Arsenal tube station, I saw that the captain Fabregas was not featured on the promotional team poster. I guess the break-up has started.

For the first game of the 2011 Emirates Cup, I sat in the upper North Stand and saw the Red Bull New York beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0. PSG was still in pre-season form and it looked that way.

For the second game, I moved down. Arsenal vs Boca Juniors. England vs. Argentina.

Fabregas was declared 'unfit' to play. Nasri did play but looked like a ghost on the pitch. Arsenal was in command and soon after half-time, they were 2-0 up.

Then they got cute and looked for the ultimate fantasy goal instead of going for the third goal to put the game away.

Minute 68: Squillaci of Arsenal lost the ball near the their own goal and Riquelme passed to Viatri and he made it 2-1.

If I could have put in a bet on a second goal for Boca, I would do it with no hesitation.

This for me was the downfall of Arsenal and the reasons Fabregas and Nasri wanted to leave: the lack of belief in themselves when their opponents start a comeback.

3 minutes later - more errors from Arsenal defense and Boca Juniors tied the game 2-2.

Boca could have won but that would have been too cruel.

I wondered what Nasri thought after the game. In the second half, he was the team captain.

If I was Fabregas or Nasri, I would stay. Winning trophy is not everything. Playing the right way is everything.

from the Emirates Stadium, Sebastian

PS: before the game, I hang out at the VIP entrance to wait for Leonardo, the Sporting Director of PSG. But no luck. But I did meet a popular celebrity who gave me a BIG hug.

How it all started - World Cup 2006 Germany

On July 1974, West Germany beat Holland 2-1 in Munich
to win the World Cup. In Saigon, Vietnam, a 10 year
old boy was curious why his father spent a lot of time
watching on TV a group of men in shorts running and
kicking a round thing. He asked his father to explain
the game and soon fell in love with football.

That WC made a lasting impression on the boy and he
became a fan of the West German team. He did not do
well in foreign language in school (English) but he
could memorize the long strange names of the 11 German
players in the Final: Maier, Beckenbauer, Vogts,
Schwarzenbeck, Breitner, Bonhof, Grabowski,
Holzenbein, Overath, Hoeness, and Mueller.

Throughout the fall of 1974, the boy would buy all the
football magazines he could and spent a lot of time
dreaming about being a football player. One day in
early 1975, his father came home with a film reel. The
West Germany Embassy in Saigon had loaned the South
Vietnamese Army a film of the highlights of WC 74. As
an officer and a physician in the SV Army, the father
could use his influence to borrow the film for a few
days to bring home to show his friends and families.

With evryone gathering in a large dining room, the
highlights of WC 74 was shown. The boy was in
paradise.

A few months later, the Vietnam War came to an abrupt
end. The SV Army lost and the father was taken away to
a reeducation camp. With no future, the mother took
the boy and his sisters and they escaped Vietnam on a
boat. The boy never saw his father again.

32 years later, the World Cup is back in Germany. And
the Vietnamese boy will be there in person. And his
father will be there with him in spirit.

Copa America Day 16 - Where are the children?

I read in the match program that in the last 20 years, Argentina has met Uruguay 13 times. Argentina won 7, tied 5 and lost only ONCE.

Officially, last night's match in Santa Fe was a tie. But with the penalty shoot-out, Argentina is OUT of Copa America 2011.

I had a ticket in the main tribune so I could hang around the press area and met the Argentine Federation President Julio Grondona and former Boca Juniors and WC 1986 winner Carlos Daniel Tapia and many other celebrities.

My seat was in the front row behind a corner flag and this was my view.

the Higuain goal that was called back for offside

Argentina has not won the World Cup since 1986. They have not won the Copa America since 1993. With so much talent, how could this be?

How could a country that was so rich not so long ago became what it is today?

When I was here 10 years ago, when I came back 5 years ago, and now, everytime I was here, I saw signs of an once great country and the word that kept coming to my mind was DECAY.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of this trip for me took place on my second day in Argentina. It really illustrated that Argentina was like an illusion.

On a sunny Saturday I visited a place called República de los Niños, near La Plata. It was a themed park for children, built by Eva Peron and opened in 1951.

The official brochure said that Walt Disney visited this park and got the idea for Disneyland (opened in 1955).

well I got there early in time for the opening of the park and I was the only customer.

I stayed for about one hour. But during that one hour, no one else came. And this was a sunny Saturday.

Most of the stores were closed. the two that were opened were more like kiosks that sold snacks and drinks.

Later I read more about this park and Disneyland and read that there was no record of Walt Disney ever visiting Argentina.

may be one day, Argentina will be rich again and the national football team will win the World Cup or the Copa America again and the children will go to República de los Niños again.

I really enjoy this trip. Today is my last day in Argentina. Like Ross and Thomas said, the football quality of Copa America 2011 left a lot to be desired but the romantic and adventurous essence of the tournament, that was what we came for.

from el Cementerio de los Elefantes in Santa Fe, buonas noche.



Copa America Day 15 - El Cementerio de Los Elefantes

6 hours to kick-off for Argentina vs Uruguay.

I took the bus from Rosario to Santa Fe (150 km or 2.5 hours), slept great in the bus, and arrived around 10.30 AM. Took city bus number 16 to the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (UTN) where the ticket collection office was located.

again this was nowhere near the stadium and a bit far from the city center to walk. The Copa America organizing committee really wanted the fans to experience different parts of the city.

well at least there was NO line.

I got my ticket in no time. I will be in row 1 at the Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López. This stadium has a nickanme I really like, El Cementerio de Los Elefantes (the graveyard of the elephants). This came about because the local team Club Atlético Colón beat many big clubs here.

When I got back to the city center, everywhere I could see Argentine flags, street vendors, and people wearing Argentine football shirts.

even one fountain had blue water.

on the major pedestrian street San Martin, many people were out walking and shopping and many political parties had their booths with the local election a few weeks away. Some politician gave out Copa America schedule with his picture on it. Other hired these girls to give out free face paintings of Argentine flag.

I got one on my left cheek and as I walked further down San Martin, I came across these friendly Uruguay fans. They were tickled at my request for foto. Then one girl pulled out her yellow paint jar and converted my Argentina flag to one of Uruguay.

One of the boys said that I looked like Alvaro Recoba (a former Uruguay player of Inter Milan) whose nickname is el Chino because he has an Asian face. Then the all danced and sang around me '´Celeste Celeste´and ´Recoba Recoba´. I like Uruguay.

I think the Argentine defense (Zanetti, Burdisso and Milito) is too slow for Forlan and Suarez. The Argentine coach Batista had replaced the whole defense that Maradona used last year in South Africa but they still looked vulnerable. And their only victory so far in the tournament was against the Under-23 Costa Rica team.

I wonder if the President Cristina Kirchner will be in the stadium tonight. She is up for reelection in the Fall and politicians like to associate themselves with sports teams.

Bu if Argentine loses tonight, may be the politicians will distant themselves from football.

will Messi and companies be the elephants tonight?

off to El Cementerio de Los Elefantes







Copa America Day 14b - Waiting in line

one of the things I see all the time in Argentina is a long line of people waiting at banks to pay bills.
I read that this is a way of life in Argentina.

well the organizing committee of Copa America made sure that the foreigners who came for the tounament to not miss out on this Argentine way of life.

for foreigners, we could buy the tickets on the internet and paid with a credit card and got charged just a small fee (30 pesos, about 7 USD) for each ticket.

we were then offered two choices of how to pick up the tickets in Argentina:
1) to pick up all the tickets in Buenos Aires or
2) to pick up the tickets at each host city.

option 1 was not so good as only one match, the Final, is played in BA. Most of the foreign fans flew into BA international airport and went straight to one of the other 6 host cities.

option 2 - wel if you have 5 matches in 5 cities, you have to pick up your tickets in 5 different locations. if you choose this option, every host city has your ticket for that city already printed out, waiting for you in a nice Mastercard envelop.

I chose option 2.

I got to La Plata in the afternoon of the first match and got an email telling me the ticket location had changed. no problem. I got to this dilapitaded stadium (on the opposite side of the city from where the match was payed) and only had to wait 90 minutes in the cold.

next was San Juan. There were a lot of Chilenos and we had to wait 2 hours but I was with Juan and Ross so we talked futbol and I could go get snacks whie they kept my place in line.

in San Juan, there was only one ticket window with 2 or 3 people working behind it.

Salta was much better. almost. Here the ticket office was inside a big hall. When I got there, there were 2 lines, one long and one short. I asked and found out the long one was for picking up tickets and the short one was for buying them.

with the cheapest ticket costed only 40 pesos (10 USD). I thought about just buying one ticket to avoid the long line. then I found out the short line was to buy a voucher and one still had to join the long line to exchange the voucher for a ticket. I like Argentina.



so I rejoined the long line and luckily, I had a book with me (Borges). but the line was moving quite fast. it seemed that if you had a voucher, it took 5 seconds once you got to the window (and there was only one window)

I waited for about 20 minutes before getting to the window. but since I bought my ticket on the internet with a credit card, they had to look something up on their computer and the connection was slow.

so all the people behind me with vouchers got their tickets and I waited for another 15 minutes with the other foreigners. finally I pleaded with them 'look, my ticket is in one of those envelopes behind you. please give it to me. I am hungry. I want to go to dinner (at 5pm)'

they took pity on a hungry foreigner and gave me the envelop.

next was Mendoza. It was Chile vs Peru and I was hoping the Chilenos had all picked up their tickets as this was the second of 2 games Chile played in Mendoza. I was right. on the day of the match, I went to the suburb of Godoy Cruz and there was no line.

and I got to see another stadium

my luck continued in Cordoba. again here I had to go to a suburb (far from the center and no where near the stadium of the game) and again there was no line. and again I visited another stadium.

tomorrow Argentina vs Uruguay in Santa Fe. Sold out. I still have to go to the University of Santa Fe to pick up my ticket.

I hope my luck continues. but if there is a line, I am ready. I am bringing with me these books.

I got these books free at all the matches. They are literature books about football from writers of different Copa America countries. 

only in Argentina one gets free literature book at a football match. amazing.