The Polish Inspection Part 3

I had a last minute business trip to Warsaw yesterday so I stopped by to visit the new National Stadium, where in less than 2 weeks, the opening match of EURO 2012 will be played.

The stadium is situated on the right bank of the Vistula river. Most of the tourist attractions, including the Old Town, are on the other side and are at a higher elevation. So there are many spots on the left bank where one has a spectacular view of the stadium.

After concluding my business, I went to the Warsaw Chopin Airport to fly back to Zurich. In the duty free shop at the airport, I saw this block of chocolate. Poland is ready for the EURO!

 

During the flight, I read that the European Union Court of Justice had just ruled against the Swiss chocolate company Lindt. For 60 years, Lindt has produced chocolate in the shape of a rabbit, wrapped in gold paper and a red ribbon. An Austrian chocolate company tried to make the same chocolate rabbit and Lindt sued and lost.

60 years is a long time. 56 years is also a long time.

The day before my trip to Warsaw, I was with friends in Basel to see the friendly match between Suisse and Germany. Suisse had not beaten their neighbor in 56 years. It was in 1956 when Suisse last won a match against Germany.

Germany is ranked second in the world and is a favorite to win the EURO 2012. Suisse is a decent team, ranked 18th in the world but did not qualify for this EURO. Most people gave the Swiss no chance.

well it was an amazing game. The scoring went like this: Suisse 1 Germany 0, 2-0, 2-1, half time, 3-1, 3-2, 4-2, 4-3, and the final score was 5-3. The stars for the Suisse were two players who played on the same team in the German League, Derdiyok the scorer of 3 goals and Barnetta who provided all 3 assists to Derdiyok.

They both played for Bayer Leverkusen and amazingly, both players were let go at the end of this season. May be they were very motivated on Saturday.

After the match, the German trainer of the Swiss team was diplomatic. He said, may be this is a good omen for Germany because in the last World Cup, Suisse beat Spain and Spain went on to win.

But another omen is bad. The last time Germany gave up 5 goals was in April 2004. It was a friendly against Romania and in Bucharest, the Germans were embarrassed 5-1 (quiz: who scored the only goal for Germany that day?). Germany then went to the EURO 2004 in Portugal and was eliminated in the first round.

Which German team will show up next month at EURO 2012?

Perhaps, a Swiss rabbit will tell us. Remember Paul the octopus from WC 2010? well now the Swiss figure skating champion Sarah Meier has a rabbit that will predict the winner of each EURO match.

At the moment, there is a contest to name this rabbit. Rabinho is popular. So is Saradona.

 http://www.blick.ch/sport/fussball/euro2012/hase/geben-sie-dem-hasen-von-sarah-meier-einen-namen-id1894809.html

Suisse may not qualify for the EURO but we have the rabbit that will decide who wins the tournament. And Austria better not copies our rabbit.

next week: my exclusive preview of the EURO 2012.

Answer to quiz: in that game in 2004, Romania scored the first 5 goals and in the 88th minute, a young 21 year old defender scored in his only third game for Germany. His name is Philip Lahm. 

Soccer Made in Romania

and so when I got home from Bucharest this afternoon, UPS came to my house and delivered these.

Operation Vukraine part 1

more about this operation in future blog.

I want to share with you a few thoughts about the Europa League Final last night.

at Bucharest Airport



When I arrived in Bucharest on Tuesday night, I turned on the TV and the Romanian sports channel was discussing not the biggest soccer match played in Romania on the next day, the Europa League Final. Instead they were talking about a derby match in Cluj that night.

There was a fight among the players during the game and the referee had to call it off.

Not a nice way to introduce Romanian soccer to the +30,000 foreign fans in town for the big Final.

But next day, my impression got more positive. Both fan zones were well organized. There were free buses to bring the fans from the fan zones to the new stadium. The security control was efficient. And the new stadium has plenty of spaces around for fans to hang out.

Before going to the match, I hired a driver to bring me around to visit the grounds of the 3 big clubs in Bucharest: Steaua, Dinamo, and Rapid.

Rapid stadium

Steaua stadium

Dinamo stadium



As I saw these old but famous grounds, I thought to myself  'would it not be nice to meet some of the famous former Romanian players?'. But I had the cheapest ticket (35 USD) for the match so I did not think my chance is very good.

When I got to the stadium, I discovered that not only my cheap seat is in a section next to the main tribune, but  to get to my section, I had to go through a check point that separated the poor from the rich. and so I was on the other side of the fence.

look who is at the VIP entrance?

so for the next 2 hours, I met Pierluigi Collina, Vicente del Bosque, Geoff Thompson, Michel Platini, Enrique Cerezo, Patrick Müller, the Prime Minister of Romania, the Princess of Romania, etc and I took photos of them.

but they were not the people I was excited to see. These were the people I was thrilled to meet.



Ioan Lupescu of Dinamo and Bayer Leverkusen



Dorinel Munteanu of Steaua and Cologne

Gica Craioveanu of Uni Craiova and Getafe and the one and only Hagi



and the best moment was when Mr. Emerich Jenei arrived. He was the trainer of the Steaua side that defeated Barcelona to win the European Cup Final in 1986.



I did not hang around to say hello to the Prince of Spain. I went to my seat with 30 minutes to spare and watched the opening ceremony.



the stadium was almost full, much to my surprises. both Spanish clubs brought many supporters and the local fans turned out in full. This was not the case in my last 2 Europa League Final (Istanbul and Dublin). In both cases, once the local team was eliminated, the local fans stayed away.

Bravo Romania.

The match was full of action. The fans behaved. 3 great goals.

To make sure the game is on prime time TV in western Europe (i.e. 20.45), the local kick-off time was 15 minutes before 10 PM. so the game ended just before midnight.

the  Metro had stopped running and the free buses were only carrying the fans back to airport. for those fans who paid for a hotel room to sleep, we were left with the entertaining task of negotiating the price of a taxi ride. after midnight in Bucharest, the advantages go to the taxi drivers.

well soon, I will be off to Ukraine for the EURO. more matches late at night. the adventure continues...

Soccer Made in Australia

I am Zurich airport right now, waiting for my flight to Paris and from there to Bucharest for the Europa League Final. 24 hours to the match. I hope to meet Mr Platini tomorrow because I have an idea on how to make soccer more entertaining.

I got the idea while on holidays last month in Australia.

I attended a playoff match of the A-League in Perth. It was Perth Glory vs Wellington Phoenix of New Zealand.

I liked the stadium, the small but noisy crowd (less than 14,000 fans), and the end to end action. Perth won the game 3-2 in extra time. So I saw 5 goals and there were also fireworks.

But I felt something was missing. Something to make soccer more entertaining.

If you think about a soccer game, the referee and the assistants are most of the time very boring to watch. Should they be allowed to do a few things different to spice up the sports?

Well it is not an original idea. Before that A-League game in Perth, I was on the other side of Australia. In Brisbane, I went to see a game of Australian rules football. This sports is a mix of rugby, basketball and soccer.

I enjoyed the match of the Brisbane Lions but the best part for me was the team of referees. After a team scores, one of the referees would perform a motion that reminds me of a cowboy pulling out his revolver and shooting. Then he would go get a flag and wave.

And when the ball goes out of bound, it is the referee who puts it back in play. And how he does it is really cool. check out the video below.

I think the soccer referees should copy some of the moves of the referees from Australian rules football.

I wonder if Mr Platini would be open to my idea?