AS Trencin v Legia Warsaw, Wednesday 27th July 2016

AS Trencin v Legia Warsaw

Welcome to ....

To err once…who sang ‘It’s all just a little bit of history repeating’? Shirley Bassey with the Propellerheads? Either way, what I do know is that for a 2nd day in a row, I’m in the wrong town for the match. Today, I possibly have time to right several wrongs, but my day has been thus:

Arrive in Trencin (on a Bratislava to Zilina train, the importance of which will become clear) at about 8am. No, there’s nowhere to store luggage. I decide to go to Zilina, where my (much) later train is leaving from anyway. There’s a left luggage room, which (she says) will be closed from 11pm-1am tonite. That’s fine, I’ll be due back from Trencin c.2am. I put my stuff in left luggage despite concerns there WON’T be anyone on at 2am. Half a minute later I spy proper lockers. I decide to trust her.

Next train back to Trencin was an hour and a half later, so I mooch around, reading. I’m getting the express back, one hour, as opposed to one and a half.

The view from the railway tracks.

Trencin’s stadium is close by the railway station – you can’t miss it, courtesy of the oversized floodlights. I walk anti-clockwise around and it becomes obvious the stadium only has one side. The rest is a building site, though the movement of heavy lorries seems more concerned with additional road and rail building than any stadium development.

Police in Trencin station...a surefire sign of a game on!?

Even though some players were kicking ball around and there were 3 or 4 people hanging around the main entrance, something wasn’t right. So I asked if there was a game on here tonite: no, the team were playing in Zilina. WTF? I’ve got off a train to Zilina to wait an hour and a half for another train to Zilina, drop my bags off there, wait another hour and a half for a train back to Trencin…and the game is back in Zilina? Nightmare. So it’s 4:45pm, I’m on the train back to Zilina…surely I’ll still be in Zilina in time for this game?

Players practising.

Well, indeed I was, back in time for kick-off. And yes, the stadium was easy to find (again, virtually next to the train station) and no, I can’t come in. Turns out there were no tickets on sale on the day, so, despite an internet secondary sales site describing the match as ‘sold out’, it wasn’t. Presumably the local police were so paranoid about playing Legia (there were ‘robocop-style’ police everywhere) that they forbid on-day sales?

What's left of the old terrace.

Anyway, I ended up watching the game in a deserted bar and you’d be lucky if there were 4,000 in the ground, inc. about 500 from Warsaw. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! I am not best pleased, not best pleased at all.

 ***Later internet research shows the Trencin stadium as having had a low terrace around three sides, with oval ends, and plans to replace the 3 sides with a new, all-seater stands. The 4th side (the main stand) is all that is left.

The Tunes:

Blue Bell Knoll (Cocteau Twins)
Music In Exile (Songhoy Blues)
Portishead (Portishead)
Mixmag Dec ’15  (One Hour With Damian Lazarus)
Spirit of Eden (Talk Talk)

They're so huge they're not even in the stadium.

A floodlight towers over the Main Stand.

Stand? check.  Floodlight? check.  Castle? check.

Behind the main stand.

The Main Stand.

Main Stand (and remnants of terrace, far end).

Mestsky panorama

One old entrance.

Now I'm confused...

A nice souvenir for somebody...

Behind the goal.

The stand from behind the goal.

The old stadium plan.

Communist era concrete heaven.

OUtisde of Zilina's stadium.

The Main Stand.

'Hard cheddar if you want a ticket.'

Back of the Main Stand.

I spy...a team bus!

Haven't I seen this once today?

A bridge into the stadium.

Legia Warsaw 0-0 Slask Wroclaw, Saturday 23rd July 2016

Legia Warsaw 0-0 Slask Wroclaw, Ekstraklasa (att. 12,173)

Welcome to...the park.

How I managed this I still don’t know. From being in the park, walking adjacent to a motorway below, all I had to do was follow the line of the road and it would lead directly to the stadium. So I cut into the park (to do without the cars and noise)…followed roughly the same direction…and got completely lost. This park is HUGE (‘Lazienki Krolewskie’?) and used to be the king’s hunting grounds, doncha know? (I can’t remember how I found that out.)

Always a good sign when looking for a football ground.

The aforementioned fact doesn’t help as I show my inability to read a map properly by mistaking one palace for another (not a problem I’m used to dealing with) and heading in the complete oppositely direction to where I needed. Despite giving myself two and a half hours from closing time at the Warsaw Uprising Museum (FYI, the lady was right, you need two hours in there, not one) I arrived with about half an hour to go. I was mightily relieved, actually. I’d imagined myself getting there at half time, so to have a chance of seeing kick off was a bonus.

Interesting roof design.

There was now the queue to negotiate. Four perfect lines. It even seemed to be going quicker than I’ve experienced at other Polish grounds; maybe Legia’s earlier Champions League home game meant most fans had already got their membership cards/match tickets. Either way, I still managed to be outmanoeuvred / pushed in front of by 5 or 6 Poles. Still, I made KO by 10 mins.

Legia 'Fanstore'.

I’d chosen an upper tier ticket at the opposite end to the ultras. After Arka Gdynia, my feet needed a rest (the ultras will always haul you up to join in). Good call – lots of space, with only a few hundred for company. Great view and nothing beyond an excitable kid (who’d dragged his mum along) to obstruct me. He finally stopped when he realised most of this end WOULDN’T be standing up when the ultras demanded. I could also hear a German family in there too; perhaps all of us foreigners sought ‘softer’ climes?

The ultra hordes enter

The match was dire. You know that warm up exercise every team does these days, where players knock it about in a circle, using one or two touches, till the player(s) in the middle win it back, only to repeat the exercise ad infinitum? Well, I’ve seen an entire match of that, plus a couple of punts (were they bored? ‘Ave it!!!) Neither side had an inkling of how to make a chance, let alone score. So it came as some surprise to see a shot hit the bar. Whose bar? Slask’s, I think. Yeah, yeah, I should know. Header off a cross, from memory.

Looking towards the ultras.

Otherwise, I had the ultras to amuse me / keep me awake. As ever, the cheerleader ordered, the drum banged and the throngs behind the goal joined in. There were quite a few ‘calls and responses’ which the rest of the stadium joined in (though not the VIP side; one must have SOME decorum).  I think the Slask fans knew exactly the fayre to be offered. That, or an 8:30pm KO on a Saturday was not conducive to their appearance. I had a trot to the lower tier at HT and sat near them – all 20. WTF? Maybe there’s ore to this than meets the eye? Are they boycotting their team?

There are Slask fans in there...somewhere.

I contemplated going back upstairs. Better view. So I stayed where I was – there was nothing happening on the pitch and what was the point of a better view of NOTHING? For a second time in 3 days the ref’s full-time whistle was met by a chorus of home boos. The soundtrack to my holiday life? As for the stadium itself, a very smart two-tiered affair – like every other 30,000 new build.

The Damage: 
PLZ 45 ent
PLZ 18 sausage and Pepsi
= PLZ 63 (£12)

The Tunes: 
Two Suns (Bat For Lashes)
Mixmag Apr 09 (Aeroplane) 
Mixmag Sept 15 (Hannah Wants)

Sektor Rodzinny

Inside the stadium

A lone supporter shows his support.

Plenty of space at this end...

Match 'action'.

Advertising a future game.

Polish Army Stadium / Pepsi Arena panorama

Police?  Exec boxes?

Spotless.  Doors through to the seats.

The stairs; a nice touch.

The stadium lit up (apologies; camera lens was broken)