AS Trencin v Legia Warsaw, Wednesday 27th July 2016

AS Trencin v Legia Warsaw

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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.

Gornik Leczna v Lechia Gdansk, Monday 25th July 2016

Gornik Leczna v Lechia Gdansk

Welcome to....Leczna!

I am aware time is beginning to be against me. Although it’s 3 hours to kick off, I’m in Lublin – a city about 15 miles from Leczna. Luckily, there’s a direct bus (no railway station in Leczna, a town of 20,000) at 16:55. The KO is 6pm and I’ve done my research, Stadion Leczna will be one of the first buildings I see in town. I can’t miss it.

Small but perfectly formed.

Nor could I miss the bus, as it happens. Cos it didn’t arrive – least not at the place advised me by tourist info. I gave it 5 or so minutes then went for my back up plan, a taxi from the rank around the corner. Now, I’ll admit it, I’m not used to riding in cabs, or negotiating. My tip? Have an idea of what you’re prepared to offer and stick to it. As long as it’s reasonable, one taxi driver will take the bait.

I asked how much (bear in mind his English was on a standing with my Polish) and he said 70. I offered 50. Did he mean 70? I offered 50 again. ‘Ok’.

The ticket office...awash with customers.  Or not.

So he drove me to Leczna. I’m pleased I didn’t carry out my other option, cycling there. The route out of Lublin was somewhat convoluted, while the road verged on motorway in parts, possibly even was. Certainly, I’d have dreaded the lack of space between me and any passing traffic. I don’t want to die in Poland, or anywhere else for that matter.

Top of the terrace.

Still, the journey took longer than expected, due to being stuck behind a tractor. I felt guilt and gave him 70 anyway (actually, 74 – I think he knew what he was doing, claiming to have no more change). He was also probably a little confused: why would some foreigner want to be driven 15 miles to an empty football stadium?

Yes, there was no-one about. Not a single person. Absolutely nothing to suggest there might be a match on, or that there had been one on. Being a Monday night, I considered the KO might be 20:30, but, even so, you’d expect to see movement at the stadium. I walked on – was it being played elsewhere in Leczna?

The view from the bus (back).

No. It wasn’t being played elsewhere in Leczna. Within 400m I’d seen everything Leczna had. In no particular order, a cemetery, a tidy, modern football stadium, a bus station and a Lidl. I bought 2 bottles of Perlenbacher, a baguette and some smoked salmon and sat down for an evening meal I could have had in Peckham (cos we have a Lidl there, too). Then I caught a bus back – for 3 zloty (60 pence).

Reminds me, I never did have a walk around it.

Later internet research showed the match HAD been switched – to LUBLIN, where I’d set out from. Godammit. (Tho’ Soccerway still showed the game as having been played at Stadion Leczna, so what more could I have done?) Courtesy of a Leczna message board and google translate, the jist seems to be that Leczna can’t afford to keep doing what they’re doing in the Ekstraklasa (surviving on crowds of 4-5000 in their 7,500 stadium) and thus they’re attempting to expand by taking their wares down the road to the big city, in the hope of bigger crowds (despite the fact Lublin already has its own team, currently in the second tier). Comparisons with Wimbledon/MK Dons can’t be far away as some loyal supporters would rather stay in Leczna than see a probable merger with Motor Lublin, even if it meant 3rd tier football.

The entrance to Majdanek concentration camp.

Oh, and as for ‘Arena Lublin’ where the game was held; it’s a 10 minute walk from the train station. And was the game a success for Leczna? Well, they lost 1-2 in front of 3,500, but I’m sure their owners would say it’s early days…

ps, the trip wasn’t an entire waste. Lublin is a glorious city, replete with castle, old town and Majdanek concentration camp, where I spent 5 hours today. There is such a thing as perspective.

Lublin Castle

Polonia Warsaw 1-1 ??? Sunday 24th July 2016

 Polonia Warsaw 1-1 (?) v ?? (att. c.130)

Welcome to ...

I let my feet decide my fate today and they said no – I wouldn’t be travelling to the other end of the country to see Piast Gliwice, despite me checking train times, etc. My heavily blistered feet needed rest and I was quite happy to have a day off, until a little internet research brought into possibility seeing Polonia play in a friendly. My mind was made up.

A local sculpture

I took an M1 subway to Dworzec Gdanski and walked from there. Only I initially went the wrong way, adding about 45 minutes to my walk. Those blisters ain’t getting any better. Still, I made it to the stadium 40 minutes early. Time to do a circumference of the stadium, take a few pics, that sort of thing. That was despite seeing one guy just wander straight into the main stand. There was even a police van on this side of the stadium (and the other, as it turned out), a sure-fire sign there was a game on.

Ticket office (closed).

The stadium has parkland on 2 sides and through a gap in the fence I could see the players. Warming up, I presumed, and carried on. Perhaps if I’d took my earphones out I’d have realised the match had already STARTED. I was 20 mins late, not 40 mins early. By the time I reached the main stand again, people were leaving. Luckily, it was half, not full time and a chance for some to have a fag break. I joined as the half time whistle went. A few fans nipped under the stand for refreshment, though all I could see was coke and ice cream. A beer would have gone down nice.

Behind the goal.

But what a beautiful stadium / stand. The Main Stand façade is bedecked in pillars, with an unobtrusive ‘Polonia’ in modern lettering above. The stand dwarfed the rest (a la Dukla Prague) while both ends were grassy terraces. The opposite stand has the team’s initials written into the seats, but such us the deterioration of colour that it was difficult to make them out.

KSP match action.

The match was played like a…friendly. Lots of tidy little touches, along with an avoidance of running, especially in relation to joining in attack. Well, it was hot. It was a wonder I saw any goals, given the inaction of both keepers. Both were penalties. The away side had a player tripped by a flailing leg, while Polonia were then handed a lifeline (no pun intended) when the ref decided a free kick hit a player’s arm. The defender argued he was merely covering his face, in which case he’s a bit thick, as well as cowardly. Take it like a man, man.

The 'equalising' penalty

In defence of the slow play, too many balls appeared to be held up by the grass. Too long? Unwatered? This is, after all, a 3rd tier Polish side, despite their proud history, including being the oldest team in Poland, and title winners as recently as 1999-2000. They’ve fallen on hard times since with the usual story of mismanagement and poor ownership.

However, given recent monetary troubles, I hope they come back. Their stadium is a little peach and I want to see the turnstiles in the rest of the stadium utilised – I’ve never seen such modern turnstiles overrun with weeds.

The Damage:
free ent

The Tunes:
Let England Shake (PJ Harvey)

Polonii panorama

classical design at Polonii

1st view of stadium.

Behind the goal (II).

Match action.

The exits behind the other goal.Pristine.

Behind the 'KSP Stand'

Brand new turnstiles left to nature.

The view from the main stand.

The opening pen.

The main stand at full time.