Polish team is out of EURO 2012

The pride.  The white and red flags.  The anticipation.  The reality.  The sad faces.

After a decent roll, Polish national soccer team is out of the EURO 2012 tournament beaten 1:0 by the Czech team.  The first 25 minutes of the first half, Poles ruled the pitch at the brand new Stadion Miejski in Wroclaw.  Several shots on the goal and fast paced game looked very promising.  Then, the Poles lost their steam.  Robert Lewandowski's commitment was futile with lack of the team effort.  Even the overwhelming support of the Polish fans could not revive the team.  It was painful to watch how Czechs were slowly gaining more and more advantage.  Finally, in 72nd minute, Petr Jiracek scored for Czechs.  Poles could not recover and after the final whistle, the host nation was out of EURO 2012.

For Poland, the true hero of the tournament is substitute goalie, Przemysław Tytoń, who took over during the game with Greece after a red card for Wojciech Szczesny.  Tytoń denied the penalty kick saving the 1:1 score with Greece.  During the matches with Russia and Czech Republic, Tytoń have also shown a great skill.  Interestingly, Tytoń means tobacco in Polish, and yes, he was "smoking" at those games.

Logo PZPN (fot. PZPN)

The tournament is still on.  There are many more fantastic games to see.  I'm watching Denmark vs Germany as I write this post.  Germany just scored a second goal in the 80th minute.  Great game.

Perhaps, the Polish Football Union (Polski Związek Piłki Nożnej, PZPN) will finally learn from this failure.  Soccer in Poland is a giant source of entertainment, pride, and, of course, money.  Rebuilding the PZPN structure and strategy is mandatory.  I would go as far as abolishing this dinosaur in order to build a brand new, modern, flexible, transparent, professionally ran organization.

Poland has great soccer traditions.  Lets revert the transition from the powerhouse to powerless before it becomes permanent. 

Russian fans beat up EURO 2012 stewards

The game, the excitement, the brotherhood, the win - and the Russians beating up stewards inside the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw after the Russia-Czech Republic game on Friday.

It was an outrageous show of violence by Russian hooligans after their team won 4-1.  The video below shows the Russians attacking the stewards in a walkway after the game.  All injured men were released from the short hospital stay.  Polish police has already submitted pictures of the offenders to the border patrol.

Racist slur and monkey noises directed toward the black Czech player, Theo Gebre Selassie, were also a concern reported by Never Again, a Polish-based anti-racism group, part of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE). 

Looks like the Russian Football Federation is in hot water, as reported by UEFA: 

UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Football Union of Russia for the improper conduct of its supporters at Friday's UEFA EURO 2012 match against the Czech Republic.  After having looked at the security reports and available images, UEFA has today announced that disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the Football Union of Russia (RFS) for the improper conduct of its supporters (crowd disturbances), the setting off and throwing of fireworks and the display of illicit banners at Friday's UEFA EURO 2012 Group A match in Wroclaw between Russia and the Czech Republic. The Control and Disciplinary Body will review the case on Wednesday 13 June.  In addition, regarding reports of alleged abuse directed at Czech Republic players from Russia fans, UEFA is investigating this further and is working with FARE to collect more evidence.

Political tensions between Poland and Russia are all time high due to the unresolved plane crash in Smolensk on April 10th, 2010, that killed the Polish President, his wife, and 94 high ranking Polish government and army officials.  Refusal to release the Tu-154 wreck and discrepancies in Russian crash reports, are a sour mix between the countries.