Lie Down Warsaw

So here is an old cliché, my posts are like buses. You wait for ages and then two come along at once. Well I’ll try to make them less like buses in the future.

So after weeks of anticipation I finally attended my first Polish football game, Wisła Krakow vs. Legia Warsaw. Wisla and Legia are the old firm of Polish football and when they play it’s the biggest match in Poland. Getting a ticket is actually very difficult, however I have a friend who is a big Wisła fan and he arranged everything for me, from the location of the pre-match beer to the tickets themselves.

Before the game i was a little apprehensive, I had heard stories of Polish football hooligans. I was told not to worry though because Legia fans had been banned from the stadium because of crowd trouble at previous games and that in fact Legia fans were also refusing to attend as a protest at the killing of a football fan in Kielce by Wisła hooligans. So as you can imagine, that made me feel much better!

The game kicked off at 7.30pm and before it I met with my friend in a flinstones themed bar next door to the Wisła stadium. After enjoying a beer we made the short walk to the stadium. On the way to the stadium I couldn’t help notice a large group of fans wearing green and white colours. Wisła play in red and white, so this confused me. I also knew that no Legia fans were around, so who were they? I was then told that they are hooligans from Gdansk and Wroclaw and that Wisła hooligans have an alliance with them. Apparently this is common in Polish football. Hooligan groups from different cities are allied and will come and cheer each other on against the common enemy, in Wisła’s case against Legia or Cracovia.

Upon entering the staduim I was searched by Robocop style policemen. I made it to my seat a full 10 minutes before kick off. The stadium was already full and the Wisła fans were making a lot of noise. In the stand opposite to us were the Wisła Ultras. In front of them was a man on a step ladder with a microphone, belting out Wisła songs to which they responded in perfect harmony.

As the teams came out, the Ultras turned their stand into a giant picture by turning over cards they had taken in and setting off the vast amount of flares they had smuggled past the robocops. It was a very impressive, perfectly rehearsed scene which would have made Kim-Jong-Il proud.

As the game started, every Legia touch of the ball was met with 25,000 jeers and whistles. The Wisła crowd also managed to keep singing non-stop for the full 90 minutes, led mainly by the Ultra’s stand.

The game itself, like so many derbies, failed to live up to the big build up. In a boring first half, Wisła opened the scoring with the only real effort of the half. In the second half, things improved and Wisła contrived to miss a couple of absolute sitters before nearly being punished at the death by Legia’s only real opportunity of the game. However Wisła held on for a deserved victory which keeps them top of the league.

Although the action on the field wasn’t great, the action off it was impressive. The atmosphere was great and there always something going on somewhere in the stadium. We even had a protest during the match by a group of around 2,000 fans who all left their seats at the same time for around 20 minutes. This protest was about a deduction in the number of tickets given to fan clubs. It was another example of how organised Wisła fans are. It was also a good Polish lesson for me, particularly in swear words. I was however confused at one point, when with five minutes to go, the whole stadium were singing Legła, Legła Warszawa (to the tune of Go West). When I asked my friend why they were singing for their rivals, he informed that they were not singing Legia but were singing Legła which means Lie down. So another great lesson in Polish language.