It is Poland's time to shine during the month of June! The Euro Cup Football (Soccer to us Americans) Tournament is being held jointly by Poland and the Ukraine during this month. The tournament is a huge deal and happens only once every four years! It is second only to the World Cup. Over the past year there have been a number of qualifying matches to determine which countries team's would even make it into the tournament. Poland's team isn't great, but fortunately for them they get automatic entry into the tournament as host country. The tournament kicked off this past weekend and has been so much fun to watch!
There are three different cities in Poland hosting games....Warsaw being one of them. While the stadium in Warsaw is across the river and about 15 minutes from our house, the "Fan Zone" is a stones throw from our apartment. We can hear all of the fans at all hours of the night. : ) Warsaw has set up this Fan Zone surrounding the Palace of Science and Culture. It holds nearly 120,000 people, has 8 giant screens for watching the games, numerous food and beer booths, and even a new McDonald's has been built on this site. This is one of the first times that Eastern Europe has hosted this tournament, so the Poles are quite proud to show off their country and want people to have a great experience! All day on Friday the city started buzzing with tons and tons of people dressed in their red and white gear ready to cheer on their home country. Poland played well Friday night and tied 1-1 against Greece. They will also play the Czech Republic and Russia in the first round and the two teams with the highest number of points at the end of the round will move on in the tournament. According to the Poles, they will all be thrilled if Poland can make it onto the next round...from there things will get difficult if not, impossible. Depending on who you ask Germany and Spain are favored to win the whole thing. We, of course, are rooting for Poland! And, not just the football team, but for the country. We have grown to love this country and hope that all of the fans from all over Europe love it too!
We'll be glued to our TV for Tuesday night's big match....Poland versus Russia. With the crazy history between these two countries there is a lot of pride and bragging rights at stake!
GO POLAND! Biali i czerwoni!
A few pics of the Fan Zone by our house
