Sunday, May 11, 2008

We forgive you Tomaszewski!


Two Brits have sent me a link to their myspace page where you can hear the first hymn by English football fans in support of the Polish football team at this summer’s Euro 2008 football championships in Switzerland and Austria.

And it’s a great little song! Written by Will Hetherington and Rupert Slade - the latter lived in Poland for four years - it's about an English football fan depressed after England were knocked out of Euro 2008 by Croatia. He was thinking like I was thinking - who to support now? No Scotland or Ireland in the finals either (and Wales never qualify for anything, anyway). Just then, Magda, the Polish barmaid in the English pub he is sitting depressed in, pulls him a pint and suggests he support Poland - well, there are hundreds of thousands of Poles in the UK.

The title refers to the goalkeeper of the 1973 Polish side who (in)famously knocked England out of the 1974 World Cup finals.

Polska Song (Come back Tomaszewski - all is forgiven)

Sitting in the pub
The final whistle's still ringing in my ears
All our hopes are dashed
And summer laughter's turned to tears

In the final game,
All we needed was a draw,
But Beckham couldn't bend it,
And now three lions roar no more

But I'm shaken from my blues
The sound of singing full of pride.
Haven't you heard the news?
Poland's gone and qualified

Polska, Polska, naprzod Polska,
You're our boys in white and red.
Polska, Polska, Come on Poland
Go where others fear to tread.

From London to Warsaw
From The King's Head to The Swan
Polska, Polska, naprzod Polska
Together we are strong.

Don't look so down
Says Magda pulling me another beer,
Wipe away that frown
And find yourself another team to cheer.

Whatever colours we wear
Our passion is the same
'Cos football's here to share
So come and join us in the beautiful game

Well my team are firing blanks
And the summer fills me with woe
I may not know Krakow from Gdansk
But I'm willing to give it a go

Polska, Polska, naprzod Polska,
You're our boys in white and red.
Polska, Polska, Come on Poland
Go where others fear to tread.

From London to Warsaw
From The King's Head to The Swan
Polska, Polska, naprzod Polska
Together we are strong.


Hear Polska Song here.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

When was the last time Ireland qualified?

Scotland?

I can't figure out which cup is which anyway. UEFA Champions, Euro, whatever.

beatroot said...

I think the full title is European nations Cup or something and itn is the one that countries compete with each other.

Scotland used to qualify for things in the 1980s, as did Ireland until about ten years ago. wales on the other hand never qualfied for anything at all.

Anonymous said...

I thought the Scottish League was better than the Irish League nowadays and with quite a few good players. Mostly foreigners who wind up playing with their home country's teams?

Also take a gander at "A Paddy in Poland's" bit about Boruc's latest escapade:

michael farris said...

"wales on the other hand never qualfied for anything at all"

'ceptin' for an ass whoopin'!

(as my grandmother used to say, yeah she was a crazy old thing, we finally had to put her in a home)

But why do England Scotland and Wales even qualify for separate teams in international play anyway? Seems pretty bogus.

beatroot said...

Bogus? Bogus! It's not bogus. They all have seperate football leagues, you see. Although we the English league allows cardiff in for some reason...maybe out of pity...So a UK team would in fact be bogus.

michael farris said...

Yes! You heard me, el bogus-o maximo!

By that standard the NFL and AFL would have deserved separate entries in the world football cup (if there were such an awful thing, and I mean real football, not soccer).

The UK is one country or three or four (how many?), pick a number and stick with it!

beatroot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
beatroot said...

Woaah! Excuuuuuse me! Uk is not a country it is a Kingdom! It has a wonderful monarchy, that never fails to keep us amused. Has been since 17....something. But football (not soccer...and American Football only occasionally uses its feet, so should not be called football in the first place...) is organised via countries - England is a country - not kingdoms.

And anyway, how would England gain from taking in Scotish players in its team?

michael farris said...

"how would England gain from taking in Scotish players in its team?"

Isn't this the same screwy logic that let the USSR have three member states in the UN general assembly?

"how would England gain from taking in Scotish players in its team?"

It would benefit the rest of the teams by keeping "England" (the UK team) permanently out of Euro and World cups?

(Since that crazy guy from NY stopped posting, I decided to take over his niche as resident agressively clueless poster - I'm bein' a jerk and lovin' it!)

Unknown said...

A friend of mine sent me the link to this song and I thought it was great! My mother's family are from Poland and I moved to Krakow in January having lived in London all my life, so I'm all for any extra fans for Polska.

Beatroot, do you have the address for their Myspace page? I work for a newspaper and we might want to interview them for an article.

Cheers

Michal

beatroot said...

The klink is at the bottom of the post. It's

http://www.myspace.com/londontowarsaw

Anonymous said...

Problem is, Poland recently couldn't even beat the US in Krakow. 0-3.

But then again, how many teams can stand up to an Irish-American powerhouse like Langdon Donovan?

news said...

Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales have their own football teams becuase they basically started international football in the 1870s (though not strictly international, but you get my drift). First game in Glasgow in 1872, Scotland 0 England 0. THese four countires were the fist to set up leagues, associations, rules and internatinal matches, and they have managed to resist contiues calls for them to merge.

In the 2012 London Olympics, there will be a UK football team, but Wales and Scotland have refused to have anything to do with it, as they afraid as this will give FIFA the pretext to push for a single UK team.

Indeed, in most sports, the four countires compete separately, with the Olypics being the main forum for a UK team.

Anonymous said...

Who/what are the controlling elements in the FIFA administration these daze?

Who's got da power?

Does FIFA have any say or control over what goes on in the Olympics?

beatroot said...

These are complicated questions, Geez. FIFa, like the world chess federation, are really in control of southern hemisphere groups....a bit like the way they always give top jobs of Un to countries outside the West. I think there influence on the Olympics is minimal.

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