WARSAW, POLAND—It would be wrong to say . They started off terribly. But they got a little better, and then a lot worse.
In the morning, word was spreading here of the racial abuse of Dutch players during an open training session held in Krakow on Thursday.
Several hundred local Krakow supporters – already infamous after their prominent appearance in the BBC documentary that kicked off fears here of some sort of racially motivated gongshow – decided to up the ante by tossing monkey chants at the black players in the Netherlands squad as they jogged by.
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How one goal slows stock markets by 5 per centThe Dutch gave them a second chance and jogged by again. The chants grew louder. The Dutch retreated to the opposite side of the pitch to complete their workout unmolested by bigots. Think about it – one of the world’s proudest international sides and a long-standing exemplar of tolerance, exposed and cowering while a few hundred bullies got their way. It’s maddening.
UEFA reacted by first saying it hadn’t happened, then saying it was misinterpreted, then finally admitting that “some isolated incidents of racial chanting” had occurred and then turning away to … do what exactly? Nothing. Their dithering lack of leadership on this issue is the definition of prevarication.
From the perspective of Polish pride, the only lucky thing was that this outrage was curiously missed by on-site TV cameras, so as not to be relived on YouTube forever.
However, the fear of a slide into casual savagery in the stands – a nominal concept until Thursday – will now dog this tournament and these hosts for the next month. It will be hard to erase the memory of Dutch captain Mark van Bommel marveling that his squad had just come from a visit to Auschwitz only to see teammates jeered for the colour of their skin.
The juxtaposition of that cursed landmark and the behavior of some Polish fans nearby will chillingly echo for the duration.
As you might expect, the story made far less impact without Poland than within. The biggest game in the country’s history was in the offing, and tens of thousands of fans were already out on the streets as the story was spreading.
When it came time to start, the home support outnumbered the Greek visitors roughly 50-1 inside the National Stadium. The paltry Greek road support was powerful visual evidence of that country’s problems.
Related: Devoted fans on the DanforthIt was a stunning scene at the outset. Fifty-thousand Poles singing the national anthem and chanting “Polska” in so full a throat you felt rather than heard it. Honestly, moments of such raw emotion expressed so singularly by so many leave the neutral bystander in awe. That really is the only word for that sort of primal noise – awesome.
(It will also remind everyone of how deeply the vuvuzela cheated the last World Cup. The infamous horns’ wall of white noise robbed those games of their human voice, and therefore of their passion.)
Poland bossed matters from the first. In the 17th minute, nascent superstar Robert Lewandowski (a man headed to Manchester United if a slip of his manager’s tongue is to be believed) put the Poles ahead with a marvelous spike header. Neighbour-clutching chaos in the stands. A pure expression of joy.
Then things began to turn. In the 43rd minute, Greek defender Sokritis Papastathopoulos got tangled with Rafal Murawski as Murawski lost his balance and spun to the ground. Referee Carlos Velasco Carballo showed Sokritis red in what must rank as one of the worst big-game decisions ever. Add officiating to that list of problems here. Even the Poles on-hand seemed embarrassed.
Karma took a hand when Greece equalized through second-half substitute Dimitris Salpingidis just after the restart. Polish ‘keeper Wojciech Szczesny was in large part to blame – running past the ball and leaving it sitting stock still on the grass for Salpingidis to poke in.
Szczesny piled on the fun by later tripping Salpingidis in the area, earning himself an ejection and giving the Greeks the chance to take the lead through a penalty. Szczesny’s substitute, Pzremyslaw Tyton, managed to save – the only thing that prevented a mass exodus into the Vistula.
Polish manager Franciszek Smuda said beforehand that a win would be nice, but that a draw was the objective. The fans might not agree – they left the stadium stunned and silent. Smuda gets his 1-1, but the consequences of this result could spiral out into more real world problems.
With the Poles still in it and suddenly desperate for a win, the tension will rise to a new verticality ahead of the tournament’s most potentially combustible encounter – Poland vs. Russia on June 12th .
The atmosphere ahead of that game is already beyond charged, with 10,000 Russian supporters promising a march to the stadium ahead of the game that irate Poles see as a deliberate provocation. If you’re planning an early dinner in downtown Warsaw on Tuesday, bring a gas mask.
Looking back on the day and on its potential, it was a sad reminder that pre-planned fairytales – the real ones – rarely come true. Sometimes they spiral out into something depressing and instructive, if anyone here cares to take the lesson.
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