Opening Day Provides Shocks Both On And Off The Field
By David Blye
Saturday’s matches at the Olympic Stadium provided a shocking result and a pair raucous fan bases that could be difference in future matches.
While the biggest story of opening day were the results on the pitch, another revelation was the reaction in the stands.
In the tournament’s opening match, Poland saw off perennial powerhouse Brazil 1-0. Defender Grzegorz Krychowiak struck a perfect deadball from 25-metres out past Brazilian keeper Cassio to give the Poles the only goal of the match.
However equally impressive was the reaction of the supporters throughout the encounter. Clad in red and white, Poland’s fans dominated their Brazilian counterparts in terms of noise and overall spirit.
Polish manager Michal Globisz credited the voracious supporters as a key to the team’s win.
“We did know before hand that there were several thousand supporters of Polish origin; perhaps more than Brazilian supporters,” Globisz said. “We were very pleased with that sort of support and reaction.”
“We didn’t know how the players would in fact react to come and play in front of 30 or 40,000 people, their first time at this stadium but actually responded very well it them,” he said. “It might also maybe the Polish character, Polish spirit to react in potentially adverse circumstances. That goes back whether to war time or football in the past.”
With imposing chants of Polska throughout the match and supporters’ flags bearing city names such as Toronto, Ottawa and Chicago, the pro-Poland crowd provided an extra spark for the Eastern European side.
While the Polish fans were full of spirit, even their support was dwarfed by the fans of the Korea Republic. Loud from the get go, the Korean supporters worked themselves into a frenzy during the first 15 minutes when their side had numerous chances on the American goal. When American midfielder Danny Szetela found the mark in the 16th minute, the Korean fans held firm, undaunted by the early strike and continued their voracious support.
They would reach a fever pitch 38 minutes on when forward Young Rok Shin fired the equalizer. While the Koreans could not manage a second tally—largely due to the stellar play of American keeper Chris Steitz—the fans continued buzzing until the final whistle.
Korean manager Dong Hyn Cho credited the supporters with keeping his players spirits high and providing them with an extra boost.
“Because of the cheer of the Montreal Koreans, we had a lot of energy and the players benefited from that,” Cho said.
Cho’s sentiments were echoed by Korean supporters at the Olympic Stadium. Koon Chang and Edgar Li (both of Hamilton, ON) felt the fans provided a strong atmosphere for their team.
“[The support] was definitely a 12th man out there,” Chang said. “We didn’t hear any USA chants, no flags flying. We had a Hangug-eun (Korea in Korean) chant going all game long and there was an excellent boost in power.”
“It’s easy to be a Korea fan,” Li added. “The Korean style is exciting and it’s definitely what people want to see in a soccer match.”
Though disappointed that their side did not record the win, Korean fans look forward to the remaining matches in this suddenly unknown Group D.
“A lot of media had Brazil and the US one-two with Korea and Poland finishing three-four flip-flipped,” Chang said. “But it almost seems like it’s anybody’s game after the games we watched today.”
Indeed, while most sources had the Brazilians and Americans as the favourites in Group D (in a pre-tournament estimate, The Globe and Mail ranked Brazil first overall, the United States sixth and placed Korea 10th and Poland 13th),
Saturday’s results in Montreal show that this group is wide open and that the supporters could be difference between progressing and elimination.
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