Mobilisation against the „Polonia”

Such titled poster contributed to the gathering of the Jonava Lietava and Polonia Vilnius supporters who gathered last week for a decisive match between the two teams. It is fair to say that the desired effect of the poster has been achieved as Lietava won 4:1 and had some 700 of their supporters present at the match, a number that is, to be honest , quite an achievement especially for Jonava and the Lithuanian first division. The question is how the Polonia’s fans will and footballers respond to this when they welcome the guest team from Jonava when at home next Saturday, at Vilnius’s Żalgiris.

If the Lithuanian First Division table was to be split into half and if then there was an election to be held for the most uncompromised team, there would be two candidates for that title. That is Venta Kurszeń and Polonia Vilnius, both not having a single draw in their current stats. The difference between the two is that the team from the coast have won 5 out of possible 19 matches and they are struggling to stay in the division, whereas the Polonia’s footballers won 10 of their 18 matches and they are well established in the middle of the table (5^th place in a 10-team table). An argument in favour of Polonia is however the fact that recently their matches have been said to be entertaining for the supporters due to the number goals that has so far been 1-2 per match, what is unusual of that team. As an example of the team’s play, Polonia celebrated the start of the new school year (or perhaps the WW2 anniversary) with quite a score of 5:0 against Kėdainiai who played at home.

Just a week earlier, Lietava having won 3:1 with the aforementioned Venta and 3:0 with the Vilnius Bekentas in the Lithuanian Cup, there were also 5 goals scored in a match where final whistle left both teams with the result of 4:1, with Lietava being the winning side. Speaking of the Lithuanian Cup (official name- LFF „Carlsberg“ taurė), the team selection for the cup turned out to be favourable for Lietava, too, as they will play against a 2^nd division team Spyris Kowno. It may be an ambitious team, but shouldn’t be a major problem. On the other hand getting back on the Lietava topic, the upcoming Saturday’s match is looking like it will be a real interesting game of football. We shall remind all football fans that due to the start of the 2014 World Football Championship qualifications stage, Vilnius is holding a Football Week (more info can be found at:  www.lff.lt). On Friday at 21:15, at Lipówka stadium, the Lithuanian national football team will undertake a struggle to defeat the better-noted Slovakian team. The following day, that is the 8^th of September (Saturday), at 16:00, Polonia Vilnius will for the third time now play against the undisputed leader of the Lithuanian first division, Lietava Jonava.

 Polonia’s footballers surely deserve a re-match as the first match at home they have lost 0:1 in spring and in Jonava last week, the score was 4:1 (totalling 3:0). The only goal for Polonia was scored by Tomas Mickevičius (pure Lithuanian folk, not some Mickiewicz) who surely will have a negative attitude towards the referee of that match for some time to come, as at 77^th minute the latter did not notice that after a Tomas’s pass, one of Lietava’s defenders hit the ball away with his hand. All requests for a penalty shot that were made were refused and an argument broke out between the two mentioned players for what they both were given a yellow card each. It was the second yellow card for Mickevičius in that match so he had to leave the pitch, leaving his team with 10 men remaining.

 Will this time the support of Bolek and Lolek (or perhaps some other supporters’) prove that Vilnius is in fact “ours”? That red and white flag on the Giedymin Tower looks mighty well and the animated boys’ hair styles do in fact resemble that of some of the polish minority’s leaders.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/mobilizacja-na-polonie

Tłumaczenie Kamil Szwarc w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Kamil Szwarc within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.