‘Strange, sombre feeling’ on leaving Gdynia
By that point, long after Ireland had done their last press conference there earlier in the morning, most of my colleagues had already made their way to Poznan or decided to finish in the hotel. I decided to work there and, in an odd way, it did make the fact Ireland are the first team out of Euro 2012 sink in a little more.
The stoic Polish man at the sports centre’s reception desk, who had absolutely no English but did a mean job constantly organising taxis for us (“Sopot? Yes?”), simply nodded as I left the empty room behind me.
The odd mood fitted the day. At the training session earlier that morning, the players clearly hadn’t got over the defeat to Spain. If anything, it had got worse.
As a hugely downbeat Richard Dunne kept emphasising, “nobody knows how much we’re hurting.”
We did. You only had to look at the players’ faces. You couldn’t but feel for them.
Of course, most in Poland didn’t see this. They only saw the singing Irish fans. And they have clearly made a huge impression (right down to Poznan staging a going away party for them).
As the owner of my apartment in Gdansk (a man whose family kept insisting on driving me to train stations and were generally illustrative of the hugely welcoming atmosphere here in general) said, “wow. You guys really are something else. The best in the tournament. We only have one song! We have to learn from you.”
It seems, however, that the Poles did. I had to make my way from Gdynia back to Gdansk a good few hours before the match against the Czech Republic and the atmosphere was incredible. The train, for example, was absolutely packed to the doors with all fans singing.
It was actually painful to have to leave all of the atmosphere on the streets behind to go in and work. It really was superb. And you couldn’t but support the Poles.
Unfortunately, of course, it wasn’t to be.
But, then, a very welcome thing happened. Many of the fans all around were singing and chanting hours after the game. They were out and sad about that but, on the whole, accepting of it all and happy.
That was very Irish. But it was also very welcome. Winning is, of course, the ultimate point of the tournament football. But carnivals like that are a factor that should never be forgotten.
