Ireland’s Poles cheer on soccer heroes with style

IRELAND’S Polish community is going World Cup crazy as it prepares to cheer on its heroes.

With just a day to go before the World Cup, bookies are having to slash the odds on Poland as fans from Ireland’s 200,000-strong Polish community back their heroes to win.

“The Polish are obviously putting their money where their mouths are and are getting behind their team as are the Irish, who’ve adopted Poland as their team”, Paddy Power, of Paddy Power bookmakers said.

“We’ve had to cut the odds on Poland because they have been very well backed — and if they win the Cup then it won’t be a great result for us as we’ll have to pay out over €1 million.”

Yesterday, the bookmaker slashed the odds on Poland’s chances of winning from 125-1 to 100-1. Brazil are favourites at 5-2. Mr Power said: “If Poland do win then there will be a big payout and there will be a lot of Poles driving around in Ferraris.”

Pubs in Dublin and Cork will be also catering for the Polish during the championships, which are being staged in Germany.

Shops are also reporting huge demand for replica Poland football shirts as Poles — Ireland’s largest group of immigrants — want to wear their team’s colours with pride. Poland’s first game is on Friday against Ecuador and pubs in Ireland will be beaming in satellite coverage from Polish TV so supporters can enjoy commentary in their mother tongue.

“It’s going to be such a big occasion and great fun and our Irish customers will be supporting Poland as well. We’ve got 200 people booked to watch the opening game but if we had the capacity we could easily get 1,000,” said David Nolan, owner of Zagloba’s in Parnell Street, Dublin.

In Cork, Friar’s Walk Tavern will be screening games with Polish commentary and bosses are expecting a good turn-out of fans, while the city’s Maher’s sports shop in Oliver Plunkett Street has sold its entire stock of Poland shirts.

Poles have a realistic chance of progressing

POLAND’S fans know their heroes stand a realistic chance of progressing in the World Cup — even though the team faces hosts Germany in the opening stages.

Their first game is on tomorrow, the first day of the tournament. They are favourites to beat Ecuador at Gelsen-kirchen’s Arena Auf Schalke stadium (8pm kick-off). On June 14 they travel to Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion stadium to play Germany (8pm KO) and six days later they play Costa Rica at Hannover’s Niedersachsenstadion stadium (3pm KO).

If Poland finish in the top two of their group, they will face one of the top two from Group B — most likely to be either England or Sweden. Poland will be relishing an encounter with England — currently 7-1 to win the World Cup — after Sven Goran-Eriksson’s men beat the Poles 2-1 in the qualifiers for the tournament.

Team captain Jacek Bak told Reuters: “If we get out of the group I think it will help us take off and we can even cause a surprise against England or Sweden.”