Super-mega invincible Artur Boruc sigle-handedly defeats Barcelona………no,wait

February 23rd, 2008 | by: tomasz |

At least that’s what the Polish press would write if the last game between Celtic and Barca ended the other way round. For me, this game, and the whole atmosphere around it in Poland, was the proof that Poles are starving for a real football superstar.
In Poland it wasn’t Celtic against Barca, it was Boruc against Barca. All the hopes of the nation that hasn’t been able to watch a local team in the Champions League since 1996, rested on one goalkeeper. Even the public television, which is allowed to show only one wednesday’s CL game, sacrificed the potential hit such as Arsenal-Milan game and opted to show the Boruc game. There was an enormous fuzz in the press before the encounter at Celtic Park, with headlines like “Boruc Invites Barcelona to his Birthday Party” , “Boruc Against the Fantastic Four” or “Boruc Called a Hooligan by Spanish Press” adding some spice. Artie’s every intervention, every move even, was carefully analyzed by a number of experts at halftime and after the match. It was expected that the Holy-Goalie would perform some supernatural heroics in Celtic’s goal and, somehow, win the game all by himself. Of course, the so awaited miracle didn’t happen. Boruc had a good game, with a couple of world-class saves proving his enormous potential. However, Barcelona was superior throughout the whole ninety minutes and left the Celtic players looking like guys from a lower division (I have a strong suspicion that Gary Caldwell is a daltonist, he especially mistakes blue and red for green and white).

Now, what I’m aiming at is that Poles seem to have a complex about a lack of a real Polish football superstar. Czechs have Cech and Nedved, Romanians have Mutu, Bulgarians have Berbatov and Ukrainians were blessed with Sheva. Hey, even Slovaks can now admire Marek Hamsik’s superb displays in Serie A. If you have a closer look on the history of the game in Poland, you’ll see that the only trully renowned player was Zbigniew Boniek. Even nowadays he is recognized by the majority of the fans worldwide and shortlisted as one of the greayest players of the eighties. We had a great team in the seventies (bronze medal in the 1974 World Cup), but talents like Deyna, Lato, Szarmach or Tomaszewski weren’t allowed to leave Poland and play abroad (at least until they were thirty) because of the Communist Party regulations. Since Boniek, there has been no Polish player whose name would be widespread among the fans around the world. That’s why we are so frustrated as fans; we have been waiting for so long to see one of our players ‘make it’. That’s the reason behind such high expectations for Boruc. We just want to extend the list of famous Poles beyond John Paul II, Walesa and Boniek.