Inside Polish Sports

I am frankly surprised that Trump waited this long to become this World Cup's Jorge Videla 1978 analogue(Spoiler Alert: HE FAILED HAHA!). In our recording from last night before the two matches took place Irish Dave and I talk about the ludicrousness of the 48-team format, Ronaldo's farewell, the underdogs that emerged and how no one age remembers the backpass rule(Thank god!). Also, Iga goes into...

In our first ever feature interview my guest is Kacper Prokopiak. The 20-year-old born in Warsaw and raised in Sanok and Oświęcim has fulfilled his Ice Hockey dreams by playing three seasons for Unia(including winning the Polish championship as a rookie), and now he has been given the chance of a lifetime thanks to being drafted by the Elmira Aviators(New York state) in the North American Hockey L...

Come on Lewy? Oh, baby don't you wanna go? Robert has finally fulfilled his dream of putting on the firesuit and finishing his career up in the most Polish corner of the MLS. Plus he will face BOTH Mueller and Messi in his first two games! If that is his last dance, we're already getting dizzy on that floor! Also, the heatwave has been the least of our first round Wimbledon problems with Maja only...

In the fourth and final part of the retro World Cup lookback I'll talk about the whimper of the golden era that melted in the Mexican heat 40 years ago this month. The second Antoni Piechniczek term was meant to be a perfect mix of the '82 heroes with the new guard headed by teen idol Dariusz Dziekanowski. However only Włodzimierz Smolarek got on the score sheet in four matches, whilst we conceded...

In Part 3 of our World Cup flashback, we'll look at the darkest time in post-war Polish history. On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski's army declared war on its own people and this meant that the national team couldn't play any friendlies leading up to the World Cup finals in Spain. The first 235 minutes against Italy, Cameroon and Peru gave us no goals and no reason to hope. But then Zbigniew Boniek...

Who the hell needs the World Cup anyway! Polish Sports were doing just fine last weekend with Jeremy Sochan becoming our first ever NBA Champion(of course it matters that he won it on the court and not on a technicality due to playing for the Spurs earlier this season!). Kamil Majchrzak won his first ATP singles title. Kuba Śmiechowski won the LMP2 class at Le Mans for the third time in 4 years. R...

On May 16th Maja Chwalińska left her twenty-five-square-meter flat in Bielsko-Biała simply wanting to survive in Paris and make the French Open main draw. Her manager simply wanted her to make the second or even third round. 23 days later she returned to Poland a national hero and having not just survived and conquered the courts and her opponents to forever write her script into Tennis and Polish...

In Part 2 of our World Cup retrospective we will take a deeper look on what could've been a golden three-headed hydra of Boniek, Deyna and Lubański destroying everyone in 1978. Instead Jacek Gmoch wanted to sacrifice Pan Włodek in his one and only tournament for the young Boniek which then lead to a fateful situation when Boniek suggested to Deyna that he should take the penalty against Argentina....

In Part 1 of our four-part lookback at the World Cups during Polish Football's golden era we will reminisce on the summer when Kazimierz Górski's Eagles announced themselves to the footballing world in incredible fashion by beating the likes of Argentina, Italy and even Brazil and finishing as the third best team on the planet. If only it didn't rain dragons and elephants in Frankfurt when we play...

Maja Chwalińska is knocking out her French Open opponents just like Ali was hooking Sonny Liston! The Dąbrowa Górnicza native is on the lips of the whole Tennis world after going from 113th in the rankings to at least 49th after reaching the quarterfinals. It truly makes all of her prior struggles worth it and even Aryna Sabalenka herself says that she could go up the rankings as high as one could...

Our Footballing Batwoman Ewa Pajor has finally shaken off her doubts and ghosts and has conquered the Gotham Clock Tower of the Women's Champions League after five previous final losses. Even though Barca Feminina has two women who won the Ballon d'Or each of the previous five years(Putellas and Bonmati), Ewa's two goals and assist in the 4-0 drubbing of Lyon on Saturday pretty much assures her sp...

There is still something is our eyes after Lewy's farewell to Camp Nou on Sunday Night. It is surreal that his four seasons there have gone in a blink of a eye, almost as sureal as the fact itself that a Pole was the main star of the world's most famous and beloved club. Knowing Robert he doesn't need to take the sultan's ransom (90 million Euro a year!) to sign with Al-Hilal, but reports say that...

Robert Lewandowski's achievements by now are so expected that we seem to forget how extraordinary they are. With Barca clinching the LaLiga, he has now won FOURTEEN domestic league titles in just eighteen top flight seasons. He and Wojciech Szczęsny acted accordingly during the bus parade, including some off-cut Jan Tomaszewski impressions! Also, Iga re-finds her mojo in Rome, Wisła celebrates its...

Piotr Zieliński set off a Scudetto party at San Siro as his goal helped Inter win their 21st Italian title and Zielu's second after winning it with Napoli three years ago. Meanwhile, in Porto Kiwior, Bednarek and Pietuszewski celebrated their own domestic crown. When did I hear that before: Three Polish guys in one club, hmmmmmmmmmmm........? Also, Wisła are all but promoted, Lech are all but cham...

On this special retrospective, we will talk about an event unsung outside of the Polish borders, but one that forever changed us as a sporting nation. In May 1953, two months after Poland was forced to mourn its chief abuser Stalin, Feliks "Papa" Stamm coached our amateur boxers to nine European Championship medals at Warsaw's Gwardia Hall. Five of those medals were gold, and three came by beating...

The world is in awe and gives its gratitude to Piotr "Łatwogang" Garkowski and the folks at Cancer Fighters for their record charity livestream, which raised close to US$70 million. Athletes also chipped in to this nation-defining event with Lewy, Iga, Jan Błachowicz, Kuba Błaszczykowski, Piotr Zieliński and Vladimir Semirunniy all giving their money, time, gifts, and sometimes hair! Iga herself h...

The Polish Olympic Committee cannot pay the due prize money to our Olympic medalists from Milano Cortina because..............half that prize money is in Bitcoin-like tokens from the committee's chief sponsor ZondaCrypto. The exchange has been uncovered for having Russian mafia connections and losing over 99% of the inverstors' value. And what does disgraced chairman Radosław Piesiewicz do...........

Since Friday morning, the Polish Football family has been in shock and disbelief over the death of Jacek Magiera at the age of just 49. He may have achieved pretty much anything he could've dreamt of in the beautiful game: Polish champion as player and manager, Champions League nights against Ronaldo and Aubameyang, success with Śląsk Wrocław and Zagłębie Sosnowiec, and most recently Poland assist...

On this historical retrospective we mark the golden anniversary of Polish Ice Hockey's finest hour. It may not be as lauded and mythic as the American Miracle on Ice, but our one and only victory over the Soviet Union on April 8, 1976, at the Katowice Spodek was truly as improbable as Hockey upsets could ever get. This is the story of how it unfolded and how it wouldn't have even taken place if no...

Polish Football's best era since the 1980's ended last night in Stockholm. And frankly we and our sanity are all the better for it. Because where does it say that Football must be our most popular sport just by acclamation? We are lucky to have had Lewy because he is the only star of his caliber we have produced over the past 40 years. And he sure didn't do it thanks to the structures that our bea...

As we await the World Cup playoffs, let's take a look back at the most important match in Polish football history. 53 years ago an unfancied but hungry side came to the mecca of the beautiful game and, with a little verbal jab from Brian Clough, made Wembley into a buzz word for generations of Poles. This is the story of how a "clown" named Jan Tomaszewski stopped Alf Ramsey's England and helped l...

Poland awaits(and dreads) this Thursday's World Cup playoff semifinal against Albania as Łukasz Skorupski is injured and Jan Urban selects Bartosz Bereszyński instead of his Palermo teammate. Iga Świątek is shocked by Magda Linette in Miami and sacks her coach Wim Fisette. Frankly, whoever the replacement is, they have to keep Iga calm and aware of her mastery. Also, Kacper Tomasiak, Kasia Niewiad...

Apparently, the new USTA boss wants women to play best-of-five-setters in Grand Slams from the quarterfinals onwards. Iga is said to benefit from this move the most but even she understands that an extra two hours of Tennis isn't necessarily good for you! Also, Irish Dave and I discuss the Ekstraklasa big boys being hoisted by their own financial petards, the verdict in the Śląsk/Wisła forfeit sag...

In this historical retrospective, we take a lookback at the godfather of Polish Tennis and how what should've been the biggest win of his career was derailed by Kirk Douglas and his wife! This is the story of Wojciech Fibak, a Renaissance man in more ways than one.

Wisła Kraków and its owner, Jarosław Królewski, have reminded Polish Football of its sordid past by forfeiting the 1. Liga game against Śląsk Wrocław. The reason: Śląsk didn't allow Wisła's hooligans to come to Wrocław because they didn't want to forgo bearing weapons. The club that used to be run by the underworld of Football fans/criminals has once again cowered to them. Also, Oskar Pietruszewsk...