Date: 18 November 2023 / League: Polish fifth tier
Final Score: 2-3 / Attendance: approx. 999
Experience
Polish football can be unforgiving. One day you’re King of the World, the next you’re cast to the gutter. Odra Wodzislaw Slaski are a good case in point. Playing in the top tier between 1996 and 2010, this stint with the big boys brought a Cup semi-final and a club best third-place finish in 1997.
Over the next years, they became a regular sight in the early rounds of the UEFA and Intertoto Cup. Usually going out at the first hurdle, they nonetheless entertained Euro regulars such as Shamrock Rovers, Dinamo Minsk, Rapid Bucharest, Olympique Lyon and Austria Vienna.
But if the club’s rise was quick, it’s fall was even quicker. Relegation in 2010 was swiftly followed by bankruptcy in 2011. It fell to the fans to reform the club, and their side has been dithering around the lower leagues since then.
A far cry from the days they would entertain capacity crowds of 10,000, today Odra plus in the fifth step of Polish football supported by a hardcore clutch of fans. If this doesn’t sound promising, then think again. Reasons to visit are numerous, and they go beyond just a location in one of Silesia’s more underrated towns. Quiet and dusty, Wodzislaw Slaski nonetheless touts a compact Old Town that offers an eclectic mix of Gothic, Classical and Neo-Gothic architecture – it’s a pleasing place to wander while you wait for kick-off to approach.
The ground, too, isn’t short of character. Constructed in 1958, surviving elements include a retro era ticket booth and a stone-clad gateway leading to the pitch. Also saved over from the past is a distant away terrace hidden behind bars and barbed wire. Indisputably, the highlight though is a main stand built at the height of the 90s.
Covered by a trussed roof, its chief point of wonder is an oblong commentary cabin set behind sloping glass panels – it looks like something built for the Soviet Space Program. It looks past its sell-by date now, but at the time this was considered one of the best stadiums in Poland. As such, even the national team played here once, recording a 1-0 win over the UAE.
But enough of the geekery – I was here for a derby against rivals ROW Rybnik from up the road. Befitting of the occasion, both sets of supporters produced epic shows: from the home side, a red and blue pyro display in the colours of the club, while from the away lot, a burning hell of captured Odra scarves. Unfortunately, such was the murk, gloom, damp and drizzle, my pictures don’t convey just how great these were.
Neither do they convey the passion on the pitch. Three nil to the good, the visitors conceded two goals in the final 15 minutes. All blood, guts and hair-razing tackles, tempers tipped at full-time with players brawling and engaging in good old-fashioned argey-bargey. As a derby, great fun to watch.
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