What’s different? How to pretend to be a Greek?
Poland
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hat does it mean to „pretend to be a Greek” in Polish? What is the relation between the Polish and the Greek national teams and why does their performance on the field remind me of the economic, cultural and social situation of these two countries?
Each medal has two sides In 2012 Poland and Ukraine were organizing together the UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2012), and the opening match during this tournament was a meeting between Poland and Greece. Robert Lewandowski managed to score the first goal at minute 17: however, Dimitris Salpingidis replied at minute 51, and in the end there was a draw (1:1). The public opinion was divided – from the Polish side there were voices saying that we should have won this match, and as you probably imagine – the same voices in Greece were saying that they should have scored 3 points instead of 1 in the general classification.
That’s how I would descibe the main differences between our countries, even though I’ve been here, in Kalamata, only for 3 weeks now. There are, of course, small details between the countries which might make me think that Greece or Poland deals with some particular issues better than the other, but in the end of the day - it balances out and there’s a draw between us. This applies to the cultural, economic and social spheres as well. Three years later, in 2015, our teams again played against each other, in a friendly match. The result? History repeats itself – a draw, 0:0. 16
