Stal Rzeszow - Wisla Sandomierz (3-0)

III Liga Grupa IV
Stadion Miejski
November 3, 2018


Unlike the previous weekend, this one was supposed to be hot and dry, so why not go to another game? I considered many options and at first I was supposed to go to Bielsko-Biala to catch 2 games at the same day. Unfortunately one of the games was rescheduled so I had to change my plans and decided to go to Rzeszow instead. I did not know much about the city, other than it's a fairly large and close to the Ukrainian border. Oh, and it's also Subcarpathean district capital.

Rzeszov has 2 football teams - Stal and Resovia but I don't really know much about either of them.
So once again, I bought FlixBus tickets which turned out to be twice cheaper than going by train. Kick-Off was at 4 so I could return home earlier this time. The trip was uneventful and smooth and took slightly over 2 hours.

The first thing you notice about Rzesow is how clean and well-maintained it is. Everything is trimmed and very neat. I have not met this level of cleanliness since Belarus. As with most of Polish cities, it has a proud history and the coat of arms (Maltese Cross on a blue shield) is very prominent everywhere. The biggest landmarks are the Town-Hall, the Market Square and the Castle with the surrounding park. Overall I enjoyed Rzeszow very much. And again I can't help but wonder, why provincial Ukrainians cities cannot be like that. If I compare Rzeszow with, say, Mykolayiv (and the latter is much bigger), the comparison will not be flattering.




The stadium, though, is not in the nicest part of the town. It's located on the bank of a small and dirty
river, surrounded by roads and new architecture. If you're into brutalism, you will love it. Check out those magnificent floodlights and that bridge. I'm certain those floodlights do not work anymore as the game starts in the afternoon and there is another set of much smaller speedway lights.






Yes, there is also a Stal speedway club that races at the stadium. The stadium is a bowl with only one big stand, that takes most of the side. There is also a peculiar facility that seemed like a bar or a restaurant under construction, but there were still spectators on it. The only tickets you could get were for the main stand. No seats allocation, just choose your own place. Unfortunately the ultras section was here as well, so I could not see their banners and flags. They were quite good and loud. Wisla Sandomierz also had about 50 people. The stadium announcer was clearly upset with swearing and asked the fans to refrain from using bad language. It's particularly funny in Poland as everybody uses the same word all the time. This match also had the highest amount of tracksuit-clad hooligans. There was some ultras merch sold in the stands but as always it was not interesting at all. I also tried shashlik that was being grilled right near the food stall. It was ok - just a portion of grilled meat with onion and bread.



The game was never close. Wisla had a player sent off in the first half but even before that, they were
terrible and I don't remember a single chance from them. Stal were comfortably ahead and even had a penalty in the dying minutes of the game. First shot was saved by the keeper and then the rebound was saved by the crossbar.

























Comments