April 30, 2022
Div 1B
Stadion Zimowy, Tychy
I made up my mind long ago. Hockey was my first love. As a game, as a sport, I love hockey more than football. It’s just everything else around football gives it an advantage for me. You know what I’m talking about – the whole culture, stadiums, groundhopping, ultras, stickers, football fashion. Unfortunately, hockey is more sterile, especially in US in Canada. But I still enjoy watching hockey live, it’s almost a totally different sport when you’re watching it on TV. Oh, and there is something special about International hockey for me. Growing up, we had all those tournament and cups and championships and that’s how I fell in love.
World Hockey Championship was in Poland this year. And Ukraine plays in this division. At first, it was to be hosted in Katowice but then it was moved to Tychy. I did not see any games in either city, so it made no difference to me where to go. I wanted to see a game vs Serbia or Poland but I could not make it work, so it was to be a Saturday game against Japan. And Ukraine needs any support these days, even as nominal and symbolic as attending a hockey game.
I don’t really follow any smaller nations, in fact most of my hockey knowledge is from the NHL so I did not know many of the players even in Ukraine. The only Japanese player that I am familiar with is the legendary Jutaka Fukufuji who appeared in a few games for LA Kings, but he will forever be known for his last name.
Tychy is one of those few places in Poland, where hockey is probably more popular that football. A lot of it has to do with success of GKS Tychy in hockey, while its football club mired in
obscurity for many years, overshadowed by way more successful clubs nearby. Tychy is known for its hockey arena. It is not exactly in the city centre, but it’s quite prominent and connected to a separate train station. A direct bus from Krakow goes right to the bus stop next to the arena. However, I managed to miss this bus so I had to take a bus to Katowice instead and then a regional train right to the hockey arena.
As I predicted, there were a lot of Ukrainian fans in the stands. Most of them were refugees who fled to Poland as the war began, plenty of kids with their mothers. There were kids and teenagers who were members of some hockey teams before the war and had to move to Poland. Lots of blue and yellow flags but obviously no organized support.
Jutaka Fukufuji was a backup for this game. Technically, Ukraine could still win the group and
advance, but I think the team was happy just to stay in the same group for next year, especially provided the current circumstances. The game got quickly out of reach for us and to make matters worse, we conceded a few early goals and lost our keeper to an injury. The Japanese were simply better. What surprised me is how physical they were. We simply could not match in terms of speed and skill, so we decided to play tough but that did not scare the opponents. Japan could play a physical game as well as we could. Unfortunately, the match ended in a blowout. But it did not really matter. I was simply happy to see my favourite game and my team and give them a much needed support.
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