Hello folks. I've completed a profile of Zagłębie Lubin for my website. I would appreciate any feedback and any help in explaining a few things. 1. What is the symbolism of the logo? I understand the eagle as a symbol of Poland. But the rest? Anything? 2. The stadium - Stadion Górniczego Ośrodka Sportu. What would be a good translation, in particular what does Ośrodka mean? Only Zagłębie Sosnowiec and I'll have the whole Ekstraklasa covered. http://albionroad.com/club-profiles/zaglebie-lubin.html
The black eagle on a yellow field is a common Silesian, rather than Polish, symbol. The Silesian black eagle does appear on the town's crest, so that's why half of it is included on the team's crest. But as to the other half of the logo (a church tower?), I have no idea, since it doesn't appear in the town's crest. The background "hammer/chisel" symbol is commonly used in Poland in relation to mining activities. OK...I just did some research out of curiosity about that tower in the logo. Turns out that there is a remnant of an old castle in Lubin (dating back to early 14th century), with a tower vaguely resembling that on the crest. But whether this is the same tower remains a speculation. Photo of the actual castle tower in Lubin: http://wroclaw.hydral.com.pl/86001,foto.html BTW, good job on your web page.
Thanks for the info Smoga. I tried to sign up on a Zaglebie Lubin message board to see what more I could find out. Not really sure what happened though, either there was some kind of error or I signed up 5 times! In any case I couldn't ever post a message to ask a question. Anyhoo, thanks for your help and glad you like the site!
No problem, albionroad. if you have any questions, or anything dealing with the Polish NT or the Ekstraklasa, or whatever, we'll always happy to help. We're just a bunch of helpful, happy, friendly folk "Osrodek" means Center. "Osrodka" (I don't have Polish lettering on my keyboard, but there should be a dot/little slash over the s), is a form of that word that just referes to something that belongs to that particular Center. So "Stadion Gorniczego Osrodka Sportu" means Mining Sports Center Stadium.
Although this needs to be changed with regards to Poland's NT: "The national team reached the World Cup semifinals twice in the 70s and 80s but its record otherwise has been relatively poor." Poland has not only reached the WC semis in 1974 and 1982, but has taken third place both times, beating Brazil and France respectively. Between 1972 and 1986 (I know...it's only 14 years) Poland was a true soccer superpower. Besides the two third place WC finishes, and four consecutive WC appearances, the Polish NT has won the Olympic gold medal (this was prior to current rules) in 1972 and took silver in 1976. Poland won another Olympic silver in 1992. In the 1978 Argentina WC Poland went to the second group stage, where the team crashed out taking third in a super tough group that featured Brazil, the hosts Argentina and Peru (many say that that particular Polish team was the strongest ever). In 1975 Poland beat Holand 4:1 in the European Championship qualifiers (this is virtually the same lauded 1974 Dutch team that lost to Germany) in the final. And, of course, we can't forget the famous World Cup 1938, where Poland lost narrowly in overtime to Brazil 5:4. Sadly back then there were no group stages, it was "one and out". At that time Poland was already on the verge on becoming a true soccer superpower, but unfortunately, the war intervened and it took over 30 years for the country to return to that level. Plus, Poland has a very good overall win-loss record, which I don't feel like looking up now, but I believe it's in the top 10 or 15.
Hi Smoga. Thanks for all the info. You have been really helpful as have a couple other people in other posts I made here. I've updated the Zaglebie page and also the Poland page. Let me know what you think. If there are any other Polish clubs you'd like to see added, let me know. I'm just focusing on Ekstraklasa clubs for now but will gradually add others as I go.