I’m generally not much of a soccer fan - game is much too slow and not nearly enough scoring opportunities to grab my attention. But when it comes time for the World Cup or the Euro tournament, that’s when the game piques my interest.

This year’s Euro tournament is taking place in venues across Switzerland and Austria, and the first really compelling story happened in the opening round match between Germany and Poland. It was Polish born Lukas Podolski, one of the stars of FC Bayern Munchen in the Bundesliga, who tallied both goals for Germany in a 2-0 win. Said Podolski, “I was born in Poland and I have a big family there so it’s a very important thing for me. We applied what we worked on in training and must push forward from here.”

BTW… Euro 2012 is set to be staged in Poland and Ukraine, although infrastructure shortcomings and problems with the venues in the host cities may force that event to relocate to Scotland. If plans don’t change, that would be an AWESOME USRT! My family’s origins are outside Lviv in western Ukraine near the Polish border. I visited there once, while still in college, and it was an experience of a lifetime. If by some strange chance Pete and I actually made the trip, an entire village of Kulyks, along with distant relatives and friends of the family would roll out the red carpet for the USRT - plenty of platters of varenyky, holuptschi and bowls of homemade borscht. Oh… and plenty of shots of vodka… yes they do brew the stuff themselves in backyard stills there!

-Andrew Kulyk

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