Jerzy Kraska recalls the drama in Munich. “Anti-terrorists in masks with rifles walked on the roof”

After a few years of breaking knees in the yard, and then playing for Mazovia Plock, it’s time to move to the team from Warsaw. “It was a huge leap for me. On the one hand, the district league, and then the Guard, which had just been promoted to the first division. It was June 1969, and I found myself in a city completely unfamiliar to me. I landed at the hotel on a Saturday evening, so I bought a map of Warsaw the next day so I would know how to get to the Gvardiya stadium. On Monday morning I went to Puławska via Odinets and ended up at the stadium in Raclawicka. These were my beginnings, - Mr. Jerzy recalls today.

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Debut with Bulgaria

Kraska’s career in the Guard gained momentum in 1970 under the rule of Yuri Kuznetsov. - At first I trained with the first team, but I went to matches with a reserve. However, the real lesson of football was training with the first team. When Kuznetsov took over the team, he bet on me during one of our games in Denmark. So I was already in the top 11. And two years later, a team was called to eliminate the national team for the Olympic Games with Bulgaria in Stara Zagora. In 1969 I was still in Płock in the fourth league, and three years later it was time to make my debut in the national team! he recalls.

The fact that Mr. Jerzy will play in this match with Bulgaria, he learned on the eve of the match. - During the walk, coach Jerzy Gmoch approached me and said that tomorrow I will be in the first team. Well, that was a huge surprise. I thought it was probably too fast for me. I was hoping to first look at the game from the outside, but here I had to play right away! says Mr Jerzy.

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He had an emergency to replace Gorgonia

We lost the match with Bulgaria 1:3, but, fortunately, Poland made it to the Games anyway. And there Byalo-Chervonyh was waiting for a real football test: a match against the USSR. - I will never forget these emotions. I started this game on the bench. And in the 30th minute, I had to enter the field and replace our backbone of the defense Jurek Gorgon. In addition, we lost 0:1. I did hit the stopwatch, and yet my nominal position was defensive midfielder. Fortunately, we managed to catch up, we won 2:1 and this result opened the way for us to the final. Before that, there was also a formality, 5:0 from Morocco, says our brave defender.

Terror attack in Munich

The match against the USSR was special for several reasons. One of them was the terrorist attack by the Palestinian organization Black September. They captured eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team. And this is what Mr. Jerzy is talking about. “No one expected something like this to happen. Nobody, absolutely nobody! I remember when we went to the common dining room, we passed by the building where the athletes from Israel lived. It must have been two or three stories high. And then anti-terrorists in masks with large machine guns walked along the roof. It was maybe 200 meters from the dining room. It was so depressing… And then, when we found out how it all ended (all eleven hostages died - ed. note), melancholy overwhelmed me. We were just about to start playing with the USSR when the hostage rescue failed. I remember we went out two or three times to warm up. No one knew whether our match would take place and whether the games would continue. In the end, information came that the whole competition would continue and no one would surrender to terrorism.

Lubansky paid a terrible price for his triumph over England. “I have no complaints. It was a fatal twist of fate.”

We will win the gold match!

Five days later, Byalo-Chervoni had to fight for gold with the beloved Hungarian team. Mr. Jerzy Kraska was also ready, this is the most important meeting of his career.

- Before the Olympics, no one put us in the favorites. Before the start of the Olympic tournament, we lost 0:3 in a sparring with Polonia Bytom. The press laughed at us, saying that it would be better for the Polish diaspora to leave for Germany. And we gave the fans such a surprise and reached the grand final. The Hungarians were waiting there, with whom we had not won even once since the end of the Second World War. Incredible strength, they were twice Olympic champions. And we didn’t have any success with the national team. Legia and Gornik Zabrze fought in European competitions, but the national team had nothing to boast of. Now, from the very beginning of the match with Hungary, the fight was equal. And although we were losing 0-1 before the break, coach Gursky clearly said: “Listen, if we continue to play like this, we will win this match!”. And indeed, after the break, besides those two goals of Kazia Deyna, we had some more good moments. But the Hungarians did not have such. So we got the gold! To date, we are the only team that has won an important international football tournament. Of course, I expect and believe that I will live to see the same success with our other team, - says our hero.

Unlucky thirteen?

It may seem that the number thirteen is the most unlucky number for Mr. Jerzy. After all, he played so many official matches for the national team, and he himself has a slightly different opinion on this matter. - And that’s because I think it’s different. I’m adding another game against Colombia during the Olympics which I have no idea why we were taken away. And there was another meeting in front of Stara Zagora - a clash in Lodz with the GDR. Then the first teams played, but it was decided that this meeting would not be included in the official list. However, I feel that this was my real debut for the national team. In addition, with the thirteenth behind me, I played all the games and won the gold. So she’s out of luck? Probably not really.

After this match with the Russians, the fans screamed with happiness and carried the Poles in their arms. And our goalkeeper was crying…

Injuries overcame him

The finale of Mr. Jerzy’s representative career is the match against England. This meeting also entered the history of our football. - They thought they came to play with some amateur team. What kind of Poles … - Mr. Jerzy recalls and adds: - They still had the World Cup won in 1966 in their heads. Their league, the magic of names - all this was unheard of for us. And on the field it turned out that the ball is the same for everyone. We were better and a 2-0 win gave us a chance to compete for a spot in the 1974 World Cup. Then there was Wembley, but I was already watching this match on TV, lying in the hospital with my leg in a cast. after operation. I got seriously injured in such a strange match between Poznań and Warsaw. My meniscus came off and I started having health problems that I never got rid of.

For many years in Orly Gursky

Mr. Jerzy Kraska, despite the fact that he was still very young, did not return to a serious game in the national team after the match with England. - Coach Gursky called me to spar with Fortuna Düsseldorf, who played at the Warsaw Marimonte, but my leg failed again. For the next six years, I played a little, then I had to be treated. I’ve had four surgeries, three on my knee and one on my shoulder. I was still a Guards player, then I went to Finland for two years. At the end of my career, I returned to the club in Warsaw. Of course, there are also long-term performances in the Orłów Górski team, says Mr. Jerzy.

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No one can take away from him…

And what is one of the heroes of our golden eleven from Munich doing now? - I am resting today. (laughs) For the last two months I have been sitting on a plot in Masuria with my daughter and a dog. Unfortunately, my second wife died in December. I was very worried about it. Now for the first time we were on this site alone … This is life, she was still a young man, because she was less than 60 years old. I was sure that I would leave first. Now what’s left for me? Sometimes I watch some games. Not all of them because there are so many that you would probably go crazy if you wanted to see it all. I like the speeches of our representative office the most. Then I remember those emotions. I know one thing: what I experienced, what I won, will remain with me forever. No one can take this from me!