Ice Hockey takes over Slovakia

At the beginning there were ambitious plans and visions. After the medal winning years in first parts of the new millennium (silver in 2000, gold in 2002 and bronze in 2003) the Slovaks decided to be a candidate to host the Ice Hockey World Championships. In 2006 at the IIHF Congress in Riga, Latvia, the championship was awarded to Slovakia and five years later the fans lived to see their dream come true – they welcomed the world’s hockey elite by the river Danube and under the Tatra Mountains, for the first time ever. And although the activity and cooperation of the individual organising units stagnated and the renovation of the Ice Arena in Bratislava was protracted till the last moment, everything was done on time in the end. Slovakia showed its nicer face to the world through ice hockey.
 
First they cried “This is our home!” and then “We are already at home”

When good luck for this year´s world championship was handed out, the Slovak hockey players either did not stand in queue or were forgotten. It’s a shame because the excellent atmosphere and organisation deserved a cherry on the top in the form of good results from the home national team. The golden generation longed for a medal as a crowning achievement for its long-term efforts on the national team. Slovakia put together a strong pool of players similar to that from the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver in the previous year, where the hockey players with double cross gave the home team from Canada a scare in the semi-finals only to fall and the watch as the Fins snatched bronze from them due to their failure in the final period of the bronze medal match. Now in their home environment, under the roof of the new Bratislava Orange Arena and under the lead of the Canadian coach Glen Hanlon, they were unable to replicate this success.   Two victories – over the newcomer from Slovenia (3 to 1) and an average team Denmark (4 to 1) were not sufficient to advance to the quarter-finals. Nothing but narrow defeats with Germany (3 to 4), Russia (3 to 4), Czech Republic (2 to 3) and Finland (1 to 2) were the results. Their final rank of 10th was accompanied by bitter disappointment a huge opportunity that had slipped away, but the fans did not come to vent their frustration on their stars. In the last match of the final-eight group against Denmark they prepared a national team farewell for the captain Pavel Demitra, moving him to tears. Only the favourite championship slogan of the Slovaks “This is our home!” changed to “We are already home” was uttered by more malicious fans.

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“I never imagined that I would say goodbye in a match with Denmark with nothing on the line. But thanks to the fantastic fans in the stands it was worth it," 36-year-old Demitra said in a voice trembling with emotion. His long standing colleague in the national team Miroslav Šatan added: “After those one-goal defeats we really wanted to hear the Slovak anthem. We did it, but our thanks belong to our fantastic fans. They supported us even when we were losing.”

The championship enjoyed great interest. The organizers estimate that Bratislava was visited by 100,000 hockey fans from abroad. The Orange Arena with a capacity of nearly ten thousand visitors was almost always sold out and during matches featuring the Slovaks and the Czechs the nearby Fan Village was almost hopelessly filled. The adjacent restaurants and pubs as well as souvenir shops also lived for the championship and offered many different types of hockey memorabilia or special hockey menus. Swedish, Finish, Russian and Czech outfits and flags stayed in supply the longest as these countries advanced up to the semi-final round.

Košice was also a part of the Hockey Republic 

And what an important part this city was; during Slovak matches nearly 11,000 fans crowded the local amphitheatre. The home fans were quick to point out with pleasure that there had more people in one place than in the sold out Bratislava arena. 
On Main Street fans were concentrated in two reserved zones (FAN ZONE and FAN VILLAGE), and although weather was not always favourable for standing on the square, Slovak matches usually sold out. “I did not get tickets for matches of our team in Bratislava, so I´ll watch them like this with my friends,” Peter (25) affirmed. After the defeat with Germany that the fans watched on a large screen in the centre of Kosice in windy and rainy weather, nobody was in a talking mood.  He still hoped that the tables would be turned, but it wasn’t to be.

A number of overseas teams found transitory refuge in Kosice as well. The Canadians and Americans garnered more attention than anybody else from their landing at the airport.   An interesting personality in the Kosice portion of the championship was Yan Stastny or Ján Šťastný (in Slovak). He is oldest son of the Slovak hockey legend Peter Šťastný, a present member of the European Parliament. The 28 year-old hockey player in the US outfit did not excel much on the ice, but he enjoyed his stay in Kosice very much. “I’m pleased to visit Slovakia, the native country of my parents.  My teammates and I in the US team like it very much. A lot of them said they would like to come back for a holiday,” Stastny said in rough but passable Slovak.

Nothing but praise for ‚Košize‘, ‚Kosike‘ and ‚Kousik‘ 

It cannot be said that the metropolis of East Slovakia was flooded by foreign tourists during the championship, but those who came certainly did not regret their decision. ‚Košize‘, ‚Kosike‘ or ‚Kousik‘ – these different names were used by visitors for Kosice at the turn of April and May 2011. The loudest and most colourfully-painted were the Swiss who came with drums or typical cow bells. Many Byelorussians and Austrians also visited the group matches. A special segment was the Norwegians who came to Slovakia for cheap and good beer, in addition to the hockey. They had a few beers in the fan zone and then cheered on their team until they lost their vocal chords. “This is the greatest championship in my life. Slovakia is a splendid country with pretty girls and cheap beer. And when our hockey players perform well, I cannot complain,” Norwegian fan Jan Frode, who travelled to Slovakia from faraway Lillehammer, said.

Author: Daniel Šarga
Photo: Daniel Šarga

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