World Cup '74 Portrait #160 (Leslaw Cmikiewicz: Poland)

graphite & putty eraser/30x21cm

Post number 900 here on TOoT, & this latest subject features the re-mediated features of Leslaw Cmikiewicz, who was represented in both the FKS & Panini World Cup ’74 sticker albums that provide & subsequently selected for inclusion in the official Poland squad for the tournament, during which he entered the fray as a second-half substitute in 6 of the Poles’ 7 matches, missing only a run-out against Sweden in the first of the Second Round group fixtures.

In contemporary footballing developments, congratulations this weekend are in order to US Hostert on the occasion of their first win of the season back in the top flight in Luxembourg, 2- 1 over FC Wiltz, the only team at the time below Hostert in the division, but those are the must-win matches.

We’re also celebrating another first league win of the season in Luxembourg, down the divisions, for our very favourites Kischpelt Welwerwolz or Wilwerwitz, a thumping 4 – 0 triumph against US Rambrouch, a most edifying result.

Badge of the Day #94 (US Hostert)

 

 

This very latest addition to the collection represents US Hostert, a recent name to have emerged on the Euro-radar, currently resident in the second tier of Luxembourg’s domestic soccer pyramid, to whence they returned after a single-season sojourn in the top flight in 2011-12, having finished firmly in last place with an admirably ‘heroic’ low total of 8 points, accrued from two wins & two draws, from 26 matches, accompanied by a goal-difference of -60 (to which 1 – 9, 1 – 6 & 0 -6 home defeats made a not inconsiderable contribution).

The second & third levels have very been much been Hostert’s natural habitat, since promotion to the latter from the fourth tier in 2001-02, before which they had spent their time oscillating between third & fourth.

The badge itself is a contemporary object, thus lacking any of the usual desirable vintage aspect, yet it provides the perfect vehicle for the club’s crest, which is of fine if idiosyncratic design: the green & white colour combination is obviously an attraction, as is the figure of the footballer, drawn by a sequence of elegant curves that yet somehow coalesce into the suggestion of a certain unathletically chubbily stiff clumsiness (contrast this with the angular dynamism of the graphic player representing Timok Zaječar on that club’s badge) - as might befit a lower division player, perhaps - & his head described by the ‘O’ of ‘Hostert’, all rather irresistible & something to be sported with a particular pride.