Poland 2 Germany 0

Yesterday was, it must be said, a good day for the Poles. Well, in a glass half full sort of way, anyway.

In the Germany v Poland game at Euro 2008, both goals were scored by Lukas Podolski, the forward born in Gliwice in Poland, and son of former Polish footballer Waldemar Podolski.

Unfortunately, the Podolskis moved to the former West Germany when Lukas was just two, which meant that last night he was scoring against the country of his birth rather than for them.

Oh well.

It will be of little consolation to the Poles in defeat, but in addition to Podolski they can also claim to have produced not one but two of Germany's strikers: Podolski's Bayern Munich and Germany team-mate Miroslav Klose was also born in Poland (and, like Podolski's father, Klose Sr was also a Polish professional footballer).

It makes you wonder, though. What if footballers were only allowed to represent the country of their birth? How much poorer a team would Germany be without Podolski and Klose? How much better would Poland be? And might we have seen last night's 2-0 scoreline reversed?

Better news for the Polish nation came several thousand miles away in Montreal, where Robert Kubica - F1's first ever Polish driver - secured his maiden win in only his 29th race. The victory would have been sweeter still for the fact that it came in Canada, where last year Kubica suffered a horrific 300km/h crash - his car spearing into a barrier, rolling across the track shedding bits of carbon-fibre bodywork everywhere, before finally striking the opposite wall - from which he was miraculously fortunate to escape with a sprained ankle and a concussion. (link)

Yesterday's win couldn't have happened to a nicer, or more talented, driver. For all the fuss that has centred on the similarly inexperienced Lewis Hamilton - a competitor and friend of Kubica's from the junior formulae - I have a sneaky suspicion the Pole is at least as capable as the more trumpeted Briton. In this, his second full season in F1, he has been a model of speed and consistency in a BMW car which is undoubtedly not quite a match for the Ferraris and McLarens. And yet victory yesterday propelled Kubica to the top of the drivers' standings. It's a position which, in all probability, he will not be able to maintain in the long run, but it is also just reward for a driver who quietly goes about this most dangerous of businesses without courting the limelight.

Yesterday, the contrast with Hamilton could not have been more stark. While the McLaren driver committed a basic error by running into the back of Kimi Raikkonen who had stopped in the pitlane in response to a red light, Kubica kept his nose clean and drove a fast, flawless race to beat his veteran team-mate Nick Heidfeld (who was also seeking his first win) to the chequered flag.

And therein lies the irony. On a day when a Polish-born striker playing for Germany beat Poland at football, we also witnessed a Polish driver in the most German of teams, BMW, beat his German teammate to both his and the team's first F1 victory. You've got to love it.