reporter: szymon starosta is packing up his gear. ay, the team will be facing off against arch-rival blau-weßs leopoldshagen. szymon always takes along his poland scarf, even in to the german district division games, when the players head over the border for league matches. >> who's up front today? >> misiek for sure, and skuter, too. reporter: nadrensee is hosting today's game. a few years ago, the small border town no longer had enough players to make up a team, because too many had moved to western germany. but the locals were determined to have a home team. mariusz nawrocki came to the rescue. the pole, who lives in nadrensee, began recruiting players from across the border. for him, it's an act of international cooperation. mariusz: we have one german here. he's turning 18 today, by the way, and he's learning polish at home -- even polish songs. i know of four people who are learning polish. they really want to be able to speak the language. reporter: one of the players has been injured. that's nothing unusual, but in the past, t