Football and supporting the home team
While gaining increasing popularity back in Australia, even before the Socceroos showed the rest of the world that we could compete and weren’t the “worst team in the competition” as some opposition coaches were quoted as saying, one really needs to experience the full deal in a country where football is lived: places like Europe, the UK, South America for example. Hopefully, with entry into the Asia league, Australia will start to pressure the top sides and show that, when it comes to sport, we only know how to play one way on the world stage, and that is to keep going until we reach the top. Be that as it may, we have some work to do but forward progress has to start from somewhere.
Being in Germany, the country hosting the World Cup (for those out their without contact with the outside world- itself an interesting paradox because you wouldn’t be reading this blog then) it is very hard not to get caught up in the World Cup Fever. Large plasma screen TV’s and massive open air displays seem to have grown out of the pavement as every beer hall attempts to cater for the hundreds and thousands of tourists and sports fans alike who have come to be a part of the event. Even in France, just over the border, the plasma sensation was quickly taking over even the smallest of bars. After Australia was knocked out, naturally I needed to find another team to support. Due to my Swiss friends from school, I adopted Switzerland as my next team only to see them knocked out on the same day. That left the mighty Bleus (France) to hold the fort and thankfully they made it through to the next stage. However, it is a brave person (fanatical fan or just an Englishman) who goes to Stuttgart central to cheer against the Germans. For today, I was to be German for a day.
Volker and I lined up to get into the main area 3 hours before the game, and at about 2 hours before kick-off, it was announced that the gates had closed after some 30,000 people had passed into the area. There were three huge screens and the area was surrounded by stalls selling beer, beer, beer , soft drink and food. Of the 30,000 inside, about 6 were from Argentina!!! At least that was all I counted. Another game of where's wally:
We were the lucky ones; we had a good view of the screens, ample supplies of beer and food and, most importantly plenty of portable toilets. The estimated 70~80,000 people outside the barriers had access to expensive beer (€10 a jug) limited toilet facilities and a crap view of the big screens (a view we knew first hand after the first elimination round against Sweden when we arrived late…2 hours before the game!) The scramble to obtain good vantage points outside of the barriers left the toilets looking a lot worse for wear!!
Without telling people how to suck eggs, I was not sure that playing tunes like “We are the champions” and singing chants like “Berlin, Berlin, we’re going to Berlin” before the game even started was necessarily the best way to approach the game. It certainly kept the crowd lively in the hours leading up to the game but certainly asks for Mr Murphy to stick his boot in at the wrong time. In fact after a scoreless first half, dominated by multiple penetrating attacks by the Argentinians , it almost looked as if the Germans might just be eating their words. The thing about home grounds is it’s great if their winning, and shithouse if they lose.
The second half quickly turned sour when Argentina scored a brilliant goal. There were no shots of Maradona celebrating, which was weird since in all of the other coverages he is shown with his family, swinging the Argentina jersey high above his head in celebration…perhaps he was busy doing lines of coke with his family in celebration instead. The mood amongst the 29,994 people in the area was solemn. Chances went begging and supporters became destitute. This was not going to plan…I was there to party and get right into it, not fade away as 100,000 supporters left home in defeat. Come on Germany.
The thing about football, as we Australians now know, is that the game is truly not over until the fat lady sings. Unlike a game of Aussie Rules or Rugby where a dominating team can make it clear, with points on the board, how the match is going to turn out, the international game of football is different. The Socceroos experienced the good (against Japan and Croatia) and the bad (against Italy) of this fact. The nature of football therefore means that you can have frustrating draws, devastating loses and ecstatic victories right up until the end of the game. And so, when Germany finally scored in the 80th minute, the crowd went nuts and the entire mood of the place changed. There was now hope for Germany to continue its rampage towards the final. The crowd lifted, flags waved and the signing started again. It was neigh on impossible not to get caught up in the whole thing.
The game itself went to overtime and then a penalty shoot out which the Germans ended up winning after their goalie saved two attempts, thus making the fifth attempt irrelevant. Party mode was in overdrive as the thousands of celebrating Germans hit the streets and began to party. The underground became a mass of red, yellow and black as people blew horns, whistles and hugged each other randomly down the platforms. The celebrations didn’t end there of course. They spilled onto the streets, stopping traffic as gangs of supporters stopped people from going anywhere until they’d blared the car horn for a solid 30 seconds. Car loads of people …with people sitting on the window sills mind you, waving the German flag, circled the streets as the police just blocked off streets to avoid any further congestion.
And so now it is time to await the next group in the semi-finals. Despite the days events, I’m still hoping that the winner of the Brazil~France game goes on to take the championship. Either way, I know I’ll be watching it, and as I suspect I will still be in Germany at the time, maybe I will have to go in my Aussie jersey and cheer for whoever wins!!
Being in Germany, the country hosting the World Cup (for those out their without contact with the outside world- itself an interesting paradox because you wouldn’t be reading this blog then) it is very hard not to get caught up in the World Cup Fever. Large plasma screen TV’s and massive open air displays seem to have grown out of the pavement as every beer hall attempts to cater for the hundreds and thousands of tourists and sports fans alike who have come to be a part of the event. Even in France, just over the border, the plasma sensation was quickly taking over even the smallest of bars. After Australia was knocked out, naturally I needed to find another team to support. Due to my Swiss friends from school, I adopted Switzerland as my next team only to see them knocked out on the same day. That left the mighty Bleus (France) to hold the fort and thankfully they made it through to the next stage. However, it is a brave person (fanatical fan or just an Englishman) who goes to Stuttgart central to cheer against the Germans. For today, I was to be German for a day.
Volker and I lined up to get into the main area 3 hours before the game, and at about 2 hours before kick-off, it was announced that the gates had closed after some 30,000 people had passed into the area. There were three huge screens and the area was surrounded by stalls selling beer, beer, beer , soft drink and food. Of the 30,000 inside, about 6 were from Argentina!!! At least that was all I counted. Another game of where's wally:
We were the lucky ones; we had a good view of the screens, ample supplies of beer and food and, most importantly plenty of portable toilets. The estimated 70~80,000 people outside the barriers had access to expensive beer (€10 a jug) limited toilet facilities and a crap view of the big screens (a view we knew first hand after the first elimination round against Sweden when we arrived late…2 hours before the game!) The scramble to obtain good vantage points outside of the barriers left the toilets looking a lot worse for wear!!
Without telling people how to suck eggs, I was not sure that playing tunes like “We are the champions” and singing chants like “Berlin, Berlin, we’re going to Berlin” before the game even started was necessarily the best way to approach the game. It certainly kept the crowd lively in the hours leading up to the game but certainly asks for Mr Murphy to stick his boot in at the wrong time. In fact after a scoreless first half, dominated by multiple penetrating attacks by the Argentinians , it almost looked as if the Germans might just be eating their words. The thing about home grounds is it’s great if their winning, and shithouse if they lose.
The second half quickly turned sour when Argentina scored a brilliant goal. There were no shots of Maradona celebrating, which was weird since in all of the other coverages he is shown with his family, swinging the Argentina jersey high above his head in celebration…perhaps he was busy doing lines of coke with his family in celebration instead. The mood amongst the 29,994 people in the area was solemn. Chances went begging and supporters became destitute. This was not going to plan…I was there to party and get right into it, not fade away as 100,000 supporters left home in defeat. Come on Germany.
The thing about football, as we Australians now know, is that the game is truly not over until the fat lady sings. Unlike a game of Aussie Rules or Rugby where a dominating team can make it clear, with points on the board, how the match is going to turn out, the international game of football is different. The Socceroos experienced the good (against Japan and Croatia) and the bad (against Italy) of this fact. The nature of football therefore means that you can have frustrating draws, devastating loses and ecstatic victories right up until the end of the game. And so, when Germany finally scored in the 80th minute, the crowd went nuts and the entire mood of the place changed. There was now hope for Germany to continue its rampage towards the final. The crowd lifted, flags waved and the signing started again. It was neigh on impossible not to get caught up in the whole thing.
The game itself went to overtime and then a penalty shoot out which the Germans ended up winning after their goalie saved two attempts, thus making the fifth attempt irrelevant. Party mode was in overdrive as the thousands of celebrating Germans hit the streets and began to party. The underground became a mass of red, yellow and black as people blew horns, whistles and hugged each other randomly down the platforms. The celebrations didn’t end there of course. They spilled onto the streets, stopping traffic as gangs of supporters stopped people from going anywhere until they’d blared the car horn for a solid 30 seconds. Car loads of people …with people sitting on the window sills mind you, waving the German flag, circled the streets as the police just blocked off streets to avoid any further congestion.
And so now it is time to await the next group in the semi-finals. Despite the days events, I’m still hoping that the winner of the Brazil~France game goes on to take the championship. Either way, I know I’ll be watching it, and as I suspect I will still be in Germany at the time, maybe I will have to go in my Aussie jersey and cheer for whoever wins!!
posted by santas walkabout at 10:13 pm
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