I Came For a 3-0 Shellacking?!?!
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2006
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19
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Trip End
Apr 01, 2008
Gelsenkirchen,
Germany
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Upon arriving in Dusseldörf (Saturday, June 11), I met Monica and Terry (friends from New York for those that don't know them) and we went down to the Altstadt, which is also widely known as the Longest Bar for its concentration of bars, cafes, restaurants and clubs. Although there were some Americans around, I was surprised at how few because it hardly felt as overwhelmed as I expected
2 Seconds Before
. However, Dusseldörf was not the only major city that was hosting fans. We had some random German beers, our first (of many) meat meals, and then Wogs (who I haven't seen since he moved to Hong Kong in January) arrived around 11:00 p.m. A couple more beers and some catch-up and we called it an evening.Sunday - the day of reckoning. I would love to foreshadow the event that comes, but everyone knows the result (3-0 Czech), and I honestly can't say something like "the sky was a foreboding gray" or "an ill-wind blew." The closest I can come is our journey to the stadium. Gelsenkirchen is a brand new stadium used by one of the NFL Europe teams, and was built (for a reason obscure to me) in a field outside of a suburb of a suburb. It was a 45 minute train there, which was fine because the feeling of an event was building - the train was 95% Czech and U.S. fans and people were starting to sing and drink beers.
There were also electric trolleys, but the line for them was huge and they were going off stuffed to the gills. The helpful station announcer and another aide suggested the bus as a better option. Oops. Our bus was packed tighter than an overweight tween in a halter and hiphuggers. To get the doors closed, a guy in an orange vest has to hold the bars on both sides of the door and use his chest to get the last couple of guys far enough in the bus
Bad Gas?
. By this point, we had already been on the bus for 10 minutes, and the air conditioning was overwhelmed.As an aside, when I say the last couple of guys needed to get on the bus, I meant it. The World Cup is a guy-fest. There appear to be no single women, alone or in groups. The women that are here are all married and shit. The U.S. crowd was a little better than some (e.g, if you look very carefully when the camera shows the English fans, you might see an old dowager in a see of male faces). Another aside, while I am at it, is that all the fans have been good sports and well-behaved. There is some good-natured ribbing and the constant singing, but nothing remotely confrontational. Which leads to another aside - the U.S. has no good soccer songs. We have the annoying U...S...A, U...S...A chant and that is it. A couple people would try things like "This Land Is My Land" but they were non-starters.
So to get back to us sweating on the bus, we were sweating rivulets, as was everyone else around us. The bus was moving at a crawl through traffic, and the bloody trams were blowing by us in silent triumph. Heat stroke was discussed. The guy next to me whispered a comment to his buddy about the ovens of Nazi Germany (jokes about the Holocaust are illegal), and it was an unavoidable comparison
Drinking Buddies
. Than, we didn't move for about 10 minutes. Finally, people yelled to open the doors and let us out, and we were expelled like two zits popping simultaneously.However, we were still 3 klicks from the game. We walked. U.S. fans and Czech fans. We bought beers, we met people, we bought more beers, some sang, and our caravan slowly grew as we approached the stadium. We got there in plenty of time to get a hand-job from security (they totally ignored their threat to match IDs to the name on tickets and we saw scalping), and stand in a 20-minute line for beers.
Another aside - if you read that the Germans organized this event efficiently, they lie, they lie, and they lie some more. The buses\trains were insufficient and the concession stands were farsical, with three food-only lines standing unused next to people waiting 30 minutes for beer. On the other hand, a one Euro deposit was placed on each beer or Coke cup, which could be collected upon return. This is common here, but many of the Americans appeared to not even realize it, or not care, and I made 10 Euros picking up cups on my way out - I could have made more, but we tried to beat the rush for the buses\trams.
The game itself was a blast, but for the score and the play of the U.S
Dusseldorf by the Rhein
. The stadium was filled and electric. Fans standing, singing, yelling at the ref, inhaling with anticipation as a shot opportunity formed, and groaning with disappointment when the opportunity was not converted. The U.S. fans that came were much more knowledgable than me, and much more into it, to be honest. Our seats weren't bad, but you see much more on TV, and the lack of commentary hurt a soccer novice like myself.And its quick. Start right at 6:00 p.m., play without interruption, take a 15-minute break, play another 48 minutes, and disgorge the fans before 8:00 (except for those who stay to sing and hug and watch the players mill about. Still, wven though we tried to leave among the first, our location in the stadium ensured that the trams were already full when they got to our stop, and we were not getting back on the bus, so we walked 2.5 klicks (along with many others) back to a place that had empty buses. Terry and I made a late night of it, drinking random shots with some old Germans, and we took off the next morning for Stuttgart in our rental Ford wagon.
Next - Stuttgart, Germany
Comments
eurosports
I don't really understand this soccer, but the security hand--job sounded promising. Note: Ironman France is next Saturday in Nice and Quelle Challenge Roth (fka Ironman Germany) is July 2 in Roth, Germany.