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The calendar didn't exactly read 7/4 or even 12/25 but for what its worth, my return to land of sit down toilets was both all in one. I got a little bored hanging out with myself in the Philippines so I switched around my flights and headed to Germany where I knew the USA still hadn't been eliminated from the World Cup. (As I write this, we're halfway through the finals and its good to see the Italians have a good shot because, well, they are the other team I was rooting for even if they were the opposition in Kaiserslautern.)
So after a 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Frankfurt I got on the wrong train and went 4 hours in the wrong direction to the wrong city of Nuremburg. USA was toplay Ghana the following week in Nuremburg and I crossed my cities and dates. So another 4 hour ride back to Frankfurt corrected my mistake but didn't count for the next three hours on two trains to get me to Kaiserslautern Germany.
The thing I hadn't realized about Europe (Germany during the World Cup is an exception) is that you need to book accomodation well
in advance if you don't want to spend the night on the train station floor. Germany was completley sold out of hotel rooms, hostel rooms even campsites. So I rolled into Kaiserslautern with the intention of wandering around and praying that there was some act of God and a cancelation would pop up as soon as I enquired at a hotel. I wouldn't even need that.
After stepping out of the train station, I hear a loud boisterious drunk voice yell, "There's a Phillies Fan!" If you haven't noticed, I wear my hat with a bit of religious ferver and may have helped in my lodging prayers that day. Mazi, a Philadelphia native who relocated to LA was travelign with two other of his LA friends, Craig and Kana, to see the US games in teh world cup and after buying them a round of beers on the street, they told me I could crash at the unfurnished apartment they had rented for the few days surrounding the USA Italy game. This random meeting would prove to be one of the best parts about my trip. There are some things you can plan for weeks ahead of time and
with al the anticipation, might fail to meet expectations. When you are flying by the seat of your pants and expecting to sleep on a park bench, floorspace in an unfurnished apartment is the equivalent of sleeping on a cloud. Some of the enjoyable times you have in life simply cannot be planed.
There was no way for any of us to know that we'd all have a blast together, but after a few rounds of tasty german brews, it was apparent that we were all on the same wavelength and the good times rolled.
Kaiserslautern put on a good show. Every plaza played host to some type of festival whether it be a stage with live bands playing all day long or a minature soccer field set up for the kids to play. The main drag leading from town up to the stadium was called World Cup Mile and had vendor stands every five steps selling everything from Ice Cream to Retro Soccer Sweaters to you name it. Most importantly, there was the good German beer to fill up all the American Soccer Hooligans that had swarmed into the city.
I began to wonder whether or
not the USA would have a good fan turnout based on the number of Americans I saw the day before the match but when I woke up to the chants of USA, USA the morning of...I knew I was in for a show...
Not even down the Jersey Shore on the 4th of July have I seen as many American Flags as I saw that day. Most were draped over people's shoulders ala Superman cape which as I believe isn't exactly proper use of a flag, but whatever...its the World Cup and we still had a chance. I sang songs I haven't sung since grade school, "When the Yanks go Marching in" I pledged allegiance to the flag a few dozen times in unison with a crowd of thousands. There were a bunch of songs that are supposedly associated with American Soccer that absolutely no one knew how to sing so a group of guys were passing out lyrics. That was a sadder site than trying to ride a unicycle. But I must say that when the crowd began to get really rowdy and started chanting, to the tune of If you're happy and you know it..."You can stick
a Pepperoni up your @ss" I had an overwhelming sense of American pride.
I never made it into the game which is a shame. I hear it was a good one. I tried to scalp a ticket but the asking price of 100 euros was WAY out of the budget so I hung out with some cool Americans and attempted to watch the match on whatever screen in town had a decent view.
I must say that it was a refreshing site to see so many proud Americans in Germany supporting our national team even though many of us couldn't care less about soccer and are counting down the days before the NFL season starts. But after being the subject of ignorant Anti-American prejudices for the past six months, it was such a comforting feeling being back in the company of Americans.
USA - 1
Italy - 1
I actually feared what would happen if we lost, seeing the drunken state of most of the fans during the game, and for that matter what kind of celebration would ensue if we actually won. On the whole, a tie was probably the best and safest outcome for the
crowd of Kaiserslautern, though the tie exponentially complicated their chances of advancing to the next round.
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