Weltmeisterschaft 2006

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Well the World Cup is well and truly underway. Kristian, Anja and myself travelled to Munich for the opening match and, apart from being one of Germany's major cities anyway, was absolutely packed full of German football fans. The game was against Costa Rica and for every 10,000 German we saw 1 or 2 Costa Ricians. The weather up until that exact day had been less than perfect, infact in was downright cold but as if on cue it dramatically changed the day the world cup started. So bathed in sunshine we sailed down the autobahn towards Munich.

Upon arriving we dropped the car at Sabine's house (she was at the time powerinf through a medical physiology exam) and caught the U-Bahn in to the city centre. People everywhere. We went to the English gartens for a look around and some food. The English Garden's are Munich's massive botanical gardens that is twice the size as New York's Central Park and far more beautiful. Then we went back to Sabine's to pick up her and her boyfriend Tim. We had actually met Sabine the week before in Heidenheim and after she told us her boyfriend's name was Tim and that he would be joining us in Munich we both enquired "What do people call him?", "Tim" she said. To which we replied "yeah, no, not what his name is but what people call him", "they call him Tim" she said. Infact his name is not Timothy its just Tim, anyway we called him Timmy.

You may recall the recent movie with Eric Bana called Munich about the 1976 Olympics, well it was to the main Olympic stadium that we headed to watch the game with thousands of others on a massive screen, however upon arriving we found thousands of fans streaming away from the stadium as if the game was over. The stadium was full they told us. The game was actually in Munich, so the actuall football stadium was full and another stadium that was only showing the telecast was full, the city square was full, the huge beer garden in English Gardens were full. Everything was full and we had 50 minutes til kick off. Shit. So back onto the U-Bahn, absolutely packed in, and into town. We weren't the only displaced viewers, there was many more searching for a screen. The atmosphere wasn't at all tense tho, I think because every bar, restaurant, butchers, bakery and dress shop in the whole country was televising the game people figured they would all find somewhere to watch it.

We picked a bar on the main street and thanks to Germany's incredibly accomodating liquor laws were able to buy cheap beer from a nearby supermarket and then drink it in the bar! Anyway we won, well they won, Germany won 4-2 against Costa Rica and the Germans were sure happy about it. Immeadiately taking to the streets with flags and horns, cheering, singing, shouting. It was as if they had won the entire championship not beaten a small central American nation with 4 million people in a country the size of West Virginia. But that didnt matter, it could have been Lichenstein, or even the North Ballarat 2nds, they won and thats what mattered.

The night was a fantastic one filled with soccer, mexican food, packed German night clubs. The next day was spent in the Englisch gardens having a few recovery steins and watching Englands first match. So the whole Munich trip was a excellent, well worth the trip.

We have spent this week in Tübingen watching the games on a huge screen next to a beautiful river, surrounded by trees in a beer garden built just for the World Cup. So far I have seen every match in the championship. Everyone we meet is very encouraging about the socceroos. Perhaps because there is so many inter-European soccer rivalries they are happy for an outside team to be doing well. Actually I think they all just love saying the word "Socceroos", quite often when we are wearing our Australia T-Shirts people will yell "Hey, Socceroos! Good win mate!"

Last night was the 2nd Germany game and they scored a goal in the 92nd minute, so again they went crazy So another good night in Tübingen. We must go, today is the famous Tübingen Stocherkahn race. A Stockerkahn is basically a big gondola, should be quite interesting. I will get photos.

Hope all are well

Go Soccerroos!!

John

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Photos

After The Aussie Victory
I couldn't believe it, what a win!

After The German Match
This is Leopold Straße in Munich

Comments

[dave]

look out germany!
kristian, i thought u were coming back in june, whats the deal???im so jelous of you that u get to see the world cup. Ive been watching all the games but they start at 11 at night and finish at 7 in the morning, how lame!!!so spare a thought for all of us in melbourne who are watching the games in bed while your of on a sunny day at the games drinking beer...how unfortunate for us... send us a email. dave