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Published: June 18th 2006
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Chalk one up for the home team.
Using my non-fluent silence and Ecuador shirt to convince security I was lost and my family was already inside (I have a great puppy-face, ask my ex´s), Inky gets us into an already-jam-packed Fan Fest viewing area for the Germany-Costa Rica opening match as it was starting. Moments earlier, I had somehow managed to keep up with her on a borrowed bicycle, despite the height of the seat being more suited for Dirk Nowitzki than yours truly. Not exactly how I imagined the beginning of the World Cup going down, but we´re here.
I learn a couple of German chants (on two occasions, Inky tells me to disregard what the friendly drunks are trying to teach me) and Deutschland prevails 4-2. The fans are surprisingly friendly despite my enemy colors (Germany plays Ecuador in Berlin, June 20th), though that might have something to do with telling them Cologne is my favorite German city (it really is though). Changing subjects for a moment, I notice a huge BBQ grill hanging from the roof of a tarp, swinging back and forth like a pendulum, charring roughly 500 types of wurst all at once. German
engineering at its finest.
That brings us to the Ecuador/Poland match, with a significantly smaller viewing audience. The locals which remain (Inky heads home to study for finals) are strongly in favor of Ecuador, due in large part to their strong rivalry and history with the Poles. Plus everyone loves an underdog, and my fellow countrymen are 3-1 longshots due to most experts saying Ecuador can´t win unless they play at high altitudes. To elaborate, let´s go back to yesterday when one of the crazy Ecuador fanatics had this spirited exchange with a local (and try and imagine it with bad English accents):
EcuaFan: We will beat Poland AND Germany! SI SE PUEDE!!
German: You don´t win outside of Quito during qualifying! Without 2,800 metres of altitude, you won´t beat anybody!
EcuaFan: And Bolivia? They have altitude too! But they don´t qualify!
German: Congratulations! You are better than Bolivia! Unfortunately, you don´t play them in Germany!
EcuaFan: (suddenly distracted)
Aplauso!! (round of applause breaks out as another hot Cologne-ian walks by)
That being said, you can imagine the shock and joy from the crowd when Ecuador´s Tenorio heads the first goal of
Key West - Cologne
Only Hurricane threat - Me. the match through in the 24th minute for a 1-0 advantage. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!! It proves to be the winner as they add a counter-attack strike in the 80th minute for a 2-0 result which puts my fellow countrymen (half-Ecuadorian, half-amazing) in great position to advance to the 2nd round for the first time in their history. The country must be going ape$hit (the President declared the next day a holiday, no work or banks... gotta love 3rd-world countries). My buddy Loncar said it best: "So how many
atropellos do you think there will be in Quito tonight?"
Back to the action and real reason I´m here, I meet up with a large group of Ecuadorians and head over to the college bar area. All these years of anticipation lead to my first true night out at the World Cup, all the plane rides, train naps and couch-surfing culminate in this moment, and where do we end up? A bar called "KEY WEST" that plays (get this) Salsa and Merengue. At least it´s not a Hasselhoff-themed "Baywatch" club.
We chat, drink and dance and on the way to the head, a cute local asks if I´m from Ecuador (mind you,
I´m WEARING an Ecuador shirt). I make a pit-stop and tell her about the hostel I´m opening there, which leads to me giving her salsa lessons. For those who know me, you know just as well as I do that Germany is one of the few places in the world where I´m qualified to GIVE salsa lessons. After a few songs and several dozen turns, we head back for a drink and I notice she has 10 rings on her hands, one on each finger. By the time we finish discussing the 7th, we are kissing next to her friends. NOW, with all the dancing and jewelry chat, some of the usual pre-screening questions were tossed aside, so it was only natural when she asked how old I was. I ask her to tell me first and she says, without as much as a blink, twitch or stutter, "Sixteen".
Okay, good time for a 20-second timeout. Before you forward this on to Miami Beach authorities, know a few things:
1) We were in a college-area bar/club at 3am on a Friday
2) The legal age of consent in Germany AND Ecuador is 14
3) She was
The 10k Shuffle
Patent pending. taller than me
Fine, the last one sucks, but I had to try. Needless to say, I distance myself from the Lord of the Rings, say goodbye to all my new friends, and look for a cab home as the sun comes up around 5am. Changing subjects for a moment, I admire the Street-Sweeper 2000 doing away with the night´s rubbish, erasing all the damage the Deutschland and Ecuador fans had done in a matter of minutes. I wonder if by letting it run me over once, it can wipe away the night´s sins. After all, it IS German engineering. On second thought, I eat half a chicken, french fries and LOTS of mayonnaise ("I seen em do it, they drown em in that $hit"), catch my cab and crash on Inky´s IKEA couch.
With one day in the books, the World Cup is off to a good start and the
10kPreview is looking solid (hope you placed your bets). Now if you´ll excuse me, I have to call my attorney.
10kJuan
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