Julie here! Now it is
my turn to write about the World Cup,
or the Weltmeisterschaft if I want to be cocky with my German!
Since Noah has returned from Brazil, no World Cup game has
lived up to his USA v Portugal experience.
But that doesn’t mean we didn’t try.
The first big match we went out to watch was USA v Belgium in the Sweet
16 (or whatever FIFA wants to call it).
Sadly for us the game was at 10 pm on a weeknight here. But who cares – we decided to go to be real
fans and go out and watch it at Hirschgarten with all the other true
Americans! Yep – all 9 of us were
there.
To be fair – it had been raining that day, and it was even
sprinkling on us a bit while we waited for the game began. This reduced the massive crowd from about 30
people to about 20 (not everyone was American, you see, hence my earlier
estimates of 9). Noah and I were set up
on the first table under the tree with our American flag spread out on the
table like a nice brotzeit tablecloth. Noah
had on his jersey, and I was sporting the scarf. USA! USA! USA!
A group of three American college kids sat at the table next
to us, though sporting exactly 0% America.
Lame. I get that you might be
uncomfortable drawing attention to the fact you are an American tourist as you
travel through Europe, but come on! You
are there to root your country on! Have
some pride! After two drunk Germans came
up to us and our American paraphernalia and started wishing our team luck and
wanting to talk America with us, the youngsters next to us finally stopped
whispering their English and relaxed.
The other 5 Americans that I counted sat two tables behind
us with some of their international friends.
For the record – Noah and I were the original ones there, so I like to
think our outlandish patriotism drew our fellow countrymen to us like
magnets. So even though it was a late
night, and even though we lost, Noah and I had a good time in our tiny crowd of
people cheering on America.
Now that USA was out of the running, I decided to throw my
support behind the country that gave me a work/residence visa. Go Deutschland! Now I had been saying from the beginning that
I thought Germany would win, which was reflected in my ESPN bracket that I set
up. It sometimes seemed I had more
confidence in Germany than others around here.
I heard many people voicing their doubts due to the wake of the injuries
the German team had sustained before the tournament. Soooo un-American. (Get
it? Because they are Germans?)
We decided to go back to Hirschgarten to see Germany play France
in the Elite 8. This time it was a
Friday afternoon, so we knew the place would be packed. To keep it more low key, we took the dogs and
blankets and dinner and posted up on the grass behind the beer garden. The view wasn’t amazing, but it was nicer
than being jam packed into the beer garden.
As I wrote that I realize how old I sound. Anyways, the crowd inside the beer garden was
massive, plus many others were on the grass with us, so we all got to cheer
Germany on as they won 1-0. Viva La
Germany!
Skipping Germany’s 7-1 domination of Brazil (poor Neymar) in
the Final 4, I’ll fast forward to the finale on Sunday. Earlier that afternoon we took the dogs to Hirschgarten
for their walk, and the beer garden was already full of people – many who were
decked out in German colors and already plastered. As I already established our lameness
earlier, and adding the fact that the game started at 9pm, I will readily admit
we just stayed home and watched it in our living room. I was really hoping Germany could just win in
regular time so I could get to bed at a reasonable hour, but they decided to
stretch it out into extra time. Finally
around 1am Germany scored the only goal of the game, and I was super excited
because of the win it was bedtime.
Only (partly) kidding – I was happy for Germany. And I couldn’t truly get to sleep for another
hour and a half with the fireworks booming (scaring poor Sadie, but what doesn’t?),
the people from Hirschgarten screaming, and people driving down the street
outside our bedroom honking their horns until 2:30am. Though I wasn’t angry about that – I mean I
am not going to deny these people their celebration for their country’s
fantastic win! In fact I was in awe that
so many people had fireworks. This
highlights the wonderful planning of Germans – these people had to prepare 7
months out at New Years. They stockpiled
fireworks back in December for a potential World Cup win. I was impressed.
I do have to admit I was a bit disappointed the next day on
my way to work. I felt like barely
anyone was continuing their celebration.
I believe if this was USA, and USA loved soccer as much as the rest of
the world does, then everyone would be wearing USA clothes or colors or flags,
high fiving each other all the way. Instead
I saw a whopping three people with tiny painted flags on their cheeks
throughout my entire commute, both to work and home. What is going on here Germany? Where is your outspoken pride?? Just
one more difference between our cultures I guess - Germans will totally shout
and celebrate, but only for a reasonable timeframe.
Overall I do enjoy watching the World Cup, like I enjoy the
Olympics. It is cool to be able to get
with your entire country and cheer with pride for your team. And all those people who think those of us
who only watch soccer during the World Cup are somehow ‘lesser than’… I also
only watch Gymnastics during the Summer Olympics, and snowboarding during the
Winter Olympics, so don’t worry about it.
That is why it is so exciting – because it is only every 4 years. Though unfortunately here in Europe,
there are about 16 different soccer championships every year or two, so I won’t
be able to escape it completely until 2018.
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