Tuesday, June 13, 2006:
Well not sure I can add anything that you all probably didn't see in the US game yesterday. The USMNT got it handed to them by the Czechs. We all saw what happened and realize we need a lot to go our way to get out of this group.
Aside from that, we had a great time...we met up with some friends we worked in Colorado that I've traveled with before.
Before I go further, I'll fill you in a bit...
I started last Friday in Brazil. That's right. I was in Curitiba with the FC Dallas general manager on a meeting with Atletico Paranaense. That's for another post.
On Friday we went to a restaurant for lunch to watch Brazil kick off the World Cup on TV. I really thought the city would be more into - just expected more enthusiasm around town, I guess.
Anyway, we flew back that night, landing in Dallas on Saturday morning. I went to my apartment to do laundry and then right back to the airport to fly to Germany. Definitely one, if not the, longest travel days - three continents in about 40 hours. Oh, and I have broken hand, which happened while playing soccer before I went to Brazil.
My brother Daniel and buddy, Clint, met on a connection in Chicago from Cleveland and Denver, respectively, and we all met at the Frankfurt Airport on Sunday morning. It's their first trip overseas.
Dani had secured us train passes before we left, so we took a train to Gelsinkirchen then jumped on a taxi that took us to a hotel that we had also pre-booked. It was in the middle of nowhere, which happens when you're reserve a place without knowing anything about the city you're visiting.
We met up with two friends from Denver: Curtis, who now lives in Chicago, and Brett, who lives in England. (Their names come up often on World Cup posts since we've gone to many Cups together).
On Monday we checked into a new hotel that was closer to the Gelsinkirchen train station and then took a train to the stadium. There were a ton of USA fans partying outside the station...a lot more than we saw in Korea and obviously a lot more than in France. It was a long walk to get to the actual stadium, so we crammed in a bus - but once the temperature reached what felt like 150 degrees we begged the driver to let us off and we walked the rest, passing all the cars sitting in traffic.
The stadium was cool and the US fans were very loud - though the Czechs were across from us and very visible. We wondered how loud the U.S. fans were since we kept seeing photographers turn to us and fans in other sections taking pictures...its hard to tell when you're in the middle of it.
By the end of the game (U.S. lost 3-0) our group had grown to seven people after an American friend of Brett's made it from England to the game by halftime. Crazy. We went to the Fan Fest a few streets away, which was a mini stadium that featured large screen, to watch the Italy v Ghana game. We wanted a tie, but it didn't happen.
The US had a bunch of good chants, and just like other countries you try to take others chants and apply to yourself...so the funny chant of the day, sung to the tune of She´ll be coming round the mountain:
"Nobody likes us we don't care."
"Nobody likes us we don't carrreeee."
"Nobody likes us, nobody likes us - we don/t care."
This morning we took a train to Berlin, and we're now about to go watch Brazil v Croatia. There are a ton of Croatian fans here, all dressed in the checkerboard red and white colors...should be fun.
