Wednesday, June 14, 2006:
The World Cup spirit has been very visible since we arrived in Berlin. We knew we were seeing a lot of the checkered red-and-white Croatia jerseys, and when we arrived at Olympic Stadium in Berlin we knew we were right - the Croatians outnumbered the Brazilians.
It's unfair to try to explain in print what the atmosphere was like in the stadium - the Croatians were everywhere, were loud, and were trying their hardest to will their team to get a result. Towards the end of the game, with Brazil leading 1-0, the Croatian fans lit up the stands with flairs. It looked like entire sections were on fire, and so the entire stadium stopped watching the game and began snapping photo after photo of all the excitement the Croatian fans were creating. We were hoping so bad they could tie it, but it wasn't to be.
Afterwards we returned to a lively spot in the center of Berlin, watching the Brazilians drive up and down beeping car horns. We decided to chill at a sidewalk beer stand - yes, they have beer stands everywhere.
This morning we went to the Fan Fest here, a massive closed off street leading from the Brandenburg Gate which has stand after stand of beer and food, and maybe 10 massive screens to watch World Cup games - all with a great sound system.
We went back at night and were able to witness another show - being in the largest spot in the nation's capitol when they play is something I wish all could experience. Some may remember my stories of what it was like in Seoul...this scene of Germany playing Poland topped it!
The Fan Fest was expected to hold around a million people, and from our observations those numbers were easily met. We stood among the thousands of German-flags waving fans and reacted to every near miss and every crossbar hit. It seemed like Germany was doomed to tie, until the additional time was added. You can imaging a million plus people reacting to Neuville's game-winning goal. We couldn't stop smiling as we watched the party start that would last all night.
On Thursday morning we're going to Nuremberg, which we're told is a 4.5 hour trip south. There we'll go to the England v Trinidad game. It's been a long day...more to come once we get to Kaiserslautern on Friday ahead of the USMNT vs Italy game.