Monday, June 19, 2006:
Our journey through Germany became even more fun on Saturday after watching the US pull off the 1-1 tie against Italy in Kaiserslautern.
Clint´s buddy Mike unfortunately did not make it to Germany from Newark in time for the game, a complicated series of issues with flights. Mike´s dad drove the three of us to a nearby train station, north of k-town about 10 minutes away.
The Fan Mile - a strip with all kinds of tents selling food, beer, beer, and food - was more or less the entire area outside the train station, near the stadium. We went to a particular bar to meet up with the group from the previous game, and along the way we run into more people we know.
The bar is packed with Americans, and soon we meet up with Mike´s dad, sister and two other friends from the States. But on this day I was anticipating meeting up with my friends from Ohio, so I ventured off a short distance to look for Matt and the other four Columbus guys. We had exchanged emails so I knew about what time their train would arrive, and within a minute, I see them amid a sea of people.
Our group was a good size now, and many beers were purchased and consumed.
On a large screen we see that Ghana took a 1-0 over the Czech Republic, so we head to the stadium, which was one heck of a hike, but fun none the less.
Inside, we're in the U.S. section in a corner that from the field to the top looked to be 100 rows. The US fans were again incredible. We were a few rows from the field, and felt all the beer that was thrown numerous times from above after yet another bad call against the USMNT. They pulled off a tie against the powerhouse Italians - which surprised all of us, especially after the opening game disaster. Afterwards the players came over to applaud the crowd, led by Kasey Keller and Bruce Arena.
We were the last to leave the stadium, all of us happy that they let us stay and served us drinks at a concession stand for about an hour after the game. The Columbus group took a train to Heidelberg, and the three of us went looking for cab to get back the house. We'll meet them again in a couple of days.
The next morning, we were dropped off at the K-town station and we took three trains to get to Leipzig - arriving 3 hours before the start of the France v Korea game, in time to find a hotel and go to the game.
The Koreans were again impressive in the stands, as they had been in 2002, and France finally scored a WC goal, their first since 1998. However, the game did not live up to our expectations. Yes, the underdog Koreans got the tie late, and we were able to see Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry play, but afterwards it was very mellow outside.
We completed our first week today, having been to five games in five cities. This morning we took the 4.5 hour train to Munich, where we'll be before heading north to Nuremberg for the USA-Ghana game on Thursday. The US still has a chance to get out of the group.
