Balls to the Berlin Wall
It has begun--the World Cup fever has officially set in with the summer heat in Germany. The past week has been pretty crazy: enjoying the raucous atmosphere at the Kulturbrauerei for the opening game between Germany and Costa Rica (beer and bratwurst galore), pushing through crowds/gasping for air at the opening of the Fan Mile in front of the Brandenburg Gate (B-list singers but enjoyed Pele's gracious presence), and cheering loudly in front of drunk 16 year old Americans at the adidas World of Football stadium, despite the US's embarassing play against the Czech Republic. As much as I am the most unpatriotic pseudo-American ever, I still liked to think that our boys could put on a good fight against the 2nd-seeded team in the tournament (and perhaps the best in Europe). Obviously that was too much to ask. I mean, what can one expect, when you call it by a different name, that may just compromise how well you play FOOTBALL. It just goes to show that in this case, the US can't just make up a sport and declare itself "World Champions" when only its own teams play within the league--as in basketball, baseball, American football (i.e. rugby for wimps) etc. Enough griping...I guess we couldn't hope for a last minute turnaround as the Ozzies did with Japan. At least there was some goals to see, unlike the French and the Swiss. The Czechs are actually my favorites amongst the Europeans, much more impressive than the Germans...oh, did I just say that? Yeah, it's hard to be amongst the entire German populace who keeps chanting "Deutschland wird Weltmeister" every two seconds...but the team's more likeable now that Ollie Kahn's monster-bear face is no longer constantly scowling from one end of the pitch. Nonetheless I felt it my duty to show my quasi-loyalty to the host country (who FINALLY granted me a visa, 3 months later), so I halfheartedly bought a 1.99 euro mini-flag from a random emporium on KuDamm. As an afterthought to my huge Brazil flag, of course. (and as for my even larger US flag...oh well, at least I can reuse it on July 4th.)
But tonight, after watching the Brazil-Croatia game, all I can say is, Kaka is the SHIT, pun fully intended. (It doesn't hurt that he's some eye-candy on the pitch.)
posted by joyce @ 11:57 PM
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