World Cup 2006, Kaiserslautern Germany

Rumor has it that no other sporting event captures the world's imagination like the World Cup….that is if you don’t live in America! I guess because in America baseball, (American) football and basketball seem to be the sports to play. These soccer players have great skills, speed and desire. It really is brilliant to watch. I am surprised that soccer (and rugby too, for that matter) is not more popular in the US. Obviously, I am just Matthew Marcum….just one man. I’m busy simply doing my job, going out for jogs, drinking my beer, traveling the world…I’m not going to try and figure it out. All I knew was that the 2006 World Cup was being held in Germany, just a short 30 minute drive from Luxembourg.

So anyways, this past weekend we went to Kaiserslautern, Germany for the football (soccer) game between Italy and the USA. Italy is one of the better teams in the tournament and for the US to beat them, even compete with them, would be a big challenge!

Fun facts about the World Cup:
- First competition was in Uruguay in 1930.
- Held since 1958 alternately in Europe and the Americas, the World Cup broke new ground with the Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 to select Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.
- The World Cup is held every 4 years and out of the 16 tournaments that have been played (we are on the 17th), it has seen only seven different winners.
- There are 32 teams that qualify and the tournament begins as a “round robin”. There are 8 groups of 4 teams and each team plays the other three teams in its group. The top 2 teams of every group move on to the next round. From there, it’s single elimination until the end.
- Everyday for the past 2 weeks, there have been 3 games on: one at 3pm, one at 6pm and one at 9pm (I've been busy!).
- There are 12 different locations that the games are being played though out Germany.
- The Kaiserslautern facts: population: 100,000. The stadium and city centre are a short 15 minute walk to the train station. Also known as “K-town”. Basically, this tournament and crowd was the most business this city has seen in ages!

Our weekend began with the return of my good friend, Brendan FitzGerald to Luxembourg. Brendan completed an internship with E&Y here and recently moved back to Cork, Ireland. Of course, Brendan is a very popular guy and was in high demand to be seen this weekend….so as soon as he arrived on Friday afternoon we were off to Urban (local establishment) for some drinks and catching up with friends.

Brendan also brought two friends with him, Patrick and Raakee. Patrick graduated from Notre Dame and was originally from Columbus, OH (of all places!). Raakee was from London, England. After an evening of bar hopping, football watching, seeing people, etc., we were off to bed in preparation for a long, exciting day on Saturday.

The five of us woke up around 8:30am on Saturday morning and the festivities began. There was a rugby match on TV at 9am between New Zealand (a powerhouse) and Ireland (who we’ve come to love). In total, there were 9 of us going to Kaiserslautern and everyone met at our place before hand to watch the game, have coffee and croissants, etc. We watched the game and then the caravan was off.

The original plan was to take a train from Luxembourg to K-town. The timetable was not too accommodating and the tickets were expensive. However, late Wednesday night we figured out a much better deal. For less than the price we would have spent on a train ticket from Luxembourg to K-town, we were able to book the following:
- a hotel in Saarbrucken, Germany (about an hour’s drive away) with a full-American breakfast included in the rate and a very close proximity to the town’s train station, and
- round trip train tickets to and from K-town (about an hour ride).

How could we turn that down?

We arrived in Saarbrucken around 1pm and caught the 2pm train. That put us in K-town right around 3pm. As we were waiting on the train platform, there were many Italians and some Americans doing exactly what we were doing, migrating to the party.

As we got off the train, you could literally feel the positive energy. There were tons of people of all nationalities chilling, walking around, wearing their countries’ flags, dressed up all crazy, etc. (see our pics). When you came out of the train station you basically walked about 3 minutes to the center of the action. There was a huge Fanfest area that was more or less the “party” area! They had a movie screen-sized TV set up with all the games on, a stage with a DJ and lots of food and beer stands. There were also “dancing girls” (who actually did “take it off”) perched up above the beer garden. It was like a mix between a Notre Dame tailgate, a Dave Matthews concert, MTV Spring Break and the St. Ann’s Festival.

Up toward the front of this area was a bunch of sand to sit in and people were camped out, watching the games, having a great time. Kind of like being on the beach…given that the weather was gorgeous and we were able to catch some rays. We hung out in that area for a while and then proceeded back to the streets to check out the city.

The main road had many vendors, shops, food stands, etc. There was also an area off to the one side that had a great band playing. The lead singer would talk to the crowd in German but then sing in perfect English (must be nice!).

After dancing for a bit, it was getting close to 7pm or so and we wanted to head back to the Fanfest area to get good seats for the US/Italy game (which started at 9pm). By this time, the area was absolutely packed, but we managed to get in and our group was pretty close to the front area. Everyone was standing the whole game and cheering.

After an awesome game (tied 1-1), a DJ started rocking out. There were also a few girls that came on stage to dance and lip-sync (kind of a bad Britney Spears showing). People were running around in the sand, dancing everywhere, etc.

It was getting close to 1am or 2am and there were only a few more trains running back to Saarbrucken so we opted to head out. Our group of 9 got separated on the way to the train, but everyone except two of our other Irish friends (Eoin and Damien) ended up making it back home to the hotel that night. Once Damien and Eoin saw the lines for the trains, they decided to turn around and head to the night clubs. They caught the 6am train back that morning, went to the hotel’s breakfast at 7am and then went to sleep in their car until we came and got them the next morning! How can you not love the Irish?

The next day, we got up, had breakfast drove back to Luxembourg, arriving around noon. That day we were all kind of a waste of space. We ate, went to a pub to watch more soccer, and then ate again. That night, Brendan and his friends stayed at our place, as they were leaving Luxembourg the next day….the weekend was complete and it was time to start planning for our next adventure.…Prague (Czech Republic) this Friday!

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