Triple Take

I just remembered today that I actually saw one of these Airbus Beluga's fly over the stadium in Hamburg before the Ecuador vs Costa Rica match. I had to take a triple take when I randomly looked up in the sky. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to pull out the camera, but the livery was similar to the one below:


For this aviation and soccer fan, it was a good day. 

Toolin' Around Munich

The 17th through the 20th was fairly quiet for me. I spent most of my days watching all the matches on TV. Nothing really to report, have been taken care of errands and just walking around town. I haven't been jogging for quite some time, but I don't feel so bad since I walk miles everyday. Here are a couple of pics I snapped while out and about in M-town.

Isar River, runs through Munich. So with the Englischer Garten and the Isar, you're never far away from nature:

Another pic of the Isar, sun lovers take to the banks:

Church on the Isar. I've actually attended service there before but I can't remember the name of the church for the life of me. Very beautiful inside:

This pic is for Jason. It's Germany's mystery meat, Leberkäs. It has the consistency and color of hotdog meat, maybe even Spam. But for a little over 1 Euro, it hits the spot:

Took this one for all the Goonies fans:

And I found Steve Urkel's car:

Brazil vs. Australia

I took a night train after the USA-Italy match back to Munich and got back into Munich around 6am. I wish I could have taken a picture of everyone on the train. Everyone was conched out.
So, I crashed on the couch at Charlton's, didn't even take time to pull out the sofa bed. I woke up late in the afternoon, took my time, and eventually made it to the Allianz Arena in Munich for the Brazil vs. Australia match. I picked the Socceroos as the surprise team of the tournament, and before the end of the match, they actually led their group, with Brazil trailing in second.

Here are some pics of the very impressive stadium:

And my view from within the stadium:


The Australian contingent:


Here's the Brazil squad during warmups:


National anthems:


Kickoff:


After a Brazilian clearance:


The Australian fans en masse:


Team congratulations after Brazil's second goal:

Post-game:



The Australians aren't without their humor. The two guys in front of me brought along their buddy:


Again, proof I was there:


Post-match formalities:


All in all, I was very surprised at the Brazilian play. Against Croatia last week, they were pure magic. Even and uninspired Brazilian team beats a highly motivated Australian squad 2-0. I guess that says something, but I couldn't get over how the Brazilian side approached the game. There were certainly very exciting points in the match and yours truly missed the first while getting his $12 beer and french fries on. I made a quick dash right before the second half for concessions and missed Brazil's first goal.

USA vs. Italy

I originally had a reservation on a bullet train from Hamburg back to Munich after the Ecuador vs. Costa Rica match, but since the result of the match was rather predictable and Costa Rica couldn't give a @#$%, I left right before extra time was announced in hopes of catching an earlier train. I was able to jump on the 18:00 train and ended up saving an hour, which put me into Munich at a much more reasonable time. The next day was spent sleeping in and catching up with good ole Charlton. Charlton made me miss home by whipping up some kick-ass BBQ ribs. The man can cook. So yes, all I did was sleep and eat all day. I was still recovering from my cold so I didn't really care. You've got to have those type of days, even someone like me who is easily bored. Plus, I knew I needed to rest up for the next day, USA vs. Italy.

Now, I was passed the WTF attidude I developed after our first match and was all day feeling like something special was going to happen for us. It was really a weird feeling. I knew we were going to see an entirely different attitude in our players. They couldn't leave the pitch without a point; anything else meant that the USA vs. Ghana match would be nothing more than a friendly.

I departed for Kaiserslautern from Munich around noon and arrived shortly after 4pm. K-town, as the locals call it (Kaiserslautern has a large US miliatry installation, so the American presence and influence is large), was already booming with fans taking in the day's other matches at the fan park. The stadium and fan park are in walking distance from the main train station, which made things really convenient. I'm quickly growing weary of all the slammed-packed public transportation to and from the venues.

I took a quick walk around town and found quite possibly the world's longest fussball table:

And, like always, various American celebrities were making pre-game appearances. The Harlem Globetrotters provided some laughs:

And Uncle Sam even joined along in the chanting:


Here's a shot of the Fritz-Walter Stadium, home to storied FC Kaiserslautern:


And my perspective inside the stadium:


And proof I was actually there:



The to-be man of the match, Kasey Keller, warming up:


Crowd showing their support:


During the national anthems:


The stadium is unbelievably steep. Never seen anything similar to it before:



Kickoff:


What then ensued was quite possibly the greatest, most exciting sporting event I've ever attended in my life. We came to play - not only the guys on the field, but our fans were out for blood. I've never experienced anything like it in my life - so much so, that I actually decided to take a very active part in the match instead of just passively watching and ended up with a fairly hoarse voice. We were chanting and screaming from the get-go all the way through. The Italian fans were simply drowned out by us. There looked to be an equal amount of Italian fans in the stands, based on the amount of blue I saw, but we put them to shame. It was amazing.
Simply put, the team played their hearts out and without a doubt, were the better team that day. The Italian team looked shocked and many times reverted to what the Italians are well known for: Drama. It was so infuriating seeing them take dive after dive, leaving the field on a stetcher, only to return 30 seconds later magically recovered. I now have a new favorite team to despise, keeping a very close second only to Mexico.

Unfortunately, the most memorable moment was when Beasely's goal was called back on a McBride offsides. The place erupted when the ball hit the back of the net. For a second, millions of US fans forgot Beasely's crappy attitude and poor performance from the last match. We had played most of the second half down 2 men against Italy's side that had also lost a man. Even with 9 vs. 10, we looked the better team and that near goal proved the point.

Alas, we came away with a 1-1 result and 1 very critical point. Here are the scenarios the US is looking at in order to move on to the next round.

Once the whistle blew, Donovan immediately hit the ground. He had made a definite turnaround this match and was spent of all energy. It was a testament to the entire team's effort that day. Here's the team coming over to us to show their appreciation post-game:



Note: As I had hoped (see post USA-CZE blog), Clint Dempsey started the match and made a huge difference. He will be critical in the USA-Ghana match. One article I read likened his performance more to a basketball player's. Very true. He made fools of the Italians with his one-on-one skills and wasn't scared to bring it straight to them. His passes were always on. Dempsey is slowly becoming my new favorite.

Ecuador vs. Costa Rica

On the 14th, I met up with Timo in Bochum, where his client office is, after he got off work and we took to the Autobahn for Hamburg in advance of the Ecuador-Costa Rica match. Timo luckily has a company car for the project he's on AND happened to have a meeting the next day in Hamburg. Soooo, we got a free ride to Hamburg! Like all Americans, I love the Autobahn and it didn't take much to convince Timo to let me drive since he had had somewhat of a tiring week. So, with the help of Frau GPS, I piloted our Audi A3 turbo diesel to the port city while Timo snoozed away. It's AMAZING how different the driving culture is in Germany. There I was, "cruising" along at 180 kmh (approximately 113 mph) and Timo doesn't think twice about taking a nap! Naturally, I only hit 180 maybe three times and was only able to maintain that speed for 3 minutes, tops. The Autobahn was fairly crowded that day, so the natural flow kept you from doing anything stupid :) One other note, I simply love that Germans actually respect the "left lane is for passing only rule." If you approach someone in the left lane 99.9999% of the time they'll merge over immediately.

Our total travel time between Düsseldorf and Hamburg was about 4 hours and we had about an hour to spare before the Germany-Poland match. We met up at a bar with some of Timo's friends and spent the evening there. Germany scored the winner in the waning minutes. Woohoo. Hats off to Poland for giving them a run for their money.
They next day, Timo and I slept in and unfortunately had to part our ways. He was off for his client meeting and I had to head to the main train station to store my junk before heading off to the Ecuador-Costa Rica match at AOL Arena. My train back to Munich left later on that night. Many thanks to you, Timo and Andrea, for hosting a sneezing, congested, coughing, and aching American in your wonderful apartment for 4 days. I really enjoyed myself.
Here are the pictures from that day's match:



I was hoping that Costa Rica, a fellow CONCACAF member, would put down a very creative Ecuador side, but Costa Rica ended up playing a very uninspired match and was sent home from the tournament with a 0-2 result.

Düsseldorf Stay

The 14th I had some freetime in Düsseldorf, so I took to the streets. Timo hooked me up with a map of the city and set me loose. I have been suffering from a mad head cold since I arrived in Germany and I knew I was on my last tank, but I decided to use my limited time in the city (it was really nice outside) instead of taking it easy on the couch. So I took off to the Altstadt (old town) to take a look around and then took a walk along the Rhein with no real destination in mind. Noticing my energy level already tanking, I sat down on the bank right before a cool suspension bridge. I took this shot right as a (natural gas?) barge passed by. If you look closely, you can see sheep grazing on the opposite bank:

Düsseldorf's banks are lined with examples of really cool architecture. Here's a sample of the buildings:

Turns out, my destination was a "beach resort" themed bar that was open early during the day for the great weather. It was located near the water and they had brought in beach sand to create the authentic feeling of being at the beach. I should have taken more picture because they had neat beach huts, beach lounge chairs, etc. Here's another picture of the cool buildings taken from the beach bar where I was guzzling an ice cold Coke:



By this time, my body told me to take a long break, so I tried to nap in my seat outside at the beach bar but to no avail. I just can't fall asleep sweating in the sun. Anyhow, I SLOWLY made my way back to Timo's apartment with the SOLE intent of crashing on the couch. I didn't care if I was wasting vacation time. My body was taking over and demanded rest.

Here's a picture I took (on another one of my breaks) of the Altstadt's river side facade taken from under the suspension bridge seen above:

USA vs. CZE Review

Note: Blogger.com has been non-cooperative lately, so it's taken quite some time for me to get these latest posts up.

Many days have passed since we faced the Czechs and I have to admit that my desire to rip the team a new one has lessened. Nevertheless, I think a line or two dedicated to what I think went wrong and continues to be wrong with our team will maybe help me move on and get back to the "never say never" attitude the team has always been associated with. We need 6 six points. Italy still isn't its old self, will surely be letting their guard down given our last result, and given the right US line up with a couple of players who still hold an element of surprise, 3 points in Kaiserslautern isn't that much of a longshot.

Reality is a painful pill to swallow, but let's face it: Our passing game reeks of MLS. If you watch MLS matches, you feel me. What's dumbfounding, is that 80% of our starting lineup plays in Europe. I've watched almost all of the World Cup matches so far and one of the the things I've always known, but was dramatically illustrated in the Czech match is that our passing game is just not nearly as precise as we would like to think. The USMNT has flashes of a precision passing game, but nothing that can be sustained throughout a match. Watch any European team and it's apparent that passing comes second nature to them. My point is that the USMNT relies sometimes too much on pure athleticism and long balls. The lack of crisp, precise passing is just a basic, fundamental problem that will continue to follow us where ever we go, no matter whom we play. We inexplicably lack it.

Ok, before I go any farther, I'll just bulletpoint my issues with the game and players:

1.) Donovan: Golden Boy never showed up. For the past year, he has consistently been a non-factor in our matches. Because he was zero aggressive, he rarely touched the ball and thus, didn't add any creative flavor to the game or influence the flow at all. I've always been on the fence when it comes to Donovan. He's moody. He only plays when he feels inspired and shys away from sometimes even moderately aggressive defenses. Evidence of this is that I can't remotely remember the last time Lando has even suffered a minor injury.

2.) DMB: Unlike Donovan, Beazo DID have a lot of touches and was fairly involved. However, his touches were amateurish at best. He had several noticeably poor receiving touches which resulted in subsequently poor passes, turnovers, or wasted time recovering. I was hoping Arena would pull him at halftime but instead, Arena moved him to the right flank...Bease plays the left side, period. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

3.) McBride: His stock is quickly falling. He, like Donovan, fails to affect the game at all. He's tall so he's a target forward, but that seems to be it. He's not a playmaker. His skill is that he's amazing in the air and precise with headers. He again waited around for things to come to him. This being obvious, Arena pulled him in the second half for an Eddie Johnson who actually looked like he gave 2 $%^&'s about winning and provided quite a spark, delivering a couple of shots on goal. Expect EJ in Saturday's starting eleven and McBride to ride the pine.

4.) Convey: I hope he brought a pair of clean drawers. It was his first World Cup experience and he was quickly closed down. He had shown pure magic in the send-off matches which won him a starting position Monday, but he simply soiled himself. Arena should have pulled him for a Dempsey.

5.) Arena: He had no surprise factor. His lineup was grossly predictable. He made it to the quarterfinals in 2002 based on then unknowns like Donovan, Beasely, and Wolff. The one surprise factor he has left is "da Deuce" aka Clint Dempsey. Dempsey has the balls to the wall mentality, massive creativity, and a sometimes unbridled aggressiveness that the US so desperately needed Monday. The other qualm with Arena is that he took too long to switch things up. The problems we had at halftime were the same that were blinding me 10 minutes into the match. I was hoping Bruce would have changed things up a little quicker.

Now for with the positives:

1.) EJ: Eddie Johnson demonstrated his creativity and hopefully will be seen in starting eleven against Italy. He was fast and showed the most spark of anyone on the team.

2.) Gooch: Gooch did his part in the back against a strong Czech front. Gave his man a little too much space at times but always seemed to make up for it.

3.) Lewis: He was the only other shining offensive factor in the game, and he's a left back. His crosses weren't always on but he at least looked comfortable.

4.) Wolff: Josh came on in the second half and also created some chances. Our bench proved themselves very well.

What it came down to for me was that the USMNT simply beat themselves. The Czech's didn't do anything magical, their opponent was just tenative and slow. I'm hoping we've gotten all of out butterflies out because nothing short of a win in Italy gets us to where we need to be.

USA-CZE Smackdown

I intentionally took a day away from the blog so I wouldn't entirely berate the entire US Men's Team for their performance yesterday. Thought it would be a good idea to let the initial emotions take a natural cool down.

So, let's start with the part of the day when hopes and confidence in our team was still high. After arriving at Gelsenkirchen Hauptbahnhof about 4 hours before kick off, I met up with a friend from Winder who, with his crew of 12, had already joined all the Yanks in the streets. It was a really cool feeling seeing so many USMNT faithful out and about, chanting it up. Here's what greeted US Fans as they left the train station:

Captain America and a flying Elvis also made a special appearance:

We started making our way to the stadium (Veltins Arena, where Schalke plays) and only one Tram line was taking people to the stadium. It was about a ten stop ride, so walking was "futile." Not to mention, the Trams they were jamming fans into were only 2 cars long. I was dumbfounded. Here was the situation at the Tram stop:

Getting into the stadium also was not the most logical thing. I walked around the entire stadium looking for my Yellow Sector entrance...I graduated college so I know I can read signs, but I literally came full circle. Anyhow, here's my persective on the field (only complaints were that there was a netting hanging behind the goal and I was rammed up against some sort of crowd security divider - see second dazed and confused looking photo of me below):

Soon enough, the US goalkeepers took the pitch for warmups and Kasey Keller got a very warm welcome. He was far away from where I was sitting, but I figured it was worth a quick snapshot:

Then the entire team came out for warmups and I immediately noticed that 10 guys were being led through exercises by the team's French fitness coach, so I figured that was the starting 10. I about @#$% my britches because I thought I saw Brian Ching warming up with the group. Alas, it was Mastroeni:

Somehow, the organizers knew where the roudiest fans would be and put what seemed to be Sam's Army in the section with the crowd security dividers, right next to me. Don't know if you can see it, but my favorite American sign is the one that says, "Just Married. Go US!" Please say you get it:

And here's the kickoff in front of a sold out Veltins Arena (52,000), the crazy Czech fans seen in red in the corner:

Now, because of the way we played and because I get WAY into the game, I didn't really take any match pictures. So, for now, I'm going to fast forward past the weak play and letdowns and show all the post game pictures. Believe me, I'll be getting my rant on.

So, I literally sat in my seat for about 20 minutes after the loss trying to figure out what I just witnessed. Then all of a sudden the US subs took the field to run through some warmups with the fitness coach. I was so hoping the starting 11 was being punished for their poor showing. Among the noteables, Clint Dempsey, aka Deuce:

At some point, I noticed a group of fans crowding around midfield where the locker room entrance was. So, I figured I would wait around and see if I could get some pics of the players leaving the locker room. Here's what I got:

Pavel Nedved:

Brian McBride:

Kasey Keller:

And Stacey's favorite, Clint Dempsey:

And here's a shot of the empty stadium. Veltins Arena is, I believe, the newest stadium in the Bundesliga:

Those were all the good memories of the game.

My camera battery ran out about this time but I also got to see Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Eddie Pope, Ben Olsen, Jimmy Conrad, Marcus Hahneman, Bobby Convey, Gooch, Claudio Reyna, John O'Brien, Josh Wolff, and the coach, Bruce Arena. Landon Donovan came out of the locker room with his head down, walked passed the fans, and almost didn't stop to sign autographs had he not noticed Keller already showing some fan love. Apparently, Arena had singled out Donovan and Beasely for their poor performances, which would explain Donovan's demeanor.

My next blog will highlight what went wrong during the match. I'm no expert, but there were some basic things that just weren't happening. I don't want to hate on the team too much because they really are great professionals. It was just extremely disappointing having traveled this far, paid a lot for tickets, and then see the team you've religously followed for the past 4 years play second rate soccer.