21 JUN - A Big Match (Day 14)
We left Bendestorf nice and early this morning and made our way south to Frankfurt. It was only a few hours. We got to the stadium in plenty of time which was good. We had to park 2km from the stadium. We parked the car and started walking to the stadium. It was over the train tracks, through the woods, over the road, through some more woods and then over the Autobahn. I'm not kidding.
Frankfurt is the business center of Germany (if not Europe). It also has the most skyscrapers.
We eventually did make it to the actual stadium and we had plenty of time to sell our extra ticket. It was apparent which people were the scalpers. We happened to find Imran who wasn't a scalper. He is from South Africa and he was in Germany for a week or so. He only had tickets to two matches. He was very happy to be able to get into the Argentina v Netherlands match. We got stopped at the entrance gate and they said that Imran had to get the ticket in his name. This wasn't a problem. This was the first time that they had asked for our passports as we were going into a match.
My German is pretty good but I have noticed that, if I don't say too much and use a few key phrases, people think that I speak more German than I really do. I usually understand what they are saying but I just have a hard time responding in German. My main trouble is common phrases and vocabulary. I know a lot of words but, just as in American, we have certain phrases that we use to express or describe things.
Today's match was a big one, two powerhouses in the World Cup, Argentina and Netherlands. Both have very supportive fans as well. Here are some Netherland fans wearing full body costumes. I feel sorry for the girl in the picture. Those guys accidentally stepped on her sunglasses.
We had really cool seats for this game. They were right behind one of the goals. We were only 6 rows from the field. Here is a shot of me and my dogs right at the entrance of the field. I was only steps away from being on the field.
Here are some shots of the Argentina fans. It was a sea of blue and white. They played drums and sang songs the entire match.
Here is a shot of the Netherland fans. This is typical too. It is just a sea orange. Even though their national flag is blue, white and red, they ALL wear orange. Some of the fans had BRIGHT orange business suits. Now that is devotion. I think the orange comes from William of Orange.
The stadium had a really cool feature. The scoreboard was suspended directly over the middle of the field. You might say, "Big deal. They do that in the States all the time." The part I couldn't figure out was HOW they did it. The main columns around the stadium didn't look big enough to support the stands AND the scoreboard.
Here is a typical play in football, a corner kick. The attacking team kicks the ball from the corner and curves it toward the goal. The attackers are trying to head the ball into the goal. The defenders are trying to prevent a goal. Another aspect of football is fake injuries though. I think that most South American teams could be actors in Hollywood. Here are a couple pictures of the goal at corner kick time and the normal "injury" aftermath.
I'm not sure of the significance of being an ice cream cone at a football match but it was obviously import to this guy.
The match ended in a draw, 0 - 0. It was fun watching the Argentinians play. Their style is so fluid. As long as a shot is 90% right, they will take it. If it doesn't work because of that other 10%, oh well, they'll try again in a couple minutes. The Netherlands is a little more straight forward in their style of play. I would say that their strength is their teamwork.
We had to make several plans after the match. We took Imran back to his apartment and told him that we would meet him the next morning, early. We were going to Nuremberg the next day and then we were going back to Frankfurt to pick-up Rocco's friend John from the airport. John was going to the Spain v Saudi Arabia match with us. After we got all that sorted, we returned at a late hour to our temporary domicile in the castle in the middle of the woods.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more on our castle adventures!
Knuckles
Frankfurt is the business center of Germany (if not Europe). It also has the most skyscrapers.
We eventually did make it to the actual stadium and we had plenty of time to sell our extra ticket. It was apparent which people were the scalpers. We happened to find Imran who wasn't a scalper. He is from South Africa and he was in Germany for a week or so. He only had tickets to two matches. He was very happy to be able to get into the Argentina v Netherlands match. We got stopped at the entrance gate and they said that Imran had to get the ticket in his name. This wasn't a problem. This was the first time that they had asked for our passports as we were going into a match.
My German is pretty good but I have noticed that, if I don't say too much and use a few key phrases, people think that I speak more German than I really do. I usually understand what they are saying but I just have a hard time responding in German. My main trouble is common phrases and vocabulary. I know a lot of words but, just as in American, we have certain phrases that we use to express or describe things.
Today's match was a big one, two powerhouses in the World Cup, Argentina and Netherlands. Both have very supportive fans as well. Here are some Netherland fans wearing full body costumes. I feel sorry for the girl in the picture. Those guys accidentally stepped on her sunglasses.
We had really cool seats for this game. They were right behind one of the goals. We were only 6 rows from the field. Here is a shot of me and my dogs right at the entrance of the field. I was only steps away from being on the field.
Here are some shots of the Argentina fans. It was a sea of blue and white. They played drums and sang songs the entire match.
Here is a shot of the Netherland fans. This is typical too. It is just a sea orange. Even though their national flag is blue, white and red, they ALL wear orange. Some of the fans had BRIGHT orange business suits. Now that is devotion. I think the orange comes from William of Orange.
The stadium had a really cool feature. The scoreboard was suspended directly over the middle of the field. You might say, "Big deal. They do that in the States all the time." The part I couldn't figure out was HOW they did it. The main columns around the stadium didn't look big enough to support the stands AND the scoreboard.
Here is a typical play in football, a corner kick. The attacking team kicks the ball from the corner and curves it toward the goal. The attackers are trying to head the ball into the goal. The defenders are trying to prevent a goal. Another aspect of football is fake injuries though. I think that most South American teams could be actors in Hollywood. Here are a couple pictures of the goal at corner kick time and the normal "injury" aftermath.
I'm not sure of the significance of being an ice cream cone at a football match but it was obviously import to this guy.
The match ended in a draw, 0 - 0. It was fun watching the Argentinians play. Their style is so fluid. As long as a shot is 90% right, they will take it. If it doesn't work because of that other 10%, oh well, they'll try again in a couple minutes. The Netherlands is a little more straight forward in their style of play. I would say that their strength is their teamwork.
We had to make several plans after the match. We took Imran back to his apartment and told him that we would meet him the next morning, early. We were going to Nuremberg the next day and then we were going back to Frankfurt to pick-up Rocco's friend John from the airport. John was going to the Spain v Saudi Arabia match with us. After we got all that sorted, we returned at a late hour to our temporary domicile in the castle in the middle of the woods.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more on our castle adventures!
Knuckles
posted by jprg4evr at 6:42 AM
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