Day 14
THE BIG DAY! I've been waiting for this day for many months now...we headed off to Frankfurt to watch the Netherlands vs. Argentina. This game was in VERY high demand for a long time. To me, it is a matchup between the snotty European powerhouse ("South America...where is that") and the gritty S. American powerhouse ("there are leauges outside of S. America?"). Both teams have been performing very well lately, and it is a rematch of the 1974 World Cup final match (or somewhere around there). It is very rare that two teams who have previously met in a finals match have gone on to play each other again. This is the third match in the group stage, and both teams have already guaranteed passage to the knock-out round, and the lineups reflected that a bit. Both teams left some of their superstars on the bench to either avoid yellow card accumulation (which would make them ineligible for the next match) or injury.
We drove down pretty early because I had an extra ticket that I had bought expecting a friend of mine to fly over for todays game as well as the US-Ghana game tomorrow, but he couldn't make it due to work stuff. We stood outside the gates hoping to find someone to purchase the ticket, and we were there for only about 15 minutes until a young guy came up and asked for how much we were sellling the ticket. After brief negotiations (yeah, the lawyer in me really put the negotiation skills to the test...alright, not really because I'm not much of a negotiator), he agreed on the price. I could tell he was a fan and not a scalper, so I was a bit more lenient on the price because I figured he was there to enjoy the match as much as we were, and that's what the world cup is all about. Again, the motto is "a time to make freinds", and that's what we had done. After we agreed on the price, he told me that "I am so happy right now I want to hug you"...but there were no hugs to be had; all of us got to keep our "guy cards" that day! I could tell he was very excited to see the match, so I offered him our extra ticket for the next day's US match and told him we'd even give him a ride to and fro' (no, not 'fro - different words).
As it turns out, he majored in actuarial science (which I still don't know what that is, but it has to do with lots of numbers) and he's from South Africa. He was in Frankfurt for about 4 days, staying at a friend's apartment. He had tickets to another game that day in Munich, but couldn't figure out how to get there in time for the match so he came over to the stadium hoping to score a ticket.
We then proceeded past security...wow, I sure love the pat-downs, but I keep getting denied the women's line (that has a woman security guard doing the pat-downs). Well, I guess that's probably for the best so that my boo doesn't get too upset with me! The Poland game had the tightest security/pat-downs because the Polish are notorious for bringing in...let's just say "banned materials." This was the second-most rigorous pat-down that I've had, and I'm pretty sure it's because Argentinians have the same type of notoriety. I needed to use the WC, and as I walked down the stairs, it became apparent that not ALL "banned substances" had been confiscated at the turnstiles...and it was also obvious that the Netherlands was one of the participating teams just from the smells coming from the bathroom...
On our way to our seats, we passed a couple of reporters doing their bit, and as we passed, I turned around and it was JP Delacamera (sp?) and John Harkes (formerly a DC United player). They were doing the pre-game for ESPN, but I found it pretty funny that of all the people that have surrouned every single television camera just for a chance to get on TV for only a second...but NO ONE was crowding the two Americans! John Harkes looked pretty funny because he had some indoor soccer kicks with a dark suit...obviously an American. Once they did their bit, I turned around and acknowledges Harkes, and he looked a bit surprised that SOMEONE, ANYONE recognized him.
As we got to our seats, I was pleasantly surprised that our seats were located on the aisle, 6 rows behind the goal...I thought these would be excellent seats, but the goal camera on the boom kept blocking the view downfield, so they weren't as good as tickets that were a bit higher up. However, the seats were still great because we could see exactly what a player on the field would see! We had the Argentinian supporters to our right, and the entire rest of the stadium was ORANJE (Netherlands fans). It didn't matter how many Oranje supporters there were, because the Argentinians came to sing, dance, party, and just plain make noise! They had a group of about 10 drums that were beating the entire game, and they had songs and chants that everybody in the section sang along with. On occasion, when the Oranje supporters got tired of listening to the Argentinians, they would start a "Holland...Holland...Holland" chant, which easily downed out the Argentinians, but it was always short-lived, and the Argentinians came back with even more support. The excitement and electricity in the air was amazing. Everyone was abuzz, and it was very festive...if only the game on the field was remotely as exciting as it was in the stands, it would've been a game to celebrate for years to come. As it turns out, the game was rather ho-hum with not very much excitement. Neither team wanted to do much in the way of scoring, and the other team was just fine with that.
After the match, we took Imran (whom Knuckles and I affectionately refer to as "our stray" as we found him near the side of the road, literally, and we took him whereever we went for a couple of days) to his apartment, then went back to our castle-hotel for the night...that's right, we booked a room in a castle! Not like the castle that you probably think of with the high walls and towers, but more of the castle in the middle of the forest where travelers stop on their long journey. It was a very nice place, and they had some very old photos of how the castle used to look. I was really glad that the castle provided a relatively soft bed...FINALLY! Hit the hay early knowing that tomorrow is going to be a VERY long and tiresome day; lots of travel, and watching the US try to advance to the second round.
Here is a pictoral representation of the day:
(as you can see, my mohawk is starting to get pretty long and looking like a toupe like Knucles')
(the sea of Oranje)
(the drum section...with a slow exposure)
Cheers,
Rocco
We drove down pretty early because I had an extra ticket that I had bought expecting a friend of mine to fly over for todays game as well as the US-Ghana game tomorrow, but he couldn't make it due to work stuff. We stood outside the gates hoping to find someone to purchase the ticket, and we were there for only about 15 minutes until a young guy came up and asked for how much we were sellling the ticket. After brief negotiations (yeah, the lawyer in me really put the negotiation skills to the test...alright, not really because I'm not much of a negotiator), he agreed on the price. I could tell he was a fan and not a scalper, so I was a bit more lenient on the price because I figured he was there to enjoy the match as much as we were, and that's what the world cup is all about. Again, the motto is "a time to make freinds", and that's what we had done. After we agreed on the price, he told me that "I am so happy right now I want to hug you"...but there were no hugs to be had; all of us got to keep our "guy cards" that day! I could tell he was very excited to see the match, so I offered him our extra ticket for the next day's US match and told him we'd even give him a ride to and fro' (no, not 'fro - different words).
As it turns out, he majored in actuarial science (which I still don't know what that is, but it has to do with lots of numbers) and he's from South Africa. He was in Frankfurt for about 4 days, staying at a friend's apartment. He had tickets to another game that day in Munich, but couldn't figure out how to get there in time for the match so he came over to the stadium hoping to score a ticket.
We then proceeded past security...wow, I sure love the pat-downs, but I keep getting denied the women's line (that has a woman security guard doing the pat-downs). Well, I guess that's probably for the best so that my boo doesn't get too upset with me! The Poland game had the tightest security/pat-downs because the Polish are notorious for bringing in...let's just say "banned materials." This was the second-most rigorous pat-down that I've had, and I'm pretty sure it's because Argentinians have the same type of notoriety. I needed to use the WC, and as I walked down the stairs, it became apparent that not ALL "banned substances" had been confiscated at the turnstiles...and it was also obvious that the Netherlands was one of the participating teams just from the smells coming from the bathroom...
On our way to our seats, we passed a couple of reporters doing their bit, and as we passed, I turned around and it was JP Delacamera (sp?) and John Harkes (formerly a DC United player). They were doing the pre-game for ESPN, but I found it pretty funny that of all the people that have surrouned every single television camera just for a chance to get on TV for only a second...but NO ONE was crowding the two Americans! John Harkes looked pretty funny because he had some indoor soccer kicks with a dark suit...obviously an American. Once they did their bit, I turned around and acknowledges Harkes, and he looked a bit surprised that SOMEONE, ANYONE recognized him.
As we got to our seats, I was pleasantly surprised that our seats were located on the aisle, 6 rows behind the goal...I thought these would be excellent seats, but the goal camera on the boom kept blocking the view downfield, so they weren't as good as tickets that were a bit higher up. However, the seats were still great because we could see exactly what a player on the field would see! We had the Argentinian supporters to our right, and the entire rest of the stadium was ORANJE (Netherlands fans). It didn't matter how many Oranje supporters there were, because the Argentinians came to sing, dance, party, and just plain make noise! They had a group of about 10 drums that were beating the entire game, and they had songs and chants that everybody in the section sang along with. On occasion, when the Oranje supporters got tired of listening to the Argentinians, they would start a "Holland...Holland...Holland" chant, which easily downed out the Argentinians, but it was always short-lived, and the Argentinians came back with even more support. The excitement and electricity in the air was amazing. Everyone was abuzz, and it was very festive...if only the game on the field was remotely as exciting as it was in the stands, it would've been a game to celebrate for years to come. As it turns out, the game was rather ho-hum with not very much excitement. Neither team wanted to do much in the way of scoring, and the other team was just fine with that.
After the match, we took Imran (whom Knuckles and I affectionately refer to as "our stray" as we found him near the side of the road, literally, and we took him whereever we went for a couple of days) to his apartment, then went back to our castle-hotel for the night...that's right, we booked a room in a castle! Not like the castle that you probably think of with the high walls and towers, but more of the castle in the middle of the forest where travelers stop on their long journey. It was a very nice place, and they had some very old photos of how the castle used to look. I was really glad that the castle provided a relatively soft bed...FINALLY! Hit the hay early knowing that tomorrow is going to be a VERY long and tiresome day; lots of travel, and watching the US try to advance to the second round.
Here is a pictoral representation of the day:
(as you can see, my mohawk is starting to get pretty long and looking like a toupe like Knucles')
(the sea of Oranje)
(the drum section...with a slow exposure)
Cheers,
Rocco
posted by Rocco at 2:18 AM
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