German Efficiency and Persistence

Last night was Germany-Poland in Dortmund, the second-largest stadium among the World Cup venues. Neighboring countries with a long-standing rivalry running through centuries of history, this match was singled out early on as one of the big matches of Group Play.

Not to disappoint, the crowd came early and was in high spirits chanting, cheering and singing for over an hour before the match.

The Process of getting into the stadium and on the field for a photographer not from one of the competing countries was different from the other matches to date. Perceiving themselves the World Champions of Organization, the Germans posted times for the allocation of Pitch Photography media tickets. Being in the third group with a posted distribution time of 7:30, I had been killing time in the Media Center for two hours already, when I walked over to 'que up' at 7:15. Deviating from procedure at every previous match, the FIFA official had already allocated all the Group 3 media tickets and was working on the Wait List. Immediately jumping into the fray, I pointed out I was on the approved list for this match and received one of the last two tickets for field access. Too close for comfort and another black mark against German 'efficiency'.

The match itself was, as expected, hard-hitting and end-to-end. The crowd remained and involved in the match, bouying the German side that extra little bit when a Polish defender received his second yellow card of the match and was sent off. Smelling 'blood in the water', the Germans swarmed the Polish penalty area and eventually got the win in the final minute. Substitute Odonkor penetrated the right flank, crossed the ball into the middle where Neuville knocked it home to send the home crowd home happy.

On the train back to Koeln, ran into three fans from Atlanta, who were painted up and dressed as German fans . . . when in Rome... Turns out one of them played high school soccer at Lakeside and was on the team Lovett beat for the State Championship in 1984. Coincidentally, I was wearing a Lovett Soccer t-shirt.

Today is my one day off and it began drearily, the first day of rain so far. Finished up with the necessary photo and computer work and am now off to be a tourist as the sun is beginning to sneak out. Will probably take a boat up and\or down the Rhein and hoist a local product, Kolsch bier.

As with all the content of this blog, written and photographic, Copyrighted 2006, All Rights Reserved, Perry McIntyre, Atlanta, GA - USA.