Last One Leaving Lisbon Hit the Lights

Well, it would seem anyone with any remote concern for Portugal's football fortunes made their way to Germany for their nation's World Cup opener against former Portugese colony, Angola. Of the announced crowd of 45,000 in Koeln Stadion, about 40,000 were cheering for the maroon.

The exceptions to this were a number of Germans, who had adopted Angola, likely because it was one of the few matches they could obtain tickets to attend. The Angolans who were in attendance were festive and did, nonetheless, make themselves heard.

World Cup contrast ended up sitting either side of me along the touchline at the end where Portugal scored their lone goal early in the first half, when Pauleta, trailing in the middle finished off the good work and fine cross by the captain, Figo. On my right was a very pleasant, well-spoken gentlemen from Holland. On my left, was an Italian photographer, who was neither pleasant nor capable of speaking. Sorry, I forgot, Italians are the only people in the world who play soccer. Too bad their game has never been one to learn that scoring goals is the object of the game. All the more reason to crave a US win this coming Saturday in Kaiserslauten.

As it became apparent late in the match Angola was just not going to have what it took to salvage a point with an equalizer, packed up and was out the gate for the first Media Shuttle. Tomorrow, well, later today, it's all about the U-S-A. Czech that one out. Go on lads!

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