The Road Trip - Part 2 & 3 (Sweat & Defeat)

After a monumentally late night, we were up and running for yet another train, (Yates had to rush back to the apartment because he forgot his train ticket… doh..!), to take us to Gelsenkirchen and the USA vs Czech game by 11:00am the next morning. Fortunately, we had determined that there was little of cultural and artistic interest in Gelsenkirchen to waste time seeing, which allowed us to grab an extra few hours of sleep, so after the 3-hour train ride we headed straight out to the stadium.

Now I am not sure if everyone else in the world is aware of this..., but it has been dammed hot here in Germany just lately. When we were in Tunisia there were reports of cold temperatures in Germany and even snow in some places so we were expecting be wrapping up warm, but after just 3 days here the weather changed and it been as hot as a glass-blowers arse ever since. Gelsenkirchen stadium is an engineering marvel with the centrepiece being its retractable roof that can be closed if it is raining. Fortunately, on this stinking hot day, the roof was open, but inside the stadium, it was still a whopping 32 degrees and just sitting there meant I was sweating like a rapist. Even the beer had no effect today as I am sure it was seeping through the pores of my skin soon after it entered my system, any liquid was simply being used to stop us over-heating.

The game kicked off and the USA went behind early in the first half which set the tone for the whole game. Rarely have I seen a more one-sided and disappointing match as this one, and by half-time it was clear what the result was going to be, so I took one for the team and went to queue in the beer line…. For anyone that has been skiing in Europe will know, the idea of orderly queuing to the average European is something they have no concept of… Add to this the South American and African nations who have little to queue for let alone actually do it, queuing in the half-time beer line is more akin to a rugby scrum. I honestly believe that in the 20 minutes I spent in that queue, not only did I lose more bodily fluids than were going to be replenished by the beer itself, I also saw more physical effort, crafty manoeuvring and sneaky moves that I had seen during the first 45 minutes of the football match…!

Clutching my precious cargo of 4 beers I returned to my seats only to find that the sun had dipped below the rim of the stadium's open roof to be shining directly on where we were sitting. If it was 32 degrees before it must have been pushing 40 degrees at the beginning of the second half, and to add insult to injury, you could hardly see the pitch for the glare, (not that there was much to see…!) So there we are at a dour and uninspiring game, being superheated in the direct rays of the sun, sweating ourselves inside out, and watching the Czech team cruise to an easy 3-nil victory.

Looking back on it I think that the stadium was somehow cursed for us as our fortunes immediately changed as soon as we left, as we despite there being 52,000 people trying to get back to the centre of town, we managed to bag a taxi of all things for an air-conditioned and quick ride back to the station. Although our train journey back to Frankfurt was long and involved a change, we were also lucky to nab some good seats on both trains, ahead of hundreds of other fans that littered every corner and passageway of the trains. Apart from Yates crying into his Coke Light and meeting an American guy who was studying ‘chemical entomology’ and wanted to tell us, and the rest of the carriage about it, it was a good trip…

For us, it was an early night getting home at 1:00am, and the cool sheets of the apartment beds were a welcome respite for the night. We had to be up reasonably early the next day for the third and final part of our road trip, which fortunately was actually a 3:00pm game in Frankfurt itself. We figured that this would be an easier bit of travelling and that we could at least catch up on our sleep a little.

It was another scorching hot day as it turned out and travelling on the S-Bahn to the Frankfurt Stadium to see the Togo vs South Korea game was like catching a ride in a mobile sauna. I swear that it did not matter how much beer Yates and I drunk we would never be able to keep pace without sweat glands… The stadium was busy but we got to our seats easily and looked forward to a match that on paper promised little in terms of world-class football. We were seated near a large contingent of South Koreans who are absolutely fanatical about their national side. This brought memories of 4 years previously when Yates and I attended the World Cup 2002 in Korea, and after only a few minutes we were chanting along to ‘Kay-Ha-Ming-Go’, (or something similar, at one point we did change the words to ‘Where’s my Dingo’).

Sometimes when you expect very little of a game it comes along and bites you on the bum and provides you with an unexpected little cracker. Although South Korea had most of the early possession, Togo broke the deadlock with a stunning goal against the run of play. I swear I could hear some of the South Korean female fans in tears when the ball hit the back of the net, there was definitely some desperate screaming going on. Normal service was resumed when a Togolese player was rightly sent off for a last-ditch foul against a resurgent Korea, and YS Park, who plays for Manchester United, scored from the free kick which tied the game up at 1-1. The game was won in a comfortable manner when the substitute Ahn came on at halftime and scored a deserved winner. Phew… what a good match, it’s so much more fun when the team you want to win actually do…, almost made me forget about the heat…!!

With the game over by 5:50pm and no rushing back to the train station required, we all sat down on the steps of the Stadium drinking a few beers and watching the fans of both teams and the local German mingle and have fun. All these things you may have seen on TV about how much of a party it is here in Germany, with fans from all over the world joining together to create a fantastic atmosphere, are completely true. We were given an impromptu lesson in Korean chanting, people were taking our photo with the New Zealand flag, (when they were not confusing it with the Australian one), and we were generally having a really chilled and relaxing post-game experience. We sat there for an hour or so and when we finally left the stadium there were no crowds and no pushing and shoving for a tram or bus… That’s the way to do it…

Yates and I had a little buzz going so we dropped Fiona off at the local tram stop, (she was tired), and we went to Sam’s to watch the Brazil game. We rolled back to the apartments somewhat drunk at around midnight, looking forward to a comfortable nights rest and break of a couple of days before our next match in Hannover, (Mexico vs Angola)….