A Fitting End?

Apparently, it takes more than defense to win championships, as the old credo goes.
Unfortunately for Switzerland, keeping the opponents scoreless this World Cup couldn't prevent the red and white from being eliminated in the quarterfinals. The Swiss failed to make any of their penalty kicks during a 3-0 shootout loss to Ukraine - just like they didn't allow a goal in four matches - after the two sides played to a lackluster 120 minutes of scoreless action.
The result capped a day that will be remembered for penalty kicks after Italy ousted Australia, 1-0. The first match ended in a most regrettable way, when Italy was awarded a penalty kick in extra time of the second half on a closish call. Watching it live, I would have thought the referee would let the tackle go, considering Fabio Grosso - the player who drew the penalty - sold the foul with a bit of acting. It was a poor way to end a match that featured good excitement at both ends.
It's now been a few days since I returned to the States, which means I'm getting my first taste of consistent World Cup coverage on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. As of now, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. I find the commentary very bland a lot of the time and I'm sick of hearing them spend five minutes a match promoting upcoming games, telling everyone how all matches are available in HD or letting us know SportsCenter is next. I didn't hear this type of self-promotion on the BBC's feed overseas, and although I couldn't understand the commentators in German, French or Czech, I'm sure they were more concerned with the soccer than anything else.
Also, listening to the words of JP Dellacamera - he's the one paired with one of my favorite players growing up, John Harkes - became increasingly annoying during certain situations. In today's Swiss-Ukraine match, just as he did when Mexico played Argentina, I got sick of him constantly letting us know that overtime would come should the tie remain. What else was going to come? If ESPN and ABC want soccer to work and want to develop an intelligent audience, then stopping treating us like fools.

The Legend Grows

David Beckham once again proved he is unrivaed worldwide when it comes to free kicks. After getting a few chances Sunday against Ecuador, you knew it was only a matter of time until the English captained burned the opposition. Even though England didn't play that great, the team continues to look like a true contender.
As for England's next opponent, Portugal will be a few men down after the sea of red cards in its round of 16 victory over Holland. I caught bits and pieces of the match and was shocked to see how many players had been sent off. I truly felt the pain of those Dutch fans, considering I sat in the same Nuremberg stadium a few days back when the U.S. was eliminated from the World Cup.
The England-Portugal quarterfinal should be very interesting since both countries have a history of being underachievers. That being said, one of them will be two wins away from the trophy by next Saturday.
Now that Ecuador - one of three 'surprise' teams to reach the knockout stage - is out, I'll be interested to see how the other teams in similar situations perform. Our next look comes today when Australia takes on Italy. I truly believe the Socceroos can win this match after watching both sides multiple sides this World Cup. Australia's performance against Brazil - a 2-0 loss in which the Aussies looked better much of the match - should provide some confidence.
I give Australia a much beter chance than Ghana against Brazil two days from now.

Back In Action

After an extended stretch of much-needed sleep, I awoke late this morning in time to catch the end of Germany’s round of 16 win against Sweden. With the support they’re receiving and their ability to score early goals so often, the Germans are looking more and more like a dangerous team.
Now that I’ve finally regained some sense of normalcy after all the travel, it’s time to recap the ending moments of my trip and give some final thoughts. Each section will be broken up with a word or two in all caps.

THE MATCH
Of course, like any American fan, I would have preferred to see the U.S. beat Ghana on Thursday and advance to the second round. And even though I left the stadium in Nuremberg filled with disappointment, the experience was still worth having.
The celebration that took place after the U.S. tied the score at 1 is probably the greatest moment of its kind I’ve ever been a part of at any sporting event. We screamed and cheered in the stands for a good three minutes. Among the people I celebrated with were two guys from California we’d met in Prague. They were seated a few seats over in the adjacent section and when the goal went in they ran into our section and hugged my friend and I, who were waiting for their arrival.
Of course, myself along with the other few thousand of Americans seated behind the goal had little time to revisit that ecstatic moment since Ghana was awarded a penalty kick just before the half, which ended up serving as the winning goal.
The result was more difficult to handle in some ways because we ended up getting the necessary help with Italy beating the Czech Republic. All along I was saying that I trusted Italy to do its part more than us, and I ended up forecasting that unfortunate scenario. In some ways, I think a U.S. win over Ghana without the correct help to go through would have been easier to handle, but that’s easy to say knowing the end result now.
The fond memories I will take from the loss were how, once again, the Americans came out in full force to support their country. Patriotism was fully alive throughout my trip to Germany, and now the challenge will be for Americans to remain interested in soccer year round and not just every four years for the World Cup.

SCALPING
I still can’t get over how prevalent ticket scalping was during the World Cup. I know those type of sales exist at every major sporting event, but FIFA had spent months harping on the fact that no one could get into the stadium with a ticket not matching their name. That plan clearly failed.
Too many people I met said how they’d bought tickets for matches only a few hours before kickoff. If you were willing to pay three or four times face value — some matches drew less interest — it was not difficult to secure a last-minute seat.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have believed FIFA’s overzealous thoughts that scalping could be avoided, but I wish soccer’s governing body wouldn’t have made such a big deal over ticket security when I never saw a single document checked. As long as your ticket passed as real when placed though the scanning machine, you were good to go.
The security to enter the stadiums was also pretty light. I think I was checked more strictly before entering the Berlin Fan Fest than for either of the two U.S. matches I attended.
Speaking of the Fan Fest, in addition to the 500,000 people filling the streets of Germany’s capital, I forgot to mention the other great options for fans without tickets to matches. Just outside the Berlin train station was a smaller replica of the stadium on the other side of town. It held roughly 9,000 people and for a few Euros you could sit in there and watch matches on one of the many big screens inside. Definitely one of the cooler ideas I’ve seen.

WITH OPEN ARMS
Not once can I recall having any problems with the people of Germany during my stay. Everyone made the experience of being in a foreign land easy, and from what some citizens told me, that was the hope.
Fair or not, there are still plenty of people out there who only see Germany as the land of the Nazis. As someone who is Jewish, if I can separate those two thoughts, than I believe most others should be capable of the same.
Even though its been roughly half a century, a lot of Germans I met talked about how this World Cup was another way to show the world how far their country has come. Hopefully, after people leave with positive experiences, the memories of trouble a few generations ago will not continue to feel like a burden to the current generations.

That’s a wrap for now. I’ll continue to share my thoughts on the round of 16 and beyond, with this blog staying on until the World Cup Final on July 9.

Home Sweet Home

After roughly 24 hours worth of travel, I'm finally back on American soil, back home at my parent's place in Long Island.
I don't know where to begin. Although the U.S. lost, the experience - especially the way we celebrated our goal - was unforgettable.
Sorry I couldn't get a quick update in earlier, but I had trains and planes that I couldn't afford to miss. As you might expect, I'm very tired now and jet lag will be setting in soon enough. If I don't get back to a computer tonight, I'll give a full tomorrow and make it worthwhile.

The Home Stretch

Well, here we are.
I’m about 30 minutes away from checking out of my last hotel this trip and heading over to the Beer Garden in town for a gathering of U.S. fans. The day is filled with potential and I can’t help but think that today’s result could end up being among our country’s most significant in soccer history.
Should we win, get the help we need and advance out of the group stage, it would prove to the sport’s world powers that the U.S. is not only legitimate, but can survive against the toughest of competition. I hope everyone at home plans to watch.
In case this is my final post before returning to the States, I just want to thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this look into one person’s trip to the greatest sporting event you can find. Until we meet again.

Gold Card Equals Gold Treatment

And now, for something completely different.
We’ll call this my valuable piece of travel advice. It comes in two parts.
First off, when leaving the country I suggest making all reservations with an American Express card. If not for the internationally recognized company I would still be one very angry traveler
My arrival to Nuremberg – at about 8 p.m. Wednesday – was greeted with the person who checked me in asking if the hotel should keep the charge on my MasterCard. I thought nothing of it at the time – having booked my stays in a variety of ways this trip – but I rechecked the itinerary up in the room and realized that I had prepaid after booking with American Express’ travel services in April. I brought this to the attention of that same clerk, who tried to claim the nearly $300 I already laid out was simply to reserve the right to purchase the single-night room for the identical price. This despite showing him the portion of my e-mail confirmation stating I owed no balance.
After a series of arguments – split by a good meal tarnished by frustration – I returned to the hotel and continued fighting my battle. On top of it all, the MasterCard they had on file didn’t match the number of any card I have, which made me think identity fraud was my next concern.
Eventually, I got myself behind the front desk to log onto the American Express Web site, where I showed the gentlemen the charge on my bill of two months ago. About 30 seconds later, my friend finally got through with American Express and passed the phone to me. After its representative assured me I was paid for and had nothing to worry about, American Express spent the next five minutes telling our Holiday Inn what the problem was and to be sure not to bother me with the issue anymore. The once hostile, and at times rude, hotel clerk was suddenly quite apologetic after I hung up with American Express.
In the end, the problem was American Express had purchased the room for me through Travelocity – which had the MasterCard on file, meaning no identity issues – and the hotel was owed money from the company and not me in any way.
The second part of my rule is to always keep your documents and bring them during all travels. If I hadn’t brought everything with me I would be out nearly $300 and probably wouldn’t have been cheated of some fun while watching the U.S. play Ghana in their pivotal match Thursday.
I know it sounds like an almost made-up story, but I promise, this really did happen. It’s something I wouldn't want to make up knowing how frustrating the situation was.
As for the rest of my Thursday night. We went into the town square, where we bumped into a decent size group of U.S. supporters. Included in the mix were two people we met a night earlier in Berlin and had traded e-mails with earlier in the day in hopes of reuniting. The plan is to reconvene at 11 a.m. and then be at the stadium by 2 p.m., two hours before kickoff.
I’m just glad soccer is the only thing on my mind right now.

As Far As The Eye Could See

Wow. That's all I can really say.
Berlin's Fan Fest - rumored to feature roughly 500,000 people each time Germany plays - lived up to all it's hype. It was a sea of people with black, red and yelow flags waving proudly in the air. In some ways, the atmosphere in this shutdown city boulevard was better than what I witnessed while attending the U.S. match against the Czech Republic. National pride oozed among this massive collection of Germans, who cheered throughout their team's 3-0 win Tuesday over Ecuador, which also advanced to the round of 16.
We managed to get up to the front portion of the gathering and, by the time the match started, a look behind me showed nothing but people and flags. Considering it took a good 20 minutes to walk through the venue a night earlier when the crowd was depleted, the look back assured me that the speculation of how many people attended was pretty close.
I stood out wearing a U.S. shirt and flag over my back - fans of other countries also sported their flags but mine was the only U.S. one I saw for a good five hours to open the day - to the point that a German police officer stopped me to have his picture taken. I'm now one of the few people to have a snapshot with the cops without doing something wrong.
Although my friend was a litle skeptical of me wearing the flag, I found no ill-will from the crowd. In fact, a lot of people seemed to like that I was suporting my country and I think every American to saw me made a point of coming over to talk. One German guy stopped me, kissed me hello on each cheek and asked his friend to get a picture with me. Although I didn't get the same greeting, people from England and Canada also asked for pictures.
I was almost as popular as the beautiful blond girl from Sweden who couldn't walk through the crowd without getting multiple photo requests - which she granted - or the two topless girls who had the German and Ecuadorian flags painted on them, respectively.
Although the match proved to be lopsided - not nearly as exciting as the nigthcap we stayed for to see Henrik Larsson prove he still has some magic left in helping Sweden to a 2-2 tie with England - the party lasted half the day as many started arriving around noon for the 4 p.m. start and dancing lasted until closing time at 1 a.m. The size of the event was unlike anything I think I'll ever see again and made our two-night stay in Berlin a worthwhile journey.
You also got a sense of how big each match is to the people by walking the streets that afternoon. The closer we got to kickoff the less people I saw outside. You got the feeling everything just shuts down when the Germans play.
We're now about two hours from taking a train to Nuremberg, where the U.S. plays Ghana tomorrow. It will be a bittersweet moment since the match figures to be high on excitement with so much at stake - a U.S. win plus Italy victory against the Czechs puts the Americans into Round 2 - but it also signals our trip's end. We have to catch a train to Cologne that departs less than two hours after the match is through and we'll have landed back at Newark by around 1:30 Friday afternoon. But now is not the time to look at the end because some of the best memories are still to be made.
The one regret I have upon leaving Germany is we never managed to get to what's left of the Berlin Wall. But this was a trip all about soccer and that type of history will be there if I return. What we saw at the Fan Fest is probably once in a lifetime.
A quick random thought that has been developing before I sign off. After dealing with tons of waiters, bartenders, hotel receptionists and other people in the service industry this is trip, I've noticed that anyone in these positions has to be more skilled, in some ways, than their American counterparts. I've yet to interact with anyone holding one of these posts who didn't speak at least two languages if not more. I'd imagine the treatment I've received as an outsider is better than what travelers get when coming to the States.
That's it for now but I hope to find another Internet Cafe in Nuremberg so I can make at least one more posting before I return home. If not, a full report will be delivered Friday.

It's Almost Time

It's nearing noon and the temperature continues to rise. We've stopped in an Internet Cafe at the midway point of our cross-city walk from one hotel to the other -- the switch a product of some earlier botched travel plans.
Along the streets it's hard to miss the support being shown by Germany's citizens. The black, red and yellow colors of the country's flag are everywhere as we are nearing the 4 p.m. start time between the host nation and Ecuador. You get the feeling everyone in the country will be watching.
After walking the city streets last night, I made a comment to my friend that there was a sense of the calm before the storm. The Fan Fest is expected to draw in the range of half a million people and should the Germans win -- which means they finish atop the Group A standings with a perfect three wins and nine points -- the party may last through the night.
Aside from participating in the excitement and seeing a few tourist sites beforehand, my other goal for the day is trying to avoid so many purchases. I've spent so much money on souvenirs this trip, a total that rose last night after buying some T-Shirts for friends and family. I'm like a little kid each time I walk into any World Cup related store.
That's all for now but hopefully I'll be able to get to a computer with more ease in the future to give full details of Germany's massive party.

Who's Counting

The latest notebook update, this one coming at around 2 p.m. Monday on the train from Prague to Berlin:

My first Absinthe experience may prove to be my last. After promising to try one shot before I left, I ended up ordering three more as a night designed to be quiet became quite the party.
The fun part about Absinthe -- a very potent liquor, which is colored green and illegel in the U.S. and most of Europe save Prague -- is how the shot is taken. You get a spoonful of sugar, which is lit on fire after a drop of Absinthe is added. Once the flame burns out, you stir the melted sugar into your shot to help take off the edge. I'm reminded of how much fun we had when looking at pictures of my friend and I with the two bartenders.
Earlier Sunday night I finally experienced how cheap Prague is. I got a full dinner with drink and an appetizer for the equivalent of less than $10 U.S. Prague's costs proved to be a nice oasis.
Although we still have about four travel hours remaining, I am filled with excitement over visiting Berlin. It should be the World Cup center and from talking to other travelers who have already been, it's a scene. We'll end up having two nights there instead of one after booking the extra night once we discovered a missing hotel day in our travel plans.
I imagine Berlin will feel much different from our previous stops in Germany, when we were in more industrial city. Seeing the remnants of the Berlin Wall should be interesting and I'm sure there are plenty of other attractions worth visiting.
But to experience it all in less than 48 hours a nap on this train ride is certainly in order. Until next time.

Finally, A Computer

My apologies for not posting earlier but I couldn't get to a computer. I've only got limited time now, here at the hotel in Berlin, but tomorrow I'll deliver a full report.
We just walked through the Fan Fest site in town, which is at least the length of 10 city blocks and has hosted roughly 500,000 people on previous days. The venue is equipped with 10 or so massive screens, which have been showing all the action. There is also a Ferris Wheel and what looked like a dance club within the fenced off area.
The place should be packed tomorrow when Germany plays Ecuador on the other side of town. It may prove to be the trip's highlight.
We did experience a slight snag upon arriving here at about 6:30 p.m. local time. We didn't know the address of the hotel and ended up walking around nearly two hours. But it was kind of cool to see the city in that fashion, although the rain we walked in made the moment a bit less enjoyable.
My 15 minutes allotted is ticking away and I've got to check in with family and friends, so I'll catch up with all of you in the morning.

The Great Equalizer

I got chills when the celebration took place.
Back in Old Town Square, where I watched on the big screen the night before, the match this time was France against South Korea. Ji Sung Park’s goal in the 81st minute earned the Koreans a point with their 1-1 tie and sent the streets into jubilation.
A South Korean contingent of a couple hundred strong, who Saturday marched through the streets with some beating drums, exploded with energy when the ball crossed the line and remained that way until the final whistle. You could feel how emotional a moment it was for the fans.
On our way out of the square, my friend and I bumped into two guys from Atlanta we hung out with the night before to watch the U.S. We’ll see them again Thursday when the U.S. plays Ghana in a match I can’t stop thinking about.
I’m heading back out, so until tomorrow.

The Celebration

I thought we did it.
When the ball went from DaMarcus Beasley’s foot and into the back of the net, I thought the mountain had been climbed. In fact, the 50 or so Americans I was with Saturday night in Prague thought the same thing.
But at some point in our celebration we came to realize that Beasley’s 65th minute strike, which would have given the U.S. a 2-1 lead, was called off because of an offside call. The moment felt of dejection, but nothing like the utter disappointment we all experienced when Italy scored the opening goal.
There was a great sense of accomplishment once the match was through – a well-deserved 1-1 draw – and we all understood the scenario awaiting the U.S. next match. It was then time to celebrate the historical achievement – the first American point earned after losing all eight matches previously played in a European hosted World Cup. We did, to the tune of seeing the sun rise in Prague.
At one point we became a little too loud in our parading in the streets and I, along with another member of our traveling party, was warned by a local police officer.
Aside from the nonstop praise we showed to our national team, the most interesting part of the night might have been paying for food or drinks wherever we went. Since the Czech Kron – the country’s money – has such a weak exchange rate, you end up getting huge bills. I was walking around with bills of 100 and 200 Kron, and even had one valued at 2,000 earlier in the day. You quickly realize how little that number actually is since every purchase requires hundreds at a time.
Now I’m off to see the sites after missing most of the day by sleeping in past 3 o’clock. There’s a castle to view and bridge to walk over – at least those are two of the stops we’re making – and then who knows. A train tomorrow to Berlin is on the horizon, but I want to take advantage of the hours in Prague I have left.