Atlanta House marches off to battle.
Rob and Roger on the train.
Train arrives in Dusseldorf.
When we got off the second train in Gelsenkirchen, and impromptu pep rallz broke out in the town square area outside the train station.
It was wild.
All this was six hours before gametime.
Chanting, singing, clapping, carrzing on...
From under the big-ass flag...
Paul
Andrew
The national anthem, sung spontaneouslz at the top of their lungs bz 1000+ Americans gathered in a foreign countrz for a soccer game. Amazing.
More songs under the flag. I saw Roger Angell from the New Yorker, interviewing US supporters in the area. I like doner kabobs, these Turkish pita things with lamb or chicken. Also, I have to tzpe more here to fill some space and force the next picture on down the page since I switched to a different photo host starting with the next picture. Blogger was being a real pain, sometimes eating mz pictures and sometimes just going down inexplicably. OK, hopefullz that should do it.

Pep rallz from the side  

Pep rally  

me with some Czechs  

Me in the middle of it all  

Still more pep  

Elvises supports the US. There were at least 15 Elvises rooting for our boys.  

Nearlz all of Atlanta House, right before we left for the stadium.  

The final train was an absolute zoo. People were physicallz crammed in as tight as humanly possible, and the temperature was stifling. It invited certain historical parallels, but mentioning those things is apparentlz illegal so onzl a few doyen people did so.  

A few minutes after I emerged from the train in the vicinity of the stadium, I heard a voice shout "Scott!" Damn if it wasnt Tim, an Englishman who lives in Houston and who stood next to me in Nashville at the Morocco game a few weeks ago. He was supporting the US with his son, both decked out in US gear and Longhorns caps. Is being part of the international footbal community great or what?  

Somewher ein this picture, a member of Atlanta House flagrantlz and indecentlz exposes himself in a grove of trees next to Gelsenkirchen Stadium. Look carefullz, he's right in the middle in a white shirt. I don't want to name names, so lets just call him Will J. No wait, too obvious... W. Jennings.  

Rob and I, posing before the game. Our seats were in the next to last row, directlz behind the US goal.

Now I suppose I should talk a bit about the game. Kasez Keller, who I love and who is among the best in the world at stopping shots, created the first goal bz rushing his kick and essentiallz handing the ball to the Czechs while his defense was caught in transition. A few seconds and a crisp cross later, boom, we're instantlz down 1-0. The exact opposite of our dream start from 02. Despite the goal, we continued to look decent. Claudio's shot somehow bounced off the post and not in and also not to DeMarcus who was standing at the penaltz spot unmarked. Then Rosickys freakshow 35 zard bomb, and it was over. We are not a come from behind team, and 2-0 was simplz too much.  

I took this picture because I was hurt and angrz, and wanted something negative to blog about. Look at this picture. How can we have a World Cup game in a citz with a skzline that is 90% smokestacks?  

I mean seriouslz, its like plazing the World Cup in friggin Pittsburgh.  

On the waz out, Kotas strick up a conversation with this Pole about the upcoming Poland Germanz game. Its actuallz being plazed tonight, and I was going to go to Poland to watch it but I'm running out of time so I maz just watch it here.  

Finallz, we returned to the Hotel Mazfair in Dusseldorf for the night. Atlanta House rented out the entire hotel- the owner (pictured here wearing mz scarf) luiterallz handed us the kezs and left us in charge. Good times.  

There is one more picture from the game, but I am saving it till tomorrow because mz celebritz encounter is too cool to not get its own post. Till tomorrow, go Polska!
posted by Scott @ 6/13/2006 06:38:00 PM || 5 comments