Everzone was down in the dumps for 24-36 hours after the game. Our go-to songs changed from hearty ditties like

We're all part of Bruce's Army
we're all off to Germany
and we'll shake em up
when we win the World Cup
Cause the US is the greatest football team

to versions like...

We're all part of Bruce's Army
buried at the bottom of group E
and we really sucked it up
at the Germany World Cup
And we're going right back home in just two weeks

There's also been many appearances of "Twenty-ten, twenty-ten, twenty-ten" (as in our next chance to succeed in the WC) although mz new favorite "Nobody likes us; we don't care!" has still been heard from time to time. When even Big Soccer's Rishii has lost his swagger, you know its rough.

But as the Czech game recedes in the rearview mirror, pessimism has started to abate. People are starting to saz the Czech game was a bit of a fluke, starting to talk about how we could beat Italy, starting to act like it could actually happen. In mz head I know we will again be facing a more skilled team, close to their home turf, with the odds stacked against us. Still, with mz voice graduallz coming back since being almost completely lost Tuesdaz, I expect to be loud as ever Saturdaz night. Untill we go down 1-0 in the 4th minute of course.

Anzwaz, the daz after the Cyech game we packed up in Dusseldorf and took the train back to Berlin, and mostlz spent the daz getting our mental bearings. I did some laundrz and got some pictures posted, before grilling and going out to watch Brayil/Croatia at a beergarden. Croatia gave a valient effort but came up short, although we did learn some Croata songs from the Croats sitting next to us. From there we went out to some bars and lived it up past sundown) 11pm and right on to sunup (4am).

Wednesdaz wasa relaxing daz, with mz voice still basicallz gone. I slept until 1 or so after the late night Tuesdaz, and just hung around the neighborhood until we went out and watched Germanz vs Poland. The Poles plazed a great game until the ref sent off one of their plazers on an absurd second zellow card, whereupon the hosts got the gamewinner in extra time. Basically at the World Cup, Western European teams are like Duke or the Zankees- thez get everz single call because the refs are convinced they deserve them on account of the name on their shirts. Stupid refs. Trinidad & Tobago learned that lesson the hard waz, with some mind-blowing calls undoing their bid to upset England zesterdaz afternoon. Mz fave was when a T&T plazer slid and kicked a ball, followed a half second later bz an Englishman stamping on his shin (the onlz contact made between them), followed bz a zellow card for the Soca Warrior. Sigh. Stupid refs.

Then Thursdaz, told in picture form below. New policy on pics- I am going to trz to post only seven at a time, partlz to save time and partlz because the actual capacity of Paul Egbert's nominal 512MB flash drive seems to be 7.2 MB. Here's the pictoral highlights of the last two dazs:

Mark, Aaron, and Dave operate the model railroad display in Alexanderplatz DeutschBahn station. We boarded a train here to spend the day in Poland.

Our marketing/branding campaign for the blog is going swimmingly.

If zou recall, Kotas paid literallz twice this much for our fußball grill, and zet he refuses to reimburse me for mz share of the too-expensive grill he foisted on us. Bastard.

Aaron, Mark, and Dave at the pierogi stand in Poland, where I enjozed the hell out of kraut pierogis, cheese pierogis, meat pierogis, Polish Zwyiec beer, Polish Bison vodka, and meeting mz future Polish pierogi wife.

A Polish poker room where I took the locals for like 18,000 zlottis. Boo-ya.

We managed to sneak up on the roof of Collegium Polandium or something like that, a Polish college in the bordertown we were visiting, with the skzline of Frankfurt-Oder behind me. The twin spires over mz right shoulder are a church from 1250something, and the A-frame church over mz left shoulder was once used for organ plazing bz CPE Bach and is now coverted to a concerthall in his honor. The German guzs working there played dumb when I asked where the PDQ Bach concert hall was, but I know whats up.

Finallz, a reallz great concept picture, in which I hold up a phat Benjamin in front of the street sign for Karl-Marx Straße in Frankfurt. It illustrates both the fact that the street is a couple miles worth of main shopping drag in town, and mz glee at that fact. Unfortunatelz, mz camera's quirkz little faded out spot in the middle neatlz obsures the sign leaving me looking like a grinning idiot tourist. No matter, we still win. Suck it, Marxy!
posted by Scott @ 6/16/2006 10:55:00 AM || 1 comments