Fußball Fieber

The World Cup ("WM" or "Weltmeisterschaft") is over, as of yesterday's final Spiel als Italien über Frankreich den Sieg gewonnen hat (for English speakers, when Italy won the victory in the game against France). I must say, it's been truly exciting for me to see Germany get so patriotic with all the flags and such, (they normally never come out in this land which is shy about showing its colors).

I wore my "lucky" Germany soccer jersey (only cost me 4 Euro!!) for each of our games (I say "our" because having lived here over 7 years, I do identify quite closely with my adopted nation). Well, I wore it every time EXCEPT when Thomas and I were stuck in Friday traffic... and the long, long stop- and-go traffic for kilometers on the Autobahn on the way to Prague for our staff retreat. (Oh, you thought the Autobahn was ONLY FAST? ha!)

We caught the game on the radio-- at least until we crossed into the Czech Republic. And may I say, soccer is NOT the sort of game you can follow well on radio?! Uh- hum... it didn't help either that we had to return back to Jena, thankfully early on in our trip, because I'd forgotten my passport! Thomas was a real sweetie and TOTALLY patient with me in that mistake. But we cheered on the home team from the car! So, I thought I'd do a special blog JUST about what the World Cup looked like in another part of Europe, on our Team Trip to Prague. No matter where you are: it's "Fussball Fieber" (= football or soccer fever).

Shopping fever? Here is a collection of what the official cleats look like, but colored especially for different countries' teams.

Fan fever? The kids of my co-workers are wearing their special jerseys, too, for Germany's Schweinsteiger (#7) and for Ronaldo (#10) from Brazil. They picked them out themselves!

Viewing the game fever? See the green field of soccer on the outdoor screen. We're on a main outdoor plaza (some cities have several venues for viewing, with from hundreds up to tens of thousands watching it together on giant monitors). As well, many restaurants have TVs or even large- screen monitors for customers.

Night fever? I found this screen amazing-- it's ROUND -- so even at night, from all angles of this pedestrian area, you can watch your favorite game outdoors!

Info. and news fever? You can read about the game the next morning. And at this coffee shop, you can find a newspaper in French, Czech (at least I think that's the language it's in!) or German! (bottom newspaper says Germany won 5-3 over Argentina)