Soccer Fever

Whoever reads this probably knows that the greatest sports tournament in the world is currently under way. Yeah baby, I am talking about Soccer World Cup, or Fußballweltmeisterschaft as we say in German. I overheard somehwere that an estimated 1.2 billion people watched the opening game of this World Cup between Germany and Costa Rica. For the final game an estimated 1.5 billion people will watch this event. It is truly the World's sport. Don't get me wrong, I like all kinds of sports but having played soccer my entire childhood in Germany and a few years after that, it truly is Germanys pastime. I have been watching games at home and at work (thanks to Yahoo for the nice big screens in the cafeteria) or been following them online. Yeah, my productivity suffers a little but once every 4 years you get to see the world's best soccer players in one tournament and it's just terrific. I wish I could be in Germany right now, my friends tell me that all of Germany is going uts and with every win of our national team, people will get more insane. I am hoping for a rematch of the last World Cup finals, between Germany and Brazil. This time though, Germany will be on top. And for someone like me who loves soccer to see your home team win is really, really cool. Germany has won 1954, 1974 and 1990. I wasn't born back in '54 and I was only 3 years old in '74 but I still remember watching the finals in Italy when Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in 1990. It wasn't a good game but winning the title pushed all of Germany into delirium for one night. Anyone who has ever played in a championship game on any level knows that it's a special feeling when you come out as the winner. I am hoping for something like it again. Let's see what happens. In the meantime I will keep wearing my red Germany jersey when they are playing. So far they are undefeated when I am wearing it and I have been saving it for almost a year for this world cup ... If that isn't helping I don't know what can.