Postcard Wars

Here I am again on an ICE train, this time on my way to the capital for the next two days. Berlin ho! We couldn’t resist. Yesterday 250,000 fans packed Berlin’s “Soccer Mile,” along Strasse des 17. Juni to the Brandenburger Tor, for Germany’s glorious win over the Poles. 250,000!

Our train from Stuttgart – Hopp Stuttgart! – came through Nuremberg, where this afternoon the Soca Warriors from Trinidad and Tobago play the English in each team’s second match. So, then, do you think there may have been a few English fans in the Nuremberg train station during our 45-minute layover there? If you answered “yes,” bravo!

The English are an amusing, if somewhat frightening, set of fans. And when you consider that advancees from Group A and Group B will play one another in the second round – an elimination round – it raises the thrilling but slightly terrifying scenario that England will play Germany in a HUGE game in the very near future. With the mafia known as English soccer fans in a country with millions of rabid German fans, this could spell a lot of trouble for two groups of fans that, truth be told, hate each other. It would make me very nervous. I respect the English, even as I hope for a 6-0 shellacking at the hands of Deutschland.

But first the Soca Warriors. Came across a few true Trinidadans at the train station in Nuremberg, and I wish them good luck tonight against an English team equipped, once again, with Wayne Rooney. The English can only improve on an unimpressive performance against the Paraguayans in Game #1. Meanwhile, in the late game tonight in Berlin, it will be the Swedes against Paraguay. Swedes are absolutely great people and I expect the capital will be overrun by beer-guzzling visitors from “Sverige.” I once saw Henrik Larsson at a nightclub in Glasgow, which I am very proud of. Is it me or do most towns in Sweden end in “-kőping”?

Speaking of Glasgow, I saw my first Scotland-turned-Trinidad supporter today, a kilted Scot wearing a Trinidad jersey in the hopes that his adopted nation will thrash the English. Soccer politics at its finest.

Finally, a big shout-out to all my friends in the USA, hiding from their bosses’ eyes to catch scores from the latest games. I’ll be back in the working world soon enough and can commiserate. Priorities, folks! Work happens every day. The World Cup happens every four years. Keep up the good work.

P.S. – The title of this entry comes from a group of English fans who were marching around the Nuremberg station singing “Que sera, sera.” My brother made the accurate observation that the English will likely NOT be singing that song should Trinidad take down Becks and Co. 4-1 in a few hours.

P.P.S. – Spain 4, Ukraine 0 in the tournament’s biggest drubbing so far. I know a certain Spaniard in Pennsylvania who will be thrilled with this. Ole, Franco! And what about the Ukraine coach’s comment that he expects nothing less than the semifinals this year?