Nicole schreibt...

Football World Cup 2006 Germany

One of the biggest sporting events in the world came to town - the Football World Cup 2006. Wanting this to be a special experience and to be really part of the mayhem I decided to apply for a job as a Volunteer at the stadium here in Cologne, which, as a long-suffering season ticket holder for the local club, I know like the back of my hand. And I actually got chosen to work as a Security Volunteer to work outside the stadium to help lost visitors. So here I am in my Volunteer uniform, carrying the cherished accreditation that gave me unlimited access to the stadium grounds and wearing my best "How can I help you?" smile. (Sorry about the mainly sucky quality of the photos, but most were taken spontaneously with my mobile phone camera).

The organization comitee was of course eager to create a friendly feel-good atmosphere among the Volunteers and did alot to help people bonding. The first was a a kick off-party where everyone was invited to watch the opening game of the World Cup in the Volunteer Lounge inside the stadium. Germany played a very good 4-2 against Costa Rica, setting a hopeful mood for the world cup. The first game to be played in Cologne was Portugal - Angola and my job for that evening was to simply "be present" on the main street leading up to the stadium past the sponsor's tents, fan shops and snack stalls to be available forv isitors' questions. But there were hardly any, so we could simply enjoy ourselves by looking at the arriving fans and their outfits.

There had been some confusion whether those Volunteers not directly working INSIDE the stadium would be allowed to enter to watch the matches. So for this first match I only hovered in the main entrance on the north side for most of the game, trying to avoid the security dudes shooing everyone off. The sight wasn't great, but you were rather close to the pitch which allowed for good looks on the players, including Portugal's superstar Luis Figo, who looked much better live than on photos and was positively droolworthy. The second game in Cologne was Czech Republic - Ghana and I was working on the North stands for that one, showing people to their seats. Our block was full of Czech supporters who were really nice and agreeable, many of them decked out in red-white-blue. They were shouting something that sounded like Stretching! all the time and I was wondering about this odd form of fitness advice for their team until I finally clued in that this must be the Czech version of their country's name :) Being in the stadium so early gave me a nice impression of it being totally empty before the gates opened for the fans and from high up a nice look over the area in front of the stadium:

Of course football mayhem also ruled surpreme on the days when there were no games in Cologne. "Public Viewing Areas" had been set up for the football lovers in two places - the Roncalli Square beside the cathedral and on the Heumarkt (Haymarket) in the old town - where the games were shown on huge screens. I went to the Heumarkt screen to watch the Germany - Poland game, a nerve-wracking exercise where it took the Germans 93 mins to score the 1-0.

Among the activities offered to the Volunteers was water-skiing in Langenfeld, somewhere in the outback between Cologne and Düsseldorf. I hadn't been water-skiing since I went to visit my folks in Oklahoma many years ago (who had a holiday house at a lake, a boat and water-skis), so I happily took up the opportunity. This different system (using a cableway instead of a boat) took a bit to get used to and I was sore all over the next day, but it was great fun, especially as the weather was really hot and perfect for swimming anyway.

There was another party coming up at the Volunteer Center where some important FIFA officials came to thank us for our work and hand out little surprise gifts. Now a freebie is always something to get me out of the door and I went there for the evening. But I didn't know any of the guys (where's Franz Beckenbauer when you need him?) and the surprise was nothing more than a red FIFA World Cup cap, but there's this wise old saying about looking gift horses in mouths And once the official part was over, everyone watched the Brazil - Australia game together (which sadly ended with a 0-2 defeat for the Socceroos) and there was also a barbecue in the courtyard, making it a nice evening overall.

Finally the biggie arrived in Cologne: The match England versus Sweden. If the town had been crazy before, it was now stark raving mad. 80,000 English and 20,000 Swedish supporters poured into Cologne and the inner city turned into a big blur of red and yellow. Having to choose a side and a Swedish boss to smarm up to, I opted for Sweden (sorry Trish) and even bought a Swedish jersey. Germany played Ecuador on the same day, so the Volunteers poured into the Lounge early to watch the game. If they could watch, that is, for we only saw a blue no transmission bar for the longest time (see above). Apparently the massive media invasion for the Sweden - England game had sapped all connections dry and caused a massive black out. But luckily it was quickly fixed and we could watch our boys clobber the poor South Americans 3-0. Since I had brought my proper camera along for this memorable evening, I also took some more photos this time. Here's our catering hall where we could always get a free meal and free drinks on our working days.

This time I was an Info Volunteer on the north-eastern corner of the stadium, available to guide people to the right section of the stadium. Again, there was little to do but to look at people, give them directions once in a while or take their photos together with their cameras. The most memorable event of the evening for me was to meet Sweden's ex-tennis champion Stefan Edberg, whom I had hero.-worshipped in the 80's (when the rest of Germany went gaga over Boris and Steffi). He suddenly stood in front of me, asking for directions to his VIP lounge, a very polite and good looking man (-sigh-), but stupidly I was too stunned to ask for an autograph or picture :( But here are some cute mini English supporters, all decked out in their favorite players' jerseys.

Tickets for this match had been like gold dust and people paid up to 800 Euro on the black market. So it was a rather smug feeling to simply walk into the stadium when the game began and watch it from one of the entrances. And one thing I'll say for the rowdy boozy English supporters - none other fans offered such a great support and painted the whole northern section white and red. The Swedes didn't even manage to fill half of the southern section in yellow.

Another perspective in the second half - from the northern section, right in-between the English fans. Wow, they were noisy. Not to mention drunk! And a badly zoomed blurry superstar - David Beckham, (now ex-)captain of the English team, who was always good for some entertainment at this world cup. First puking onto the pitch, later bawling his eyes out when England fucked up the penalty shooting once again. Unfortunately my mission to take photos of Michael Owen had been doomed because the fella stumbled over his own legs in the second minute and was out before I had even reached the stands.

The way home isn't always easy - gloomy Swedish supporters are leaving the stadium, safe in the knowledge they'll be facing Germany in the next round and can buy their plane tickets home. And the totally jammed trams gave up half way, bringing the line to a stand-still all the way along the Aachener Strasse from the stadium to the city. Luckily I live close enough to walk home!

On the last evening of fencing practice before the gym would close for the school summer holidays, we went into the city for a drink and ended up on the Heumarkt rather by accident (the Skybeach where we had wanted to go was closed). So we got to see the Brazilians out in full force to watch their match against Japan (the Brazilian fans had made Cologne their headquarters, so the town was awash with them.) Quite funnily we saw this Brazilian TV journalist ordering Kölsch for a group of English fans, apparently wanting to cement the image of the English beer-guzzling lager louts. Not that those guys minded getting the freebie. What's lined up on the table there is commonly known as "One metre Kölsch" by the way.

I was back on the North-Eastern corner of the stadium for the next game: France - Togo. Compared to the English and Swedish fans, this was a picnic, the French being their usual wannabe-charming selves but generally a polite bunch. We watched the game from high up behind the last row, which is far from the pitch, but offers a great view all over the stadium and peace from fussy security guys. And it's nice to watch fans from both teams uniting up there to chat as these two guys from France and Togo did. Here's also a photo of me with Nadja, with who I worked on both days at the north-eastern corner. Don't be surprised at the odd clothes we're wearing. We weren't allowed to be seen inside the stadium in Volunteer clothes (don't ask me why), so during the matches we had to cover up with private clothes in different colors.

All good things come to an end, in this case the games in Cologne. The last match to be played there was the round-of-sixteen match between Switzerland and Ukraine. For this game I worked at ticket control, helping people to manage the electric bareers and taking those whose tickets didn't work to the help centre. This allowed me the first-hand realization that the FIFA's big scheme of personalized tickets didn't work at all, as there were no passport controls whatsoever and I saw fat Germans enter with Korean names on the ticket or men who held tickets for a female name. But it also brought me in direct contact with the Swiss fans who were really nice, speaking their cute version of German and in one case, even distributing little Swiss chocolates to us.

It didn't help them though. After a terribly boring game, that made watching the lovely sunset seem breathtakingly exciting, it ended in penalty shooting. And Switzerland proved that there's a team even worse at this than England - they didn't score once, allowing the Ukraine to move on to the quarter finals.

And so it ended in Cologne. Needless to say that despite the stress of doing this job beside my regular job I was really sad for the wonderful time to end. People had really been so nice and easy-going and the atmosphere close up in the stadium was priceless. Here at least one group photo of the whole Cologne Volunteers Team:

But the world cup wasn't over yet! We watched the quarter final Germany - Argentina on the big screen on the Heumarkt, a nerve-wrecking experience I wouldn't wish upon my worst foe. Unforgettable the screams of joy and spontaneous dancing and hugging that erupted in the 80th minute when Klose scored the equalizer at a point when most Germans were already secretly kissing the dream goodbye. Followed by another very tense 10 minutes of penalty shooting, but at least WE have always been good at that. So Germany sent the Argentinians packing (to the tune of a slightly adapted Don't cry for me Argentina) and Cologne exploded into a night of boundless joy and celebrating.

Unfortunately the boundless joy after the quarter final victory also proved to be the last one for Germany.To watch the semifinal versus Italy, I met up with my friend Susanne and her new boyfriend in a nice beergarden/pub in Ehrenfeld where she lives and watched the game with a nice enthusiastic little crowd.And yes, that's me, decked out in all our black-red-gold German glory.

But oh what a drama. After nearly 120mins, when I had already accepted that we'd have to go through another penalty shoot-out, Italy (who, I admit that, was the better team, even despite their silly amateur dramatics whenever a German player as much as ruffled their hair) surprised us by scoring 1-0. And while people were still fighting to keep a tiny spark of hope alive, they even scored 2-0. So that was it for Germany. What remained were crying fans and upset players..But though it won't be the same as here at home - We'll be back in 2010 in South Africa :)