World Cup Fever

World Cup fever is definitely starting to hit! As the Budman and I strolled through Düsseldorf’s Altstadt on Saturday, there were several groups of young men (ages 18-25) wearing the jerseys of their country’s “football” team (i.e. soccer for us Yanks). The Finns, Italians, Brits, and of course, the Germans were out in full force, cheering/yelling for their teams and imbibing in the local brew that only made them louder and more raucous. Yes, perhaps only a pre-cursor to the mania known as World Cup Soccer. And since Germany is the host country this year, think “Super Bowl extravaganza x 10” and you will start to get the picture.

The Budman and I have lived a city/country that hosted World Cup Soccer before…4 years ago, in fact, when it was Korea’s turn to host the games. I can assure you that while there was still a lot of hype, enthusiasm, and later on, sheer madness as the Koreans battled for third place in the overall games, it was an organized chaos. None of these soccer stampedes in Seoul…no, just polite but enthusiastic fans chanting, waiving their Korean flags, beating their spirit sticks, and basically clogging up traffic while people orderly camped out in the middle of intersections to watch the big screens on all the buildings…all 10-20 million of them!

I am starting to realize that things may be different this time around. I suspect that the Europeans feel slightly stronger about football than their Asian counterparts…so, maybe it’s time to take a few weekend trips out of Germany while the melee is underway?