Soccer (From 4/8/06)
It’s official … Germany is even more soccer-mad than usual right now. Most Americans probably do not know that soccer’s official championship tournament, the World Cup, is in Germany this year. But I know, and I even tried to get tickets through their special lottery system (no dice). Matches will take place throughout Germany during the month of June. It should be fun to watch the Germans whip themselves into a total frenzy over all of it.
Germans discuss and speculate about the chances of their national soccer team the same way Canadians do about their national hockey team. The simlarities are striking – front page news coverage every day, leading stories in the regular radio news, etc. The similarities don’t end with news coverage these days either. The German team manager for this go-around of the World Cup is Juergen Klinsmann, who was a famous and successful player back in the 1980’s and 1990’s for the German national team and one of the most successful teams in the German professional league, Bayern Muenchen (Bavaria Munich).
I guess it’s similar to when the Canadians chose Wayne Gretzky to manage their national team before the 2002 Olympics – they felt they couldn’t lose that tournament, and Wayne represented all that was glorious about Canadian hockey, so he got the call to bring home the gold (and he did, by the way).
Anyway, the German media has lately been on red alert regarding the issue of who would be the goalie for the national team in the World Cup. Apparently, it had been whittled down to a two-man, very public fight between Jens Klehmann (sp?), who currently plays on one of the top teams in the English Premier League, Arsenal London, and Oliver Kahn, who has been Bayern Muenchen’s goalie, as well as the goalie on the national team, for something like a million years. I remember from when I was here in 1996 that Oliver Kahn was the main goalie for the German team then as well, and I can’t believe it that 10 years later he’s still considered one of the main men for the job.
Well, as of Friday night the decision had been made: Jens Klehmann would be the number one goalie. This was the leading story in the radio news on Friday night and into Saturday.
All I can think of as I hear the story again and again is how sad Oliver Kahn must feel right now. He is obviously very famous and successful so he probably avoids newspaper reading, radio listening, TV watching, etc. Who knows, maybe he was too busy going on 10-mile runs over the last little while, trying to whip himself into shape to show he’s still the best. But I feel very sorry for him and think it’s kind of cruel that the team having snubbed him is the country’s top news story. Pain is one thing but public pain is so much worse because you know everyone’s talking about it and everyone will remember it. Look, even I’m writing about it in my blog. Even though it’s probably only read by about four people, I’m still using it as a starting point for a public discussion.
The interesting thing is that Kahn’s team, Bayern Muenchen, is scheduled to play a match this afternoon. I’m considering going to the pub to have a meal and a helles (that’s the standard pilsner-type beer served here – I went running this morning so I’ve earned it) and watching the match since I don’t have a TV. Assuredly it will be on most bar TVs throughout the country. It will be very interesting to see him play (the radio said he was scheduled to start for Bayern this afternoon).
So if anyone who is reading this knows Oliver Kahn, please tell him that I’m sorry to have talked about his misfortune in such an open forum, but I’m just trying to educate Americans about soccer (an uphill battle, to be sure). And tell to keep his chin up.
Germans discuss and speculate about the chances of their national soccer team the same way Canadians do about their national hockey team. The simlarities are striking – front page news coverage every day, leading stories in the regular radio news, etc. The similarities don’t end with news coverage these days either. The German team manager for this go-around of the World Cup is Juergen Klinsmann, who was a famous and successful player back in the 1980’s and 1990’s for the German national team and one of the most successful teams in the German professional league, Bayern Muenchen (Bavaria Munich).
I guess it’s similar to when the Canadians chose Wayne Gretzky to manage their national team before the 2002 Olympics – they felt they couldn’t lose that tournament, and Wayne represented all that was glorious about Canadian hockey, so he got the call to bring home the gold (and he did, by the way).
Anyway, the German media has lately been on red alert regarding the issue of who would be the goalie for the national team in the World Cup. Apparently, it had been whittled down to a two-man, very public fight between Jens Klehmann (sp?), who currently plays on one of the top teams in the English Premier League, Arsenal London, and Oliver Kahn, who has been Bayern Muenchen’s goalie, as well as the goalie on the national team, for something like a million years. I remember from when I was here in 1996 that Oliver Kahn was the main goalie for the German team then as well, and I can’t believe it that 10 years later he’s still considered one of the main men for the job.
Well, as of Friday night the decision had been made: Jens Klehmann would be the number one goalie. This was the leading story in the radio news on Friday night and into Saturday.
All I can think of as I hear the story again and again is how sad Oliver Kahn must feel right now. He is obviously very famous and successful so he probably avoids newspaper reading, radio listening, TV watching, etc. Who knows, maybe he was too busy going on 10-mile runs over the last little while, trying to whip himself into shape to show he’s still the best. But I feel very sorry for him and think it’s kind of cruel that the team having snubbed him is the country’s top news story. Pain is one thing but public pain is so much worse because you know everyone’s talking about it and everyone will remember it. Look, even I’m writing about it in my blog. Even though it’s probably only read by about four people, I’m still using it as a starting point for a public discussion.
The interesting thing is that Kahn’s team, Bayern Muenchen, is scheduled to play a match this afternoon. I’m considering going to the pub to have a meal and a helles (that’s the standard pilsner-type beer served here – I went running this morning so I’ve earned it) and watching the match since I don’t have a TV. Assuredly it will be on most bar TVs throughout the country. It will be very interesting to see him play (the radio said he was scheduled to start for Bayern this afternoon).
So if anyone who is reading this knows Oliver Kahn, please tell him that I’m sorry to have talked about his misfortune in such an open forum, but I’m just trying to educate Americans about soccer (an uphill battle, to be sure). And tell to keep his chin up.
posted by Jennifer at 05:11
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