Europa Meisterschaft!

I should have packed my Poland jersey; Trikot, if you're still trying to build up your German vocab. Even a red T-shirt would have been nice. Without either, I was left in the "Fan Zone" surrounded by at least 1,000 German fans wearing a green shirt. It's not the fact that I didn't have something fitting to wear for the game that upsets me. Rather, it's knowing that had I been wearing that jersey, Poland would have won or at the very least, lost by a slimmer margin than the 2-0 fate that they suffered at the hands of the Germans.

Such is the logic of fans. It's a good thing that I'm not a cradle Fußball fanatic though, otherwise I would have been facing much worse than the jersey-induced doubt.

The Europe Cup is now in its third week, and Germany is still going strong. Cars have their little window flags, displaying proudly the black red and yellow as they load up on groceries. The girls that live below me made sure that they were sporting the national colors and matching for the opening game. This is a picture that I snapped of one of the pair on our bike ride downtown where there was a public viewing of the game or in German, Public Viewing. It's not the best quality, but in my defense, I was riding a bike while I took it.

For those who haven't been following the cup back in the States, here's a synopsis:
Poland unfortunately didn't make it out of the first round. They lost to Germany, ended up settling for a tie against Austria when they gave up a goal in the last few minutes of play, and they lost to Croatia.
Italy, the defending champions of the world, started off with a terrible 3-0 loss to the Netherlands, but were able to manage in the end with wins over Romania and France. They just lost last night to Spain in the second round, so they're out.
Germany luckily survived a first round loss to Croatia but ended up in second in their 4 team pod with Poland and Austria and therefore were able to move to the second round. There Germany proved victorious over the talented Portugal squad with a 3-2 win. They play again on Wednesday against the cinderella Turkey team.
Turkey has pulled off at least two miraculous games where they snatched victory from their opponents at the very last minutes. Recently, they upset Croatia and in doing so, moved on to the third round game.

The game on Wednesday between Germany and Turkey is particularly volatile because the Turks are the largest minority group in Germany. In the past few decades there has been several incidents of xenophobia crimes committed against Turks in Germany. Earlier this winter tensions between Turks and Germans were tested when a Turkish immigrant-filled apartment building suffered heavily from a fire. Fingers were pointed and arsen was suggested, but in the end the conflagration was blamed on the shoddy electrical wiring.
When either the Germans or Turks when, the streets of Germany's cities become stages for immediate parades. Cars will drive around for more than an hour, liberally sounding their horns.

During Turkey's last game, I found myself in a immigrant-district of Cologne with an hour long wait for my train. Naturally, I walked into the nearest bar to catch the first half of the game and was able to snag the last remaining seat. Although I may have been the only non-Turk in the bar, the two guys sitting next to me didn't mind, probably because they knew I was neither a native speaker nor a Croatia supporter. In gratitude for their hospitality, I bought the two another round of beer as I left to catch my train. Who said diplomacy had to be difficult?

Right now though, it isn't looking too good for the Turks. In their nail biter finishes, and double overtime-extended games several Turkey players collected injury, red and yellow/red cards, and for the lucky single yellow cards. Red cards bar the player from the rest of the game as well as the next game. Players are allowed to accumulate two yellow cards before suffering the same consequences as the red card. In a tournament situation, you can imagine how penalties can haunt a team. I think Turkey will be short seven players on Wednesday. Advantage, Deutschland.