Christine at the World Cup, Frankfurt, Germany

If you do not live under a rock, and watch TV, or read the Internet (which by the way, you do and are right now), or read the newspaper, then you know the Women's World Cup just finished yesterday.  The U.S. Women's team played Japan in Frankfurt, Germany.  We lost.  We'll win again.  I'm sure.

Since the World Cup was only a quick 2 1/2 hour train ride north, I decided to attend.  Yes, I have now attended my first major championship game.  After a delicious brunch celebrating Ethan's 1st birthday, Jessica, Lloyd and I took the train up to Frankfurt.  If you guessed that I fell asleep on the way up, then you read my blog frequently.  ha ha  Once in Frankfurt, we exited the train station to see the city.  Well, to see if anyone was selling (or scalping) tickets to the big game.  We found one nice gentleman who had 3 tickets (coincidence? I think not).  He wanted 350 Euro for each ticket (Which is about $492 for a ticket).  We smiled and decided to take the S-Bahn to the stadium.  This is important.  Remember this story.

We arrived at the stadium about 100 hours, or maybe 6 hours, before game time.  First, we met others looking for tickets.  Yeah, Americans are real smart.  Some free advice.  If you are going for scalpers with tickets, then show up at the stadium closer to game time.  Like 1 hour before hand.  We walked around the stadium to kill some time.

Then we stopped for ... you guessed it... a beir.  Cause that's what you do in Germany-drink beir.  Then we borrowed a pen and wrote up a sign that said Need tickets (kartan-ticket in German).  Occasionally a scalper would come over and offer to sell us 300 Euro tickets (see, the price does go down closer to game time).  We passed.

Finally, we found someone willing to sell us a ticket for 150 Euros ($211).  We jumped on the tickets.  Of course, none were together.  But still.  Lloyd wanted to sell these tickets, make some money, and buy better tickets.  Jessica was not having that.  At all.  I was ok with it.  Lloyd and I didn't win.  One ticket was 4 rows up from the pitch (or field), opposite side of the players sidelines, about at the end of the penalty box line.  One was at the top of the stadium in the corner, kinda across from the great seat.  The final one was behind the goal where everyone scored at (until the end of the game, all goals happened in one net).  I shared the 4 rows up seat with Jessica for about 20 minutes of the game.  Once my ass hurt, I moved up to my behind the goal seat.

Warm ups

I saw the American's and Japanese score during regulation time.  Then I got to see Abby Wambach head ball in a goal (tor is goal in German).  And the Japanese make the corner shot in.  All right in front of me.  The penalty kicks were in the far goal.  They weren't so fun to watch anyway.  

We then raced (and I mean it, running) back to the S-Bahn to catch the train, in order to catch the train to Stuttgart.  Yeah, not really necessary.  We got back and sat at the S-Bahn for 10 minutes.  As we pulled away, the fireworks began.  We did make the train back to Stuttgart.  And I slept most of the way back.  

More pics after the jump... 

Here's me at the stadium before the game:

Christine