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Carthage Eagles’ wings clipped
June 14th, 2006
Today I spent nine hours on a train to watch ninety minutes of football. It was worth it, of course, and I’m going to have to do the same Frankfurt-Munich-Frankfurt trip when Australia plays Brazil on Sunday, so it was good reconnaissance too. But more about that later.
This train trip included a lot of ground I’ve already covered. It even stopped in good old Ulm which I only left a week ago. I killed time by reading the English edition of the World Cup 2006 magazine produced by Bild, the top German paper – it’s quite good.
Munich is the only German city I had been to before my 2006 World Cup adventure. When I was last in the Bavarian capital, it was the middle of winter and I was crunching snow around Marienplatz, the city’s central square, in a big jacket.
Today, Marienplatz was bathed in sunshine, I was wearing shorts, and the square was taken over by colourful Tunisian fans singing and dancing to an incessant drum beat.
I decided to watch the Spain v Ukraine match in this area before going to the Allianz Arena for Tunisia v Saudi Arabia.
The streets around Marienplatz seemed incredibly familiar even though I had only spent two days here 18 months ago. I wandered in the direction of Frauenkirche, the large nearby cathedral, and found somewhere decent to have lunch and watch the match.
There must be a million places in Munch like this one, serving sausages and beer to all comers. I don’t think I ever saw its name which is a pity because I’d recommend it highly (all I can tell you is that it’s in Frauenplatz). I had nice food; watched football on a large flat-screen television with dozens of other fans; and was attended to by attractive waitresses wearing traditional Bavarian costumes. This is the life.
I did, however, wonder whether I’d accidentally joined a Spanish speakers’ convention. All the patrons were Spanish, Mexican or Argentinean – except yours truly wearing the gold shirt.
When Xabi Alonso opened the scoring, it became obvious that there was no Spanish speaking union. The only people that celebrated were the Spaniards and me. I have no real reason to prefer Spain over Ukraine except for the financial rewards it might help bring. I got odds of 80/1 on Spain meeting the Netherlands in the Final and, if it happens, the winnings will pay for about half of all the costs of my World Cup trip.
I would love to see the Spaniards play one day – the first thing I’d do is have my photo taken with Manolo, their most famous fan.
After the match, I raced to the underground station to catch the train to Munich’s Allianz Arena. Obviously a lot of fans decided this was the time to go and the train I boarded was packed.
There was so little room for every passenger that one could only move by bodysurfing. Anyone standing next to a pole whenever the train made a sudden stop risked being impaled.
I had seen photographs of the Allianz Arena with its blimp-like exterior lit in different colours. Tunisia v Saudi Arabia was played in daylight, however, so no lighting was used.
It’s wonderful inside. The stadium looks so modern and perfect and it comfortably holds more than 60,000 spectators.
I had a category 1 obstructed view seat today. The obstruction was that I couldn’t quite see one corner of the pitch without leaning a bit. It didn’t cause a single problem throughout the match. I was nicely elevated and in the front row of the tier I was in. I was also right in line with the goal line (at the end where Tunisia opened the scoring) and on the same side as the main television camera.
Some people might look down their noses at a game like this but I really enjoyed the Arabic derby. (And, hey, it’s the World Cup people.) It was not the most skilful match of the tournament but it certainly came alive towards the end.
A few surprising things happened today. Saudi Arabia scored two goals, picked up a draw, and so nearly won the game. I was expecting the Saudis to go home pointless and goalless (and coach-less) after three matches.
But the Tunisians have a major problem – they don’t believe in themselves.
After Ziad Jaziri’s fabulous opening goal, the Carthage Eagles could have buried Saudi Arabia but they instead indulged in the sort of cautious play that they are gaining a reputation for. It’s sad because they’re a bit better than they think they are.
In the 57th minute, Tunisia was caught napping and Yasser Al-Khatani equalised. And in the 84th minute, veteran Sami Al-Jaber, on as a substitute, finished off a fine move to give the Saudis a shock lead.
Suddenly the Sons of the Desert were on course for their first World Cup finals win for 12 years but Radhi Jaidi equalised for Tunisia in injury time. A draw was probably a fair result but I can’t help thinking that the Carthage Eagles wouldn’t have had their wings clipped if they showed a bit more ambition.
The atmosphere in the stadium wasn’t as good as at other matches I’ve seen, mainly because there was a high percentage of neutrals at the game.
Many of those neutrals were Germans who (understandably) reacted badly when a late announcement told them that the Germany-Poland match wouldn’t be shown in the stadium and they shouldn’t bother going to Munich’s Fan Park either as it was already full.
After finding Frankfurt’s Fan Park full for the Brazil-Croatia match (and more people outside it than in it), it’s becoming obvious that the tournament’s organisers have seriously underestimated the number of people that want to watch matches in them.
There was a train back to Frankfurt leaving Munich’s main station at 8.39 pm so, at the end of the match at the Allianz Arena, I sprinted back to catch the first of two local trains that you need to connect between the stadium and the main train station.
The 8.39 pm train would take four hours to get to Frankfurt. If I missed it, there wasn’t another until 10.26 pm – and that one would take five hours.
Despite all my high-paced weaving through hundreds of fans (it would have made a rugby player proud), I missed the 8.39 pm train to Frankfurt by five minutes. I might have to find somewhere to crash for the night in Munich when I return for Brazil v Australia because that match also has a 6.00 pm kick off.
The upside of missing the earlier train was that I could watch most of Germany-Poland in a train station café (though I had to leave before the end of the game so I missed the goal).
It was about 3.40 am when I returned, exhausted, to my hotel room.
Ah, who cares?
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