still many questions to sort out about the future. in some ways it’s good to be back, but a bit of a culture shock. more so than going was.

helpful tip of the day: don’t buy or attempt to move transcontinental tickets late. it’s cheaper to buy a one-way than move the return portion. seems a bit insane. also, if you’re going to the world cup, don’t plan to do anything else in europe afterwards (except go to amsterdam if you’ve never been) because you will be a bit deflated after your team loses. well, unless you’re from brazil in which case you probably just shouldn’t come until the round of 16.

whether or not the blog will continue is up in the air since i’m extremely lazy. i suppose i’m going to have to at least bring it all together in one more post after i get back.

i’m flying back to london on the 25th.  even booking the flight late it will probably cost me about the same as the train/ferry/train trip took me getting to frankfurt. i’m going to attempt to try and move my flight up to the 28th, 29th, 2nd or 3rd, non-match days, obviously. so, for good or bad, depending on who you are, i’ll be home about a week earlier than planned.

i had initially planned to go back through amsterdam for a couple of days or so, but i decided not to tease myself.  i’m still planning on going back for an extended stay. i wonder how long they’ll give me a visa for?

damn, 3 posts in one day.  it’s really far too time consuming.  more an issue with uploading the pictures though.

a national geographic survey of 18-24 year olds’s geographic literacy. i’m not convinced it’s truely relevant. does it really matter if i know that there was an earthquake in pakistan in 2005? where is sudan on the globe? just to be clear, no, it doesn’t. the percentages weren’t generally that bad. the worst for me was probably the number of people in the u.s. and this poor showing probably lead to the one about what the most spoken language is. i probably only got 15 out of 20 right and i would say i’m reasonably informed. more important statistics would be on how well people can learn on their own when information or skills are needed. most of this crap doesn’t affect someone’s daily life. i also don’t think that it’s really that important for someone to learn a second language just for kicks. it’s probably a bigger deal in europe since every country (pretty much) speaks a different language. if every state in the u.s. spoke a different language that would be comparable. if i moved to a different country, i would learn the native language. i suppose you could argue that spanish is becoming more important in the u.s., but it’s the job of the new “citizen” to learn the local language. so if you moved to miami, you would need to learn spanish. this is way too much rambling for a link.

some group, non al-qaida, busted supposedly plotting to blow up the sears tower (in chicago if you didn’t do so well on that last survey). maybe there’s more info now. an important thing to look for is how much all that crap in the patriot act was used to bust them. my guess is none. from this article, it sounds like it was neighbors reporting suspicous activity.

i also updated the other article related to kangaroo meet, etc. it doesn’t appear to be a legality issue. more of being common or socially accepted. although, apparently for any meat sold in the u.s., it must be farm raised and not wild. the price is apparently a factor for the u.s. as it’s comparable in price to beef where we went here in germany. maybe beef is more expensive here. i expect in the u.s. it may be more an issue of pricing it higher to make it even more exclusive and exotic or a demand issue. here’s an article about its use in trendy restaurants. the unfortunate thing is that kangaroo and emu are low in fat (emu was listed as no cholesterol on the menu where we ate) and maybe that would help all the american fat asses. btw, i’m not sure what the stats are, but the view of what is fat in europe seems to be different (to the heavier side) from that in america. although, i would discount that more americans aren’t truly fatter as a percentage. damn, too much rambling again.

the penalty kick was bullshit. however, both of ghana’s goals were a direct result of bad play on our part. why in the hell didn’t bocanegra head the ball safely out of bounds with a couple of minutes of less left in the half? why was reyna messing around in the back with no support? it’s difficult to question starting reyna, but after 2 great matches it’s hard to see how the old man could have any gas left. i think olsen did pretty well after coming in. beasley had his best match of the 3, but that’s not saying much. my choice still would have been convey. donovan was non-existant as in the first match. someone needs to figure out how to flip his switch to the “on” position for matches. if he was playing in a league where you had to perform at your best every week he would learn or be dropped. it doesn’t seem he cares enough to stick with it long enough to learn. however, after being here for a couple of weeks (and granted, limited exposure), i wouldn’t want to stay in germany either. if he’s going to ever progress he has to go to a major league. and no, just because m.l.s. has “major league” in it’s name, it doesn’t count. after his comment post italy about building confidence after taking people on, i don’t think he even tried once against ghana. oddly, i only remember dempsey taking someone on once and not getting down the right wing much. is bruce telling the right midfielder to not do this, as beasley wasn’t doing it either in the first match. i was glad to see dempsey get the goal, but he didn’t seem the same player from the italy match. unlike donovan, he has hope since he actually seems to have the desire to be the best. i hope some premier or championship scouts saw enough to give him a chance.

i would like to see the match again on t.v. to see for sure, but generally, the ref seemed to be crap. i’m not sure the u.s. will ever get any calls going our way as long as the crowd boos every decision the ref makes against us. not that it doesn’t mostly seem warranted. i expect they don’t like it when players complain, imagine 20,000+ booing and chanting bullshit? regardless of what the ref apologist on the local train from the stadium says (he had a georgia soccer referee camp (or something) t-shirt on. not a good sign for objectivity of ref criticism), that was not a penalty and the ref was crap for both teams. according to the apologist, merk (the german ref) is supposedly rated the number one ref in the world. he didn’t say by who. if it’s fifa, it’s probably just as irrelevant as the fifa national team rankings. bad refing can definitely affect a team mentally and especially after coming of the italy match. the u.s. will have to play perfect matches if they ever hope to win the world cup.

i have a few problems with some of the u.s. supporters’ chants. i only heard some of them at the yanks abroad meeting in nuremberg. there’s the normal “team america” cheer of “america….fuck yeah!”. however, there was now the appended, “ghana….fuck you!”. is that really necessary? i did overhear someone saying that it wasn’t really much fun to harass the ghana fans since they were so nice. they did seem to be good fans. i’m not a big fan of their team’s diving and rolling around though. i would also prefer to not have the singing of “god bless america” for the obvious (at least for me) reason. in case it’s not obvious, it’s the presence of the word “god”, “bless” and all the other religious bits. we’re not going to get into it here. i think there were some more, but they escape me now. i would also like to do a political survey on the u.s. supporters. there’s a lot of nationalistic chanting and abundance of flag waving and what not, but what are the real views? while sitting at the yanks abroad thing, i kept wondering whether or not it was just me who felt there were inconsistencies in the words in the chants/songs and my view of the current situation in the u.s.? i’ll have to remember to create a survey for the next national team match.

anyways, nobody wants to read that crap. you would probably prefer pictures.

first off, is there some reason the world cup tickets have to be so fucking big? not only are they huge and won’t fit in a reasonably sized pocket, but they have an rfid chip in the ticket so it says not to bend it. of course, they could at least tell you where the chip is or give a bend point. utterly ridiculous. they must have a friend who makes the ticket holder necklaces (it’s odd that i didn’t know how to spell this word off the top of my head. clearly, neckless was incorrect.).

maybe i should be a hand model?

this is from the yanks abroad party at o’shea’s pub in nuremberg. i’m not really sure that a speedo and flag cape is a good look for anyone.

i didn’t really think about it until i was about to post this, but i don’t think i’ve seen any of the little boy peeing statues since leaving england. maybe i just missed them. at any rate, this would seem better.

i’m sure everyone back in the day thought they were real clever with the boy peeing. that or they were all pedophiles. should george bush getting on that? surely if the naked breasts in the halls of justice are going to be cloaked we can’t have naked boys peeing all over the place. speaking of, isn’t it a little inconsistent to want to hide breasts and be against gay marriage. wouldn’t they want to encourage hetersexuality? anyway.

even with captain america watching over us, we couldn’t pull out a win.

these were our worst seats of the tournament.

before any of this fifa rules for having covered stands crap, they need to have a no fucking track around the pitch rule.

there weren’t any pictures after the match as we busted ass out of there a few minutes early to catch the earliest train back to frankfurt to be able to watch the brazil v japan match.

these last 2 pictures aren’t related to the match itself. this limo was parked outside our hotel when we were leaving. it was behind an open gate (normally closed). the odd thing was, the limo’s there, i’m have a camera pointed at it and this dumbass asks “can i help you?” in that sort of “what the fuck are you doing here?” sort of way. is that necessary? why doesn’t he use half a brain cell and figure it out. painted, unusual limo, camera, uuhhhh? anyways.

this is the hotel “beer garden”. it’s actually decent for watching matches. ignoring that the video quality wasn’t that great, analog. what can you do? it seemed fairly temporary anyway.

oh well, we lost and we’re out. 4 years to go. i’ve seen at least one article that mentioned rumors of 2010 moving to england instead of south africa over worries that the infrastructure there just won’t be up to snuff. germany has set the bar incredibly high. maybe england really only thinks they really have a shot of winning when it’s in their country. my expectations that south africa will go as smoothly is rather low. however, i don’t really know that much about south africa. i’m not sure the u.s. would even work as well due to public transport. however, they fact that it’s cheap relative to europe and huge stadiums is a plus. the europeans would just have to get over having night games so it’s not too hot.
i won’t be sad about leaving here, nor will i probably ever come back. even with great public transport, it just doesn’t do it for me for some reason. maybe it’s just frankfurt. hearing german all the time is really getting on my nerves too. whatever it is that makes it good for listening to rammstein, makes it bad for hearing daily in conversation. dutch didn’t seem to bother me. there was a conversation when i was in amsterdam in which i said i probably couldn’t tell the difference between german and dutch if i wasn’t hearing them at the same time. i definitely could now.

the kangaroo and emu generally taste like beef. kangaroo is a bit tough. probably better ground for a burger. the emu was listed as cholesterol free, at least for the burger. the crocodile probably tasted a bit like chicken, but with more of a fish like texture. it was sort of tough to distinguish the tastes since the bottom of the plate was covered in a mango sauce, also pretty good.

today, frankfurt is host for argentina v holland. should be a good match. a lot of dutch in town. although we did see these argentinian fans while eating.

here’s a shot of the dutch in romer (square?). it’s the original old city center and the supposed primary location of team celebrations.

i can’t imagine this means the same thing in whatever place this bus is from.

annoyingly ignorant article from the guardian about u.s. fans. you can find stupid people anywhere. although, i’m sure finding knowledgable fans wouldn’t have met his goal for the article.

now you too can have a brazilian name. not sure what the algorithm is.

better late than never i suppose. another poor set of pictures. without a good zoom it’s pretty much impossible to get a decent shot in the stadium.

this is the outside of the stadium. the train station is in the foreground. small plus that you can walk from the train station to the stadium, but it’s deceptive since you have to walk up a hill and (in our case) a long way around the backside.

i thought this was a pretty decent picture from before the game with the huge american flag. fortunately, the sun went down by kickoff.

much better performance from the u.s. this outing. the refereeing was generally as poor as i think it’s been throughout. de rossi definitely deserved the straight red. mastroeni was clumsy and late, but probably should have been a yellow. i haven’t seen pope’s as much, but i think just a foul would have been reasonable. the amount of diving from the italians was pathetic. i’m glad to see that the american fans generally don’t take the diving. usually greeted with boos and a few times with chants of bullshit. does espn attempt to censor that? the one downside may be a couple of incidents which included people throwing cups at the pitch (i didn’t see any actually make it). even more interesting is the fact that you get back a euro deposit when you take back the cup. must have been at least 50 euro or more on the field.

any arguments that the refereeing was just being consistent with the fifa guidelines for the world cup is completely untrue. were that the case, the crackdown on delay of game would surely have seen italy with 2 or 3 yellow cards. there were multiple instances of italian players not only standing and preventing free kicks, but picking up the ball and walking around with it. there’s been many yellows in previous matches for far less invasive behaviour.

i don’t feel like i’m simply defending the u.s. since i’ve been complaining about the refereeing the entire time on non-u.s. matches. another bad example would be the late yellow card for zidane against south korea. pathetic. and the non-goal call for france in the same match. i would prefer video replay (sidenote: i don’t think blatter has ever said anything to make me not think he’s an idiot. maybe the journalists only report the stupidity.) as opposed to the sensor in the ball. as long as the game is not stopped for the replay. players should generally be playing to until they hear the wistle. it seems to me that there has been a bit too much complaining (raising of the arm for offsides) when they expect calls. however, a downside of the cards for finishing plays could be seen in the brazil v australia match when the australian player stopped in what appeared to be a sure scoring opportunity thinking he heard a whistle for (i suppose) offsides. i expect the whistle was from the crowd.

at any rate, the referees are human and will make mistakes. as professionals, the players should be able to get past these errors and move on with the match. it’s not like all club matches are 100% prefect of something. however, they aren’t knockout either.

anyway, this doesn’t really have much to do with the u.s. specifically. great match. the most exciting of the tournament and at least leaves us with some hope. group e is clearly the best group. any thoughts that group c is the “group of death” are completely unsubstantiated. it never seemed likely that serbia would have any joy. argentina has been the best of the tournament so far. brazil has been a disappointment. england as well. i generally though they were a bit overrated anyway.

at any rate, at least our group comes down to the final matches. the u.s. has to win with the largest goal differential possible. hopefully, italy will win.

btw, could the journalists at bruce arena’s press conferences possibly ask stupider questions?

the 14th, we went to cologne to check out the cathedral, city and the others went to the chocolate museum. the most interesting bit to me was the mural on the ceiling of the cologne train station. i tooke some pictures, but they’re crap because i don’t have a wide enough lense. addidas has some pictures as well as some of the other stuff. (we did see the huge kahn on the way to the match in munich.) i don’t think the picture is actually painted directly on the ceiling so i suppose it will be gone after the world cup. too bad. even if it is an addidas ad.

the cathedral is supposed to be important because it holds the “relics of the magi“. i’m not saying they aren’t real, but even the supplied story is highly suspect. not surprisingly, the bones and what not haven’t even been carbon-14 dated. regardless, it’s an impressive building. here’s 2 bad pictures. there really wasn’t even space around it to get a full picture with my camera.

of the places we’ve been (not many), it doesn’t seem like there’s a very good job of integrating new buildings with old. there doesn’t seem to be that many old buildings anyway. it may just be the cities we’ve been to (frankfurt, cologne, munich (really only the stadium though)).

we got back in time to watch the germany v poland match. there was a bit of celebration in the streets after germany won. the trains are great. we got up to 300km/h on the way to cologne. it appears that they go a little slower at night.

the 13th, we just went to the fan fest for france v switzerland and brazil v croatia. brazil did what good teams do, win when not at their best. i was a bit disappointed with france. nothing spectacular from either match.

i’m sure other stuff probably happened. maybe i’ll start doing better now that i’m not behind. tomorrow is the big day. we lose and we’re done. hopefully, we can at least have a better showing than the last match. maybe someone will actually show up to play. it’s absolutely time for any player who thinks they are somebody or wants to be somebody to stand up and be counted. yada, yada, yada.

the video is in ogg theora format. the only patent-unencumbered reasonable codec. learn it, love it. you shouldn’t have any problems playing it assuming you have vlc installed. it’s 8 megabytes.

i couldn’t get the video to upload so maybe they have some on his website. maybe i’ll get it up later.

the only real positive to the match was the tremendous turnout of american fans. it’s unfortunate that the match turned out the way it did. the second goal knocked a bit of wind out of the fans’ sails, but it wasn’t probably until the last 20 minutes of the match when it had almost completely died. post half-time there really wasn’t much until eddie johnson came on.

i’m not going to ramble on about how crappy the u.s. played since plenty have already. for me, the only bright spots were gooch and eddie johnson. why was beasley not subbed? anyway, if eddie and dempsey aren’t starting against italy i will be very disappointed. the switch to the 3-5-2 didn’t really do it for me either. it was nice to see a tactical move towards a possibly more offensive format, but the problem was the formation. it was the execution or more specifically, the lack of any.

saturday against italy is a must when. a tie means we aren’t dead, but you might as well club us over the head and throw us on the cart.

it’s been a day since i initially wrote this. i couldn’t decide what pictures to post so i put it off. i just decided to go with these. there really weren’t any that were that great.

soccer head and his significant other were our fearless leaders from soccer travel after getting off the train in gelsenkirchen.

captain america, freaky elvis and some guy who may or may not be a porn star. it’s tough to tell with the mustache.

there were a few people wanting to take the tram to the stadium in gelsenkirchen. it turns out that taking the bus to the stadium is a better method since it’s direct to the stadium without making regular stops.

just after half-time.

on the train to gelsenkirchen, i sat next to andy mead from yellow card journalism. he had been hired by soccer travel to take pictures on the trip. supposedly, the plan is to maybe send out a cd or dvd with pictures after the trip. i’m sure he did a better job than i did. i should have gotten better pictures of all the u.s. fans in downtown (?) gelsenkirchen before the match.