It was early evening in Cologne and I was putting on a German soccer jersey I had bought earlier that day, face paint, and Germany shaped tattoos on my arms. I was prepped and ready to go to a public viewing of the quarterfinals of the Europameisterschaft (European World Cup). The viewing we were off to was about a mile and a half away, but the owner of the hostel we were staying at offered to drive us in small groups, so he took a group while we were walking and would come back to pick some more of us up. It was so funny to walk to that game because there as we were walking in our ginormous group of teens decked out in their German attire cars would honk at us and cheer out of their windows. It was a feeling of great comradery even though we were all Americans. I didn’t really know much about soccer, but I was so excited to watch something so dear to them in their culture. It was a different sort of atmosphere because everybody seemed to be on the same team, since it was the entire country rather than just a city.
We finally got to the public viewing and it ended up being in a bowling alley. The bowling alley was huge and projected the game onto a bunch of different screens, so that everyone could see it. The place was jam packed with people who were loud and overflowing with excitement. I had never given soccer a second thought, but you would have thought I had been raised watching German soccer since I was born. This game had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, I was nearly as stressed as finals week. It was just way too close. I was going nuts, 
and so was then entire bowling alley. I was yelling at the ref and telling him he was blind when I have honestly never really watched soccer before, so I was that person. But the entire bowling alley would be on the same page, so I was obviously right. The game was tied 1-1, and I thought the world would crumble if Germany lost. It ended on penalties. I to this day have no understanding what on earth that means, if anyone knows please comment. All I know is they were taking turns kicking the ball one on one with the goalie and Germany was the one I wanted to get it in the goal. This went on for way too long, I felt as though a heart attack was imminent. The entire bowling alley would quiet when a player got ready to kick, to the point where you could hear a pin drop. Finally it was Jonas Hector’s turn from Germany, and everybody awaited his kick with baited breath praying that after five failed German attempts one would finally make it into the goal. When Hector made that amazing goal the entire bowling alley and Germany in general erupted in cheers. Everybody was jumping up and down, screaming, and hugging. I saw many people shed tears, men, women, and children. It was beautiful.
I mentioned this last week, but I went to a soccer game in Dortmund, Germany last year. My friend who I was visiting on the team was the only American and was rather young so all of the people in the stands knew we were his fans. It was so cool to see the excitement European fans have for soccer! Very different than an American soccer game.
I find it very interesting how different countries celebrate sports. We are so accustomed to understanding and viewing sports from an American point of view, so different experiences can be very refreshing from the “sitting by the television with food” sort of event.