Sports

Koln – Cars flying German flags; supporters and fans of many countries dressed in their team colours, singing and dancing on the streets; big TV screens on the streets, showing the matches.

It’s like one big Brazilian carnival: but this is Germany and the buzz is all about the World Cup.

During a 3-day (from June 10) visit to this popular German city earlier known as Cologne, it was one big party as people of all walks of life enjoyed the soccer and the huge influx of foreign visitors (more than 3 million by some accounts) for the games. Street restaurants, a common sight in most of Europe, were filled to capacity with fans guzzling Koln’s home-made beer by the litre (see picture) not glasses!

At Frankfurt Airport and the massive Koln railway station, evidence of the World Cup is everywhere. At the airport, there is a booth where you take a shot at goal and win a prize if you score. The ball is placed on a small platform and tied to an elastic chord in front of a giant TV screen showing a goalie and the posts. It looks easy, but no it’s not.

The Koln Railway station has a giant picture of soccer players in different playing positions on the ceiling which invariably makes visitors stop and stare, and take pictures of course.

Conversation and discussion in Germany is all about the ‘Cup’ and nothing else; be it a street market, at homes or in restaurants. It’s one big party! There were also concerts on the street and at one spot there was a band from Angola playing as its team prepared for a big encounter.

Supermarkets had all kinds of souvenirs but perhaps their biggest sale was the T-shirts of colours representing various teams and mascots for all countries. Beer drinking is legendary in Germany and that was very evident here but the nice part was that there were no fights on the streets (at least not in Koln) between supporters of Germany and any other rival team. They often greeted each other with cheers, roars and lifting their glasses in acknowledgement.There were German flags all over but the interesting element was that taxis also had flags of different countries – whichever nationality the driver belonged to.

On the train to Koln from Frankfurt, two groups of British and US supporters were discussing their chances and the best part was about how if some other team wins or loses in that group, it would worsen or better the chances of their team (US or Britain). “If team (A) loses and we win the next game, we are through to the finals. Even if team (A) wins but loses two other matches, we get a chance,” said one supporter.

For this reason, you could find French supporters for example backing Angola or whoever against some other side because it bettered their own (French) chances in the group to reach the finals.