World Cup 2006

Well, the end of nearly four years of planning is finally coming to fruition and now the fun part of the adventure begins. Only one month remains before the Magnum consortium embarks on their trip of a lifetime! It’s been painfully fun getting to this point so far. FIFA/Germany OC didn’t make it easy on us with all the rules and regulations for getting tickets. Then again, perhaps they did made it easier (possible?), as we were normalized with the rest of world-wide playing field for ticket acquisition. And via that process, we did after all, get some tickets, even if not all that we had originally hoped for.

Thinking back over the last several months it is almost a blur now - all the various planning sessions, ticket attempts in different phases, re-planning meetings, all the emails (easily over 500, might be in the 1000s), hotel plans, cities to visit, etc. Can you even remember the feelings before the announcement of first ticket phase? We were going to plan our cities and pick the games blinding (not knowing the teams) – we thought that we’d be the only ones to try something so bold/crazy. But it wasn't bold at all, not even close, as the tickets available then all sold out and we didn’t even manage to get a single ticket.

But like I said, all that is behind us now and we’re ready for opening day – exactly one month from today. We’ll all meet in Munich for the opening game, June 9th, 2006, Germany vs. Costa Rica in Munich. That’s sure to be a party!!!

Well, now we're down to a single week, a mere 7 days!!! Can you believe it??? Are you ready M6? Time to pack, buy those extra toiletries, snacks for the plane ride and lots of keep-you-busy stuff (for the plane and the train rides across Germany).

Just think, in a week, you'll join us here in Germany for what Munich calls the FOUR WEEK PARTY! Are you ready for it? I know that you'll miss working, same as I, but somehow we'll manage

I went to Stuttgart the other day and saw some of the preparation items. Here's a countdown timer for how long to the first game (Munich had one of these, too). There's WC/WM stuff everywhere - you won't believe it.

For example, here's another pic for you - this is a giant soccer ball that is made out of begonias (flowers). And you thought the Germans weren't creative, huh?

But don't think that the Germans are the only ones excited over here. Every town/country we visit over here has there World Cup stuff. Here's an example from Barcelona when we were in Spain a few weeks ago. This is actually the backside of a large TV screen. I saw it from afar and had to go and check it out.

Of course, all of the European countries think that their team/nation will win. There are plenty of excited people over here. And soon, you'll be one of them!

Hello, Prost, Cheers to all!

Welcome to the home travel log/diary/blog for the Magnum FC 6 group (M6) that is attending the 2006 World Cup in Germany (Die Weltmeisterschaft im Deutschland) starting June 9th through July 9th - for a month of fun!

The original M6 group was formed nearly four years ago. The "guys" from a soccer team called, Magnum FC, decided to come to the cup. So the planning (and saving) has been in the works for quite a while now. The "gals" were kind enough to put up with the idea of a month overseas and so M6 was born. M6 consists of following cast of characters:

• Dean aka "Skirt Rule Man"
  
• Greg aka "Spreadsheet King"
  
• Gwen aka "Culture Quest Queen"
  
• Ivan aka "What's 'on Time' Dude"
  
• Kate aka "All is Groovy Girl"
  
• Phil aka "The Sportsaholic"
  

We welcome you to follow us on our month long journey through culture, food and good times - oh, yeah - and some soccer, too. We look forward to meeting new people (after all, it is a time to make friends), experiencing new places and things and of course, the most exciting sports event on the planet!

Day 1:

Wow! Munich was awesome and what a terrific first match. As expected, everyone was in recovery mode the first day, so we just saw a bit of the town. Marienplatz was certainly different looking with all the televisions and stages and such. The other thing that was very odd was that there were camera crews everywhere. Every country was filming some odd reporter, typically doing goofy things. There was a guy (from some country) at the table behind us that worked on trying to order off of the German menu (in German of course). They filmed his learning experience, his ordering and the arrival of his Spaetzle. We were all on TV (in the background) in some country some where.

Ivan and Dean had a rough start to the trip as their flight over was canceled. They were re-route and ended up with a 4 hour layover in Zurich (but even worse, their luggage was lost in all the chaos). So Phil, Kate, Gwen, Daniel, and I went exploring without them. We enjoyed some sights – some famous ones like the Duke's Residenz and some that were far less famous, such as the oddity of a building with a large pink mirror.

Gwen, Daniel and I made to the Deutsches Museum the next day. It was really interesting even though some of the main exhibits weren’t open. But there was more that we couldn’t seen in several days anyways. Dean and Ivan has to deal with the on-going search for their luggage along with the possibility of replacing things. The luggage was reportedly on its way so a major shopping trip was temporarily avoided. Unfortunately, nothing arrived before the game.

The trains were completely jammed packed on the way to the game, we couldn’t even make it into the first train that came. The crowds were very well behaved though – actually more subdued then we had seen at the main train station. It was a long sea of people to the stadium, quite a sight to see.

But after all the planning and waiting, at long last we made it to the opener! Everyone was happy to be there and the stadium was really interesting looking from the outside. It looked more amazing that pictures that I had seen of it – like a giant IMAX screen canvas covering the outside. It’ll be really cool to see at night next time.

Germany verses Costa Rica. The pageantry before the start was interesting, with women hanging from the top of the stadium, giant flags from each country, stages, performanace. The opening game didn’t disappoint. Three goals within the first 17-18 minutes of the start – and two that were on our end.
The Ticos had to be pleased with their first performance and though the German’s had some trouble, in the end, they played without Ballack, scored some fine goals and won. And since Ecaudor upset Poland, the Germans will have their hands full with a team desperate to win. As Ivan says, this Group could easily be decided by the next game.

After the game, Ivan’s and Dean’s luggage finally did show up. For the sake of their comfort and our noses, we were all thankful indeed!

The first of many trips around Germany started today, this one from Munich to Frankfurt. Phil and Kate stuck to the original plan and flew between the two cities. The rest took the train (though at different times). It was an early start because of the tight schedule and early game start (3pm). Gwen, Daniel and I took the early train as planned. Getting to Frankfurt was no problem, but then the connections, crowds, and waits took a bit to get to the hotel. The advertised 26 minutes were really just the train time, the elapsed time was more like an hour and a half! We arrived first at the hotel, odd as Phil and Kate were flying, only 2½ hours to game time. Meanwhile, Ivan and Dean caught the next train and realized they wouldn’t make it to the hotel and back. So, what to do? Naturally, the automobiles come in here – a 40euro taxi ride did the trick. They arrive just 30 minutes later, but still no Phil and Kate. The inet provided the answer, their flight was delayed about 45 minutes (and they almost got bumped we'd find out later).
Well, with just an hour and have left, they arrived and Dean, Ivan, Phil and I were off to the game, hopefully to make it. Things went smooth enough – got some instructions from some locals and we were on our way. With more than 30 minutes left, we changed at the main train station and were just 2 short stops away. But. The train was canceled or something, so run to the next track, which became another as we got there. We were sitting on the train still with plenty of time. But. The train didn’t take off. Ten minutes later, the ten minute ride got us within about 1 mile of the stadium. So with just ten minutes left until kick-off, we’d never make it. But. Phil set the pace and we ran/jogged to the stadium, thru security and on to our seats. We were standing at our seats for the kick-off, somehow! Good thing too as the only score of the game came very early – without the run, we’d missed it.

The British were out in full force at the game of course and had lots of cheers. Our group seemed split – half England and half for Paraguay. Unfortunately, Paraguay seemed off and didn’t play well. En-g-land’s stars played pretty well, except of course for Rooney who was still sidelined with an injury. Beckham impressed us all, as we had never seen him play live before. But the mighty Paraguay team force England to remove their offensive and sit back to grind out the win. England will have to show better if they still want to win the group (especially with Sweden tying T&T and becoming more desperate). There’s talk of T&T winning the group (actually, it was just Ivan being funny).

We traveled together the next day to Cologne via the trains. Some of the same problems getting out of our small town outside of Frankfurt (a bit worse because it was a Sunday), but arrived in Cologne in plenty of time. There we navigate through the sea of people, several parties and twists and turns to get to the hotel – very near the WM fan fest (official viewing party).
It was a good day of just seeing the fans, games, and a bit of the town. We met some nice people from all around – Germany, Iran, Ireland, etc – even though I was (cough, unknowingly) supporting the Holland team.
Phil was sporting his FC Dallas jersey – we had a bet that he’d be the only one with that shirt – we lost. As we were watching the Mexico/Iran game at the Fan Fest, the other FC Dallas jersey walked right up next to us. We couldn’t believe it. It was very funny. We quickly realized that we were pulling for different teams though when Mexico scored. However, when Iran quickly answered, it confirmed that there were more Iran fans there than Mexico – it was a good time.