5/31/2006

Rain and football (Guest Blog)

Another guest blog today! (One can see, the soccer world championship is getting closer)

"The upcoming world championship reminds me of the 1974 championship. This is a journey into the past, when I grew up. So many things have changed ...

What did not change is the weather. The 1974 tournament was characterized by heavy rain, especially during Germany vs. Sweden (4:2), which is remembered as the "Regenschlacht im Duesseldorfer Rheinstadion", and Germany vs. Poland (1:0), remembered as the "Wasserschlacht im Frankfurter Waldstadion". Lately, I bought Germany vs. Sweden on DVD, and I can tell: The players were listening to the national hymns and looked as if they were coming directly from the showers!

Three days later, it was even worse. At the regular beginning, the referee had a look at the field and simply said "No". This was the moment when Frankfurt firemen and their desperate attempts to get the water off the field became a part of the history of football. Sorry for the strong Polish team: They had some more problems with the water on the ground still remaining ... and with German goalie Sepp Maier making his lifetime match in the pouring rain.

And now ? Today, we had snow in some areas of Germany. And not only on the top of the mountains"!

Stevie

3 comments:

Rob said...

You bought the DVD of a football match from 30 years ago - and not even a final?
Wow, that's dedication - or lunacy...:-)

Anonymous said...

Francessa just bought the DVD with the Poland game this morning. It's most funny to watch the preparation of the field after the heavy and surprising rainfalls. You can't say, that the attempts are useless. They do get some water off the field. But there is simply too much ...

francessa said...

What attracts me most to these games: They are historical documents and reflections of the 70s, 80s, 90s, with all the cultural accessories, from ads to clothing, manner of speech, manner of playing, attitudes towards the game and the opponents. That's why I find them educational, and quite enjoyable and funny, too. And the fight against the water was quite impressing.

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