June 16, 2004

Go Deutschland!

Last night Shelby and I went to Down Under, an Australian pub. We'd first noticed the place about a month ago; riding past on the bus, their large CHICKEN WINGS sign (in English!) caught our eye. Since a plate of good wings is something that Shelby has been sorely missing during our German experience, we put Down Under on our list of establishments to check out sometime. Last night, since Shelby was the birthday girl, she got to pick our dinner destination, so we finally went.

The trip was worth it. Down Under does indeed seem, as advertised, to be Hamburg's home for chicken wings: they've got sixteen different wing options on their menu, which you can pair with one of seven dipping sauces. Shelby chose the "American BBQ" option with blue cheese. They weren't quite the American formula she was searching for (not hot enough), but they were good, and the portion size was gigantic. I ordered a lamb "Aussie burger", which actually turned out to be a slab-o'-lamb on a baguette; still, the sandwich was also good, and my portion was likewise huge. We'll have to go back to work our way through more of the wing alternatives ...

Last night was Germany's first match (versus the Netherlands) in Euro 2004, the European soccer championship. Since we were eating in a pub, naturally they had multiple TVs tuned to the game, and naturally there was a very boisterous, enthusiastic, soccer-focused crowd. At first, we were a little apprehensive about walking into the thick of things, but we quickly caught the spirit and started cheering for Deutschland.

This was (ugly American alert!) my first time ever watching a complete soccer match, so I found myself mentally comparing the experience to watching American football, the only team sport that I've often watched all the way through (usually back in college when my beloved California Golden Bears were on the field). Sorry, America, but soccer won: in contrast to football's very regimented march up and down the field, only occasionally reversed by a surprise fumble-and-interception, soccer was all action and all over the place. There was no series of endless time outs, where players were swapped in and out, talked strategy with coaches, or waited for officials to measure out distances on the field; the players who started the game were pretty much the players who stayed in the game, and each forty-five minute half was actually only forty-five minutes in length. For all the action though, the game was light on scoring: after one surprise goal for Germany about thirty minutes in, nothing else happened until Holland tied the game nine minutes before the end.

(The experience of watching sports on television was better in Germany, too; no commercial breaks, no floating sponsorship 'bugs' on the screen, no "and now let's see if you can answer this segment's American Airlines/Tostitos/Duracell trivia challenge moment, brought to you by Toyota!" moments from the announcers. They just showed the game! At the half, they played two commercials, and then switched to a news program for the rest of the break.)

Despite the fact that Germany didn't produce another goal and come back to win the game, everybody seemed to be leaving pretty happy. Once we got outside, people were waving the German flag on street corners; people in cars going by were screaming and honking their horns. Again, being used to American-style championships, we were mystified. Why didn't they extend the game to break the tie? How do they decide who 'won'? Who gets to advance to the next round of the championship? After getting home and taking a look at the website, we found out that for this first round, each team is placed in a group of four teams; they play one match with each of the other teams in the group, and whichever team comes out ahead on points after its three games moves to the next level as the winner of that group. So a tie wasn't the best outcome, but was acceptable; Germany gets points for tying and has three more chances to shine.

We'll be in Denmark when Germany's next match comes around, but the one after that, versus the Czech Republic, is on June 23rd; maybe we'll have to go back for some more chicken wings and Fußall then.

Posted by Kevin at June 16, 2004 09:26 AM