Within hours of arriving in Kaiserslautern, the host city for Australia's first World Cup match for 32 years, Sarge and I were interviewed by Japanese media. Our star status had preceded us and with Karl and the Today Show crew chasing us down later in the week, it seemed the word was out that we were top shelf television entertainment.
While in Cocoon in Frankfurt, I learnt the reason why Kaiserslautern, a relatively small provincial town, had been given the honour of hosting World Cup matches. It's all quite simple. When West Germany won their first World Cup in 1954, five players came from the then mighty Kaiserslautern FC, including their captain, Fritz Walter in whose name the current stadium was christened. Bet you didn't get that history lesson from Craig Foster did you?
Here's an email I sent to myself after the game, so I could capture how I felt:
"What a day, what a match, what an important result after 32 years of wishing, hoping and waiting.
From around 11am this morning, a heaving sea of green and gold, blow up kangaroos and 'strayan' paraphenalia of every persuasion wove its way towards the Fritz Walter Stadion here in Kaiserlautern, raring for battle. And every true Australian football fan knew it would require every inch of fight in every player we had out there to get the points we so desperately needed to get off the mark in this campaign.
Once in the ground, the scene was breathtaking. Green and gold throughout the stand, interrupted only by the substantial pockets of blue of our opponents. But numbers were not important, for we had spirit to burn, players to urge on and songs to sing. Yes, I cried while screaming the national anthem. Yes, every screaming rendition of Waltzing Matilda put my neck hairs on end. But after literally waiting my whole life for this day, you could hardly expect any less.
32 years. 6 minutes. 3 goals. Life can be broken down into the minutiae of infinitely small moments but some days, like today, adding those moments up gives you a sum to savour forever."
Sentimental I know, but that's me.
Another important experience in Kaiserslautern was mine and Sarge's initiation into the world of Fan Camps. These were massive camping areas at each World Cup venue used by, you guessed it, fans. And yes, this one time, at Fan Camp, Sarge and I decided we should use the tent we had in the van but after taking almost two hours working out how to put it up and then having to retreat to the van at 4.30 in the morning when we realised we were in the initial stages of hypothermia due to Sarge deciding to bring more hair product rather than pack a sleeping bag, we resigned ourselves to the fact we are city slickers through and through.
