Americans Abroad- A Report from Germany

Many of us have never been to a soccer game outside of the United States, but it takes only a quick glance at a televised game from other parts of the world to make you wonder what it'd be like to attend a game with the incredible atmosphere that you see on TV. I personally have never seen a game outside of the US and it is certainly high on my Bucket List. At 24 years of age, I sure hope I get around to it! Major League Soccer's attendance numbers are pathetic, and I live in a city where the new soccer specific stadium we dreamed of for years was built with only 12,600 permanent seats without bleachers and luxury boxes, and in recent years many of those 12,600 have not been in use. For myself the single strongest motivator to buy tickets is a quality product on the field. If the soccer is quality, I'll be interested. This is not always the case for the casual fan, but I think many people would be interested in going to a game just for the atmosphere if it looked like this!

Army Specialist Richard Barney is stationed in Germany and recently had the opportunity to tour Allianz Arena in Munich and catch a league match. He has provided us with some thoughts on the experience as well as the photos and video. All I can say is wow, what I wouldn't give to see a soccer game at a venue like this. Now from Army Specialist Barney:

"On April 27th, 2008 I attended the FC Bayern Munich vs. VfB Stuttgart match. This was my second time watching a world class game in person, but unlike the Manchester United - AC Milan game in New York City, I was a visitor in another country where soccer rules the daily conversations. The day before the match I took a tour of the Allianz Arena. Having missed the only English speaking tour time I settled for a German one, as I was mostly there for the sites. The tour took us through most parts of the stadium including different sitting areas, the teams press conference room, and locker room. Standing in the locker room I couldn't help but think how exciting it is to be in the locker room where the world class players of FC Bayern will be getting ready for the match tomorrow. After the tour I made my way to the team store to disguise myself as a regular. At the store they had the DFB Cup and the DFL League Cup available for you to take a photo with which was a pretty big thrill.
On the day of the match I arrived at the arena 2.5 hours before the game would actually begin, needing the time to find my seat and walk around. When I arrived the area was already swarming with fans, I thought to myself how many fans show up this early for a sporting event in the US? As I made my way to my seat I took note of how everyone in someway was showing support of the home team, regardless of age and gender every supporter had something about Bayern Munich, whether it was something simple as a pin or scarf, or going all out with a team jersey, shorts, scarf, and flag wrapped around you, it was easy to see that these people truly love their team. Before the match even began the arena was filled with many chants and cheers. The cheers were so loud that they could even be heard from the other side of the stadium as music came on the speakers as the two teams took the field. The arena would erupt into a state I might describe as chaos several times as Bayern Munich scored four times in the match, each time drawing the unmitigated frenzy of the crowd.
What was most amazing to me was that this game was just a regular season game, not a cup final, yet all 69,000 seats were filled. I thought to myself how amazing it was to be with that many people who shared the love of the same game, regardless of what it's called around the world.

Thank you for your insight Specialist Barney, it's great to get a taste of the stage the game was meant to be played on over here from time to time. I will now go photoshop my face into that picture and use it as my myspace photo. Ladies, if you're in Germany or planning on making a trip, Specialist Barney resides in Amberg. For those of you around Rochester, NY, Richard is a native of Brockport.