Soccer doesn't get much better than this. Last night, the German Nationalmannschaft (National Team) played against the Netherlands in an international friendly match at Hamburg's Imtech Arena. My seat: 18 rows from the field.
Going into the match, the Netherlands were the #2 team in the world (according to FIFA). Germany was #3. The teams, being from neighboring countries, are also long-time rivals. Therefore, the Netherlands were quite well supported by orange-clad fans. The Hamburg police was out in full force, just in case, but most of the fan interaction seemed good-natured. Everyone was there to see a great match.
Our seats were right behind a section of fans who we think were being filmed for a Bitburger commercial (the official beer of the Deutscher Fussballbund). As such, they were completely decked out with flags, hats, face paint, jerseys, you name it. Their props and antics got me (well, my stomach anyway) on the big screen twice! Pretzel in hand, I joined in singing the German National Hymn (the lyrics were displayed on the screen).
Players (in white) left to right:
Aogo, Badstuber, Podolski, Müller, Boateng,
Kroos, Khedira, Özil, Mertesacker, Klose
The sold-out crowd of 51,500 fans had barely gotten comfortable before Peter Müller scored the first goal for Germany in the 15th minute. Müller hasn't been the goals for a long time, neither for FC Bayern-Münich nor for Germany, but he scored twice in two games this international break (also finding the net against the Ukraine last match).
Müller's shot to 1:0
The ball is on the edge of the 6-yard box.
Only a few minutes later, Miroslav Klose headed in a beautiful cross from Mesut Özil to make it 2:0 in favor of the home team. Captaining the German side in his 113th appearance for the national team, Klose's 26th-minute goal took his total national team goal total to 63, just five behind the all-time leader Gerd Müller.
The celebration following Klose's 2:0.
Midway through the second half, Mesut Özil sealed the victory for Germany. In the 66th minute, he tapped in Klose's assist after an excellent multi-pass exchange between the two stars. After the final whistle sounded, we made our way back to the S-Bahn pretty quickly. The match ended at almost 11 pm, so we wanted to make sure we caught one of the last trains back to Lüneburg.
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