no joy

[World Cup Spoiler Warning]

There are a number of reasons why I wanted Germany to win tonight. I know next to nothing about the team's history, but I like Jurgen Klinsmann, the coach, and I like the way they play. I like that they really, really appreciate their boisterous, noisy fans. Miroslav Klose is cute, okay, but he also plays really hard. I like that, compared to the Portugese or Brazilian teams, Germany and France seemed to play pretty clean games. And I'm in Germany, for Pete's sake. I also just hate seeing the players cry. And they cried tonight - Klose, the striker, on his hands and knees on the field, and then Ballack, the big guy, Odonkor, the fast guy, and their amazing goalie Jens Lehmann. Klinsmann went around and hugged everyone. Mostly, though, I just didn't want Germany - as a country - to be sad. And tonight there was just utter, total disbelief when Italy scored first in the second overtime, and then complete shock when they scored again a few minutes later. Half of the people I saw were shaking or holding their heads, and the others had pretty swiftly paid their checks and were going home. I had gotten tired of sitting - it was, after all, over two hours of soccer - and just stared. For such a good game, it was over so fast...

A few rowdy, lucky Italy fans kept things loud at our bar on the river Spree, and I can now hear the afterparty - or the collective anesthetization with booze - that is now proceeding in the city. There are certainly enough Azzuri fans to keep things lively and there are fireworks periodically, but I also hear a lot of sirens, and folks were getting rowdy when I decided to go home.

Everyone has said that this is an interesting time to be in Germany, an extraordinary time. The public dialogue is really impressive and self-aware, at least to an outsider. One observes a nation tentatively figuring out how to be proud of itself in the world, people of my generation navigating the minefield that their grandparents laid for them. Berlin as a city making its best effort to be friendly, safe, crazy, welcoming - soccer as a sport fighting both hooliganism and dirty playing. And then the crazy international partying mishmash that has, with each elimination, gotten a bit narrower, but no less joyous. I didn't expect to be so impressed with the World Cup, but I appreciate not just soccer's amazing, sometime balletic atheticism, but also that this is truly a global tournament.

And so, since Ghana and Sweden, my erstwhile favorites, have already gone home, I will unapologetically cheer for France against Portugal (right on, Zelda) - and hope, with apologies to the Thalia & Graham, that they win and go forward to kick Italy's butt this weekend. This may not be logical - after all, it's better for the team that beat your team to win it all - but whatever. Allez les bleus!