Nevertheless, this weekend marks the opening of the 2009 Bundesliga Football season. I've been looking forward to this one. When I arrived I quickly found out there is really just two sports seasons here: Football, and not-football. Sure, Formula One races get mentioned in the news and shown on television. But the majority of the sports reports always seemed to be about the off-season developments of the football teams.
And Cologne seems to have plenty of reason to be excited about this season. For at least the last ten seasons or more, FC Köln has bounced back and forth between the first and second divisions. This offseason they re-aquired Lukas Podolski. Podolski began his professional career with FC Köln. He was brought up to the main squad at the age of 18 and scored more goals than any other 18 year old in the history of the league. Eventually he was moved to Bayern Munich, the New York Yankees of the Bundesliga. After three middling seasons, he returned to FC Köln this offseason. And the fans of FC Köln have big expectations for a return to form by Podolski. Although it seems like he's played for a long time, he is just 24. Here is probably more than you need to know about him.
Armed with this little bit of background knowledge, I was excited to head out into the city yesterday in search of a good pub to watch the game. With so much hype about Podolski's return I thought the city would be frothing at the mouth for the first game. As my train got closer to the city, more and more people got on wearing red shirts and jerseys. We grabbed a quick lunch and started to make the rounds in the Altstadt. There are plenty of bars around here and they seem to be the rowdiest on Saturday nights. Instead, aside from the tour groups everywhere, the pubs were deserted. Where was everyone?
We never really found out. Instead, 15 minutes into the game, we settled into a quiet bar in Heumarkt. They had the game on and about 5 people were there to watch it. Nowhere did it feel anything like opening day in Chicago to me. And all those people wearing red earlier? I have no idea where they went. If any local reading this has any idea where to go to catch the game please let me know. Let us all know with a comment below. Next weekend is the home opener. Maybe that'll bring out the crowds a bit more. I don't intend to go out every week to watch the game but surely there must be some places with a bit more atmosphere and excitement.
So, how did the game itself go? For reasons I have yet to find out, Podolski didn't play. But FC Köln did manage to score a goal. Unfortunately into the wrong net. Yes, das erste Tor (the first goal) of the season for FC Köln was an own goal. Ouch. Let's just hope that this first game isn't an indication of how the rest of the season will go. But even if it is, as a Cubs fan I know that these sort of things seem to come with high expectations and goat-related scenarios. Final score: Borussia Dortmund 1-0 FC Köln.
Technically, the team's name is "1. FC Köln." In English that's "the 1st Football Club Köln." The team's nickname is appropriately enough "die Geißböcke." In English: the Billy Goats. Yeah, go figure.
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