Soca Warriors Fever hits Germany

Dortmund, Germany: There is excitement which one can feel and the first impression is that this is a city that can’t wait to show its support for the Soca Warriors in Saturday’s game at the stadium here.

Football is of course on everyone’s lips. The young ones who can kick balls in the street are at it all the time. The not-so-young are in pubs, drinking German beer and putting up their own match figures on posters.

Every supermarket, pub and bar has large displays of World Cup memorabilia posted on their glass windows and the message is welcome to Germany, welcome to the World Cup in Germany and welcome to TT and Sweden who meet for their first game here in Dortmund Stadium, home of the Broussia Dortmund football club.

The stadium, with a capacity of 65,000 was built in the 1970’s. In terms of our own Hasely Crawford stadium it is huge with every imaginable facility including an adjoining hall for celebrations after the matches. Previously the stadium was called Westfalenhallen but in World Cup time it has been leased to FIFA.

It took me 16 hours to get here, a fulfilment of a dream to be at the World Cup one day, a dream that has been incredibly sweetened by the fact that the TT Soca Warriors are here too, also fulfilling their dreams. After arrival in Frankfurt I took a train to Dortmund. It was a three-hour trip passing cities such as Koln, Essen, Duisburg and Dusseldorf.

I arrived at the stadium yesterday by taxi and alighted onto a red carpet which led straight to the media centre. With typical German precision it took me two minutes to receive a warm welcome from personnel who processed and issued my accreditation pass.

When I presented my TT passport the woman at the desk told me I was the first from my country’s media to receive accreditation — another first for Newsday, once again leading the field even in Germany!

Parking is not allowed in or around the stadium and the nearest parking point is about ten or 15 minutes walking depending on your physical condition.

But there is no way you can get lost. Organisation is supreme with English-speaking guides. Signs and arrows are everywhere in English, German, French and Spanish.

If Dortmund is anything to go by it is clear that Germany has outdone itself in trying to accommodate the hundreds of thousands who are already here for the month-long football festival.

Officials are expecting tens of thousands of English supporters who plan to overwhelm, if not Dortmund with its 600,000 population, then certainly the TT crowd of 3,000 Soca Warriors fans who have already arrived or are on their way here.

In fact one official stated that many English supporters will not get seats in the stadium and would have to “party” outside.

The flags of TT, England, Paraguay and Sweden fly side by side for now giving no hint as to which one will be waved higher come Saturday.