Pictured above is the photo I took at the biergarten during the Germany vs. Portugal futbol game on Monday. Now keep in mind how happy they don’t look even though they were winning 2-0 at the time and a player had just been sent off for Portugal meaning the game was over. NOBODY IS SMILING. (German rebuttal: ‘We were concentrating!’)
I joked that when they scored their first goal their reaction was similar to mine would be if the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. The place went crazy. It was awesome and I can’t tell you how glad I was to be there. Do you know what else I’m really excited for? USA vs. Germany on June 26th. I can’t tell or show you (yet) what I’m going to look like for the game, but I can tell you that I will be happy to still be living June 27th.
The smack talk has all ready started here in the office. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have been told that we are going to lose against Germany on June 26th. I also can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard the name Jürgen Klinsmann.
Jürgen Klinsmann was a German soccer star during his playing career. He won the World Cup as part of the 1990 German team, and coached the German national team to a 3rd place finish during the 2006 World Cup. He then was the coach of Bayern München for 1.5 years, so he is very well known over here.
I’m in a classic catch 22 over here right now. If Germany defeats USA next week, it’s because our players are bad. If USA defeats Germany next week, it’s because Jürgen Klinsmann is the coach.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
I am on a mission over here to prove to Germans that Americans are more than what they think we are. Some of the ways I’m trying to do this is by drinking as much as they do and by flashing my soccer knowledge. They have inter-company betting set up where you pick every game of the World Cup getting points for selecting the correct winning team, and the correct score. Can you imagine an American entering a German soccer betting pool and winning? I’m currently in 9th place, and I have not wanted to win anything more, ever.
I didn’t think anyone cared about futbol in America until I saw these videos of the American’s celebrating our goal in the last few minutes against Ghana. (http://uproxx.com/sports/2014/06/here-come-the-awesome-reaction-videos-from-usas-world-cup-win-over-ghana/)
After next Thursday, I can’t wait to say, “I thought Germany was good at futbol…”
USA! USA! USA!
Alex Krog, CPA is an Audit Associate and participant in Mueller’s Global Employee Exchange Program.
