I am in Dresden right now.
And Germany is a force in the world cup.
So Ilie and I went to a local events park next to the Elbe river, despite the "I feel like I am sitting in a sauna" heat. After getting patted down in security, we walked into the masses of german-flagged cheeks, german-flag dresses, german-flag top hats, german-flag Burger King hats. One exuberant woman was wearing a plastic yellow hula skirt, a red bra and enormous black peacocky headwear.
Because we had arrived a mere twenty minutes before the game, the sandy benches were already full.
"That's ok. We'll feel the spirit of the game standing with the german-flagged masses."
As game time approached, the Dresden announcer played K'naan's Wavin' Flag and the germans diligently waved their sea of flags.
Then the same announcer yelled out the first names of team members and the fans yelled out their last names.
"He is only saying the names of the German players. He's not saying the Brazilian or the Turkish players' names that are on the German team," Ilie informed me.
I was amazed that all of these people could match the first and last names of players, even if it was just the German ones.
Within the first five minutes of the game, the German team scored and I got beer splashed on me by excited fans and then almost choked on the dust cloud that we were surrounded in by the dancing crowd. The cheering continued whenever a German player stole the ball, passed the ball, when the goalie caught a simple pass kicked to him by his own team...
When Argentine's coach flashed on the screen the same excited fan who splashed beer around boo'ed loudly.
This is dedication.
