Football - World Cup 2006

Travelling this week, back to the US, the lay-over at Frankfurt was particularly exciting, thanks to all the fever sorrounding World Cup football or soccer starting in exactly 1 day. Initially i had thought of stopping in Frankfurt and spending a few days in Germany, before proceeding to the US. But work and other pressures do not allow this kind of indulgence.

Germany is excited, atleast all the men are. It is there chance to showcase one of the most watched sporting event. World Cup soccer rivals and betters the Olympics in terms of worldwide audience. I had seen so many pictures of the new stadium built in Munich, the 'Allianz Arena'.

The airport terminal had the usual world cup related paraphernalia, including a virtual goal post, where you could try your luck at scoring a goal.

My earliest memories of watching this live was, the 1982 cup in Spain. My favourite team then and now is France. I dont know why i picked France over the many other teams, but the semi-final match between Germany and France was the one that helped setup France as the team to root for... ever. I guess since Germany as always was expected to take the cup, i just had to support the underdog. France has never done better than their effort in 1982.

Well the world cup starts tomorrow and goes on for a month, i am hoping to have a ball of a time following the different teams as they go thru' the different group matches to see who will emerge in to the second round.