After a 10 day trip to Germany in December 1995 for research, a conference, to see some friends, and to watch soccer, of course, I'd like to offer three sets of observations as they may or may not pertain to MLS: Fans, MLS Signings, and TV.
FANS
Well I made it to 2 games on consecutive days: Karlsruhe SC - VfB Stuttgart and 1. FC Cologne - Hansa Rostock on the 2nd & 3rd day of the trip (the last week before the Winter Pause in the Bundesliga). Oh, for a functioning public sector institution like the Deutsche Bahn [railroad]: fast, clean and on-time. The games were interesting. Karlsruhe - Stuttgart was a southwest derby since the cities are only 100 km apart (in fact, fully to 3/4 of the Bundesliga is within a 3 hour train ride from Cologne. Geez, a 'derby' for us is NE - NY/NJ or DCU - NY/NJ and that's about it).
As far as fan organization is concerned, guys, we have a long way to go! (But these ARE Germans, of course). :-) I am reminded of the hilarious "Ignite MLS" thread on the North American Soccer List in which some guy said: "Two Words: Road Flares!" Hell, in Karlsruhe, the CLUB was actually tossing sparklers into the crowd for free! The hard core fans brought their _own_ road flares of course! I agree with the wisdom expressed on the list a few weeks ago that MLS is NOT ready for sparklers (let alone flares). But my experience in Karlsruhe suggests that someday we MAY be. Lots of people (young, old, men, women) seemed to be having a good time with them.
The Cologne - Rostock was a special game for me, since Cologne has been my favorite German team since I did my dissertation research there in the late 70s and their nickname is the "Geissbocke" (goats in English). Why does 1. FC Cologne have a "goat" for a mascot, you might ask? Well the goat has horns and if you ever arrive at the main train station in Cologne and look up, you'll see the famous gothic cathedral with two giant spires which look not unlike goat horns (using lots of poetic licence of course). Unfortunately the "mascot disease" (humans putting on animal costumes) has now infected the Bundesliga. Some guy in a foolish-looking goat costume was hooted by the Rostock fans as he walked by their end of the stadium. The hard core fans show up really early, fully 2 or 3 hours before the game and sing and chant and bang drums! DRUMS are crucial! The end stands at both stadia were ALIVE with noise! However, the people in the higher priced seats show up just before game time (sound familiar?) and are much more docile.
Also, both in Karlsruhe and Cologne they play lots of recorded rock music BUT NOT WHILE THE GAME IS GOING ON! This will probably be a big issue for us to fight in MLS, and we must avoid this because the more canned noise during play, the quieter the fans get.
In other words we must stress the difference between fans as PARTICIPANTS and fans as CONSUMERS to be entertained! When the game is on, we fans can produce sufficient noise and entertainment for the whole stadium!
The final note on fan behavior comes from watching a Copa Italia match on TV (Atalanta of Bergamo - Cagliari). It was an exciting match with 6 goals, but the most notable fan behavior came from the Atalanta end. They made the German fans look like golf fans, by comparison! :-) Not only did almost every person have a flare, the back wall of the stand had a sign that said "Wild Kaos" with a huge picture of the Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara next to it! Yet, despite the political theatre, there were no arrests.
While the New England club will be called the Revolution, we can't expect to see too many pictures of Che there can we? :-)
MLS SIGNINGS (Dr. Khumalo)
I SAW Dr. Khumalo play for South Africa vs Germany (0:0) on German TV! WOW, is this guy dangerous! If this is the kind of player that Sunil Gulati is finding in his travels, then MLS will be a big hit. The German announcers confirmed that he would be playing for Columbus about 2 weeks before it was confirmed on the North American Soccer list! As for South Africa, it is a good thing we didn't have that game with them in December in Florida (as originally scheduled)!
As the GERMAN announcers said, the South African defenders play with the tenaciousness of the English and their midfielders and forwards play with the skill of BRAZIL!!!!!!! And German announcers seldom praise another team EVER, usually preferring to state that the Germans played sub-par. Woe are the teams that get in South Africa's group in France '98!
Folks, I saw 3 -- count 'em -- 3 German defenders NUTMEGED by the South Africans and I have NEVER seen a German national team defender nutmeged EVER! One guy was nutmeged so bad that both Khumalo -- and the ball -- were gone for 20 yards before the defender even knew where either the good Doctor or the ball actually were! The Germans literally gave midfield away to the South Africans (Dr. Khumalo played right midfield) and I never saw a German national team concede this much space to another club before. They should have beaten the Germans by at least 3:1 (Klinsmann had a header saved miraculously, and the South Africans hit a post and blew two sitters). OK, the Germans said that it was not their full team, but they had SIX regulars that I could count!
TV
One thing about going to Europe and having access to cable TV (both in hotels and at homes of friends), is that I got to watch a lot of soccer. Almost every night there was either a live match or a highlights program on. Saturday nights there is a live Spanish match, Sunday nights a live Italian one. I also saw the Copa Italian match on Thursday, the South Africa - Germany match on Friday, and part of a FC Groeningen - Werder Bremen friendly on Tuesday.
Conspicously missing, of course, was the really big game on Wednesday between Ireland and Holland for the last Eurocup spot. Why wasn't this available among the 30 cable channels I get?
ESPN-International, perhaps?
Not only can't you see it here, you can't see it in Germany either. Here's the deal, ESPN-I is to Germany as Prime Deportiva is to the USA. They are a foreign language channel, own the rights to all the best games, but nobody can actually see them!
DSF had most of the matches I listed above, while EuroSport had none!
Why none?
Good question. My friend (and table/scoring system guru) Andreas Werner calls it the Sports channel that doesn't have any sports on it.
Ah, but what is on EuroSport, you ask?
Yep, you got it: The Extreme Games!
As Karl Marx once said (comparing Louis Napoleon to his uncle the more infamous -- and more successful dictator -- Napoleon Bonaparte), "History always repeats itself, the first time as tragedy the second time as farce!"
One other point about TV and radio broadcasts:
THE FEWER PEOPLE IN THE BOOTH THE BETTER!
I saw (and listened to) several different broadcasts in three different languages, and the best telecasts had either only one broadcaster (a la Martin Tyler in England) or two. The one time that there were 3 came in the BBC's radio broadcast (5 LIVE) of Ireland - Holland. This was horrible. Whenever the Dutch had the ball, the three guys in the booth were prattling on needlessly about anything BUT the game. I actually tried to listen to the Dutch radio broadcast, but the spoken language (unlike the written language which is similar to English and German) is so difficult to understand that the only Dutch words I could get were: Overmars, Kluivert, Blind, et al. :-)
Folks at ESPN & PRIME, save youself some production costs and remember when you are hiring broadcasting talent, LESS IS MORE! Soccer has NO dead time which is precisely why sports like baseball, grid football and basketball hire so much on-air 'talent'. You don't have to so this with soccer, a few knowledgeable announcers and a sharp halftime analyst will work wonders. In other words, let the game speak for itself!
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