March Madness Europe Style

March Madness = basketball, right?! Putting the final tweaks on all the different brackets that you filled out, trying to pick who is going to be the Cinderella team this year. I love March Madness, but this year I got to experience a different kind of March Madness European Style. ;)

On Sunday, March 18th, I went with my roommate and a few people I work with to see Fussball Club Kaiserslautern, my local hometown team, play soccer. I had heard from a lot of people about how fun the games are and knew I had to see a game before I left. Kaiserslautern is the bigger city in the area and is about 20 minutes east of Landstuhl by train. Our group headed of base to catch the train into the city. We left pretty early so we could get to the stadium about 70-80 minutes before the game and get appropriate attire and our food all situated before kickoff. Just about everyone who goes to these games takes the train in! All the seats were taken up, so we rode standing up into K-town. And then entered the throngs of people as we all piled out of the many trains that came in from all directions.

Getting off the train, heading into town toward the stadium. People were just piling out of the trains on to the platforms.

Waiting my turn to funnel down the stairs and leave the train station. 

It was about a 20 minute walk up to the stadium. All we had to do was follow the people and the smells as people tailgated before the game. It felt like I was going to watch college american football! :)
We stopped to get a few pictures around the soccer sculptures and then finally made it up to the stadium. (I don't have these pictures from my friends camera so I can't share them...) To get into the actual stadium, the girls went in one line and guys in another so that our bags could get checked and we got a little bit of a pat down.

K-town stadium, just had to walk up a little hill more and we were there. I liked the stone/glass siding so I took a quick picture.

Main Entrance

Once within the stadium gates, we found the team store. There was actually a line to get into the store! Good thing we got there early. But after a 5-10 minute wait we made it inside and I picked up a t-shirt and a scarf so I could support the K-town Devils! ;) After getting the goods, we made it a little further and figured out how to get stadium food. Before going to order your food you have to get a card and add money - kind of like a debit card. It saves time when you actually go and order your food plus that way you aren't fumbling around with change either. So, with a loaded card I got to experience currywurst. It was basically a sausage (either white or red) with some sort of sauce and lots of curry sprinkled on top. Plus a nice brötchen to soak everything up with. Not bad but nothing to really right home about either. 

Red and White Curry Wurst

My cool cup to keep as another souvenir - Kevin Trapp and he's cute too!

By this time kickoff was only minutes away so we quickly found our seats and got in just in time to see the introductions and the start of the game. It was so cool inside the stadium - the fans were so intense and there was a good number from the opposing team ready to cheer on their team. Flags were flying, signs held high, screaming and chanting back and forth between the fans, esp from the fans behind each goal. It was so cool, it really was just like college football! Here's a couple clips of the intro of the players and a sample of the chanting.

 Once, the game started K-town scored within 5 minutes on an awesome header shot. However, that would be the only goal we scored as the other team one 4-1.

Just after we scored our sole goal on a pretty sweet looking header shot!

Sliding in for a steal, unfortunately my camera doesn't have a wide enough angle and the ball went sailing off to the left! haha 

Cheering on K-town with Amy, a nurse that I work with in the DWMMC

My lovely roommate Cheryl and I after the game. .

I found myself getting into the game really easily and had a great time. The time flew by. It  was pretty easy to tell that K-town may not be the greatest team; they didn't have as good ball control, player awareness, and play running as the other team. I found out later that we are the last in the league and have the youngest, smallest players. Despite this fact, I had a blast and would go back in a heart beat. Don't worry, I still spent hours tweaking my brackets, watching a few games, and wishing I was back home watching all the games at BW's...