Fußball in Bremen

Soccer is huge deal all over the world, and it's really too bad that we don't have this kind of pride in our teams. Last night, Matheus (the Brazilian) and I went to a Bundesliga (National League) soccer game in Weser-Stadion, the stadium for Werder Bremen (the local professional team here, pronounced "ver-der bray-men"). It was the first game of the second half of the season and Werder was playing Borussia Dortmund.

I was sitting in the train station before the game, and you could hear the fight songs of loyal fans making their journey in to cheer on their team. The Polizei were everywhere. I'm not sure if these fans are likely to get out of hand, but if I had to guess based on the number of police officers around, I would say it is highly likely. Fortunately, there were no outbreaks that I was aware of.

Matheus and I trekked down to the stadium a bit early to find tickets, which ended up being extremely easy to get at a ticket kiosk. I guess we lucked out. After that, we just walked around and absorbed the atmosphere. Both teams had an incredibly strong fan representation which made for a lot of trash talking and some friendly badgering. It was quite an exciting event to be a part of. It was also incredibly cold (-5 degrees Celsius).

But the temperature didn't change anything. When the game was about to start, we got to witness the fans of Bremen sing their fight song, "Wir sind Werder Bremen" (we are Werder Bremen). It was awesome to see the amount of pride these citizens took in their soccer team. I've never seen anything like it. People had flags and banners all over the stadium. We were apparently on the opposite side of the big cheering section that can be seen in the second photo above. They waved their flags and held up their banners throughout the entire game. Don't ask me how they did it. That takes a lot of determination.

First goal of the game within 10 minutes of the start... not good.

Unfortunately, the game did not go as we and the folks of Bremen hoped it would. Bremen lost the game 5-0, but the coolest part was the dedication to the team. Nobody left until there was about 5 minutes left in the game. Even at the end of the game, cheers could be heard for the Werder players. Granted, louder cheers consumed the stadium for Dortmund, but what do you expect? Overall it was a great experience that I will likely participate in again. I just hope that next time I can feel my toes and fingers after the game ends.

End of the match; stands still mostly full.