Champions!!!

In Europe, soccer(or football) is THE sport. For most people here, life is family, soccer, work; but the order of importance changes for some people. Professional soccer leagues form a very complicated network, including competitions within the country, and competitions within the world. Imagine that professional baseball was played with equal feverish devotion all over the world, there would be competions within the US, and then the "World Series," would be just that, and the American champions would compete against champions from other countries.

In Germany, there is the Bundesliga (like the major leagues,) and a variety of levels of other teams (the minor leagues,) that all comprise German soccer. Saturday afternoon marked the end of the season for the Bundesliga, in effect, the German soccer world series. Unlike the baseball though,there are no playoffs. All games are regularly scheduled season games, and the winner is determined by points acquired throughout the season. The two teams that were vying for the German Master title yesterday were, VfB Stuttgart (of course, our team,) and FC Schalke 04 (near Dortmund.) The two games were took place at the same time, and it was quite nerve-wracking. FC Schalke was playing a team from the northern Germany, and Stuttgart was playing Cottbus (another team from the north.)



Going into the game, Stuttgart was leading Schalke by one point. If Schalke won yesterday's game, and Stuttgart lost, then the two teams would have tied, and the championship would have been determined by the number of goals scored by each team. For a time yesterday, Stuttgart had not scored against Cottbus, and Schalke was leading in their game by 3 goals. It was very scary. But then, Stuttgart came around in the second half, scoring two goals, and winning the game and the title of German Champions 2007!!!! YEAH STUTTGART!!!



Of course, the entire state erupted into a party. More than 150,000 fans had packed into the center of Stuttgart, where public viewing areas were set up. After the win, downtown became one giant party.The players parade began around 6 pm, and it took many many hours because of the amount of people. Stuttgart was completely packed with revelers far into the morning. And why not? The fans deserved it, and so did the players!!