Soccer SuperFans

By: Lauren Belle, London, Ontario

Excuse my tardiness when it comes to this long awaited blog, but when you love soccer as much as I do you almost forget that you have a job to do.

What a day...What a game.

I am still floored at the outcome of the amazing strength and determination that Germany showed during that game.

I don't even feel like reminiscing over what went right, and what went wrong, the players, the goals, the officials, replays etc, because unless you live in a bubble you know exactly what happened in the game versus England.

I think England were unprepared for the match and possibly underestimated the strength of the German side.

England was supposed to be the more experienced compared to Germany but there is a lot that England could learn from the German players, especially Thomas Muller. Muller was the star of the match I think. But I do have to mention Klose's goal. It was 50th goal in 99 caps for Germany and his 12th in three World Cups - der gerade erstaunliche!!!!

I debated with my friend that morning about what time we should be at the German club.

Let me tell you I am not much of a morning person, and this time around we were really getting decked out for the game just incase it was our last.

So that meant I had to get up extra early. They wanted to be there for 9:30ish, I said earlier, I figured it may or may not be busy considering it was an early match and a family day etc.

Wowza, this time around, we capped a good 300 people, people from all over Ontario who heard we are the place to go for the festivities. I think I even heard dad say there were a few from Germany as well. Outstanding!

Once we all got there, we had about 15 of us at our table, including 4 from Toronto who heard through friends that we like to celebrate here in London. I have never met bigger fans then myself until that day. They were so passionate, even crazy about the German team, but also SOOOOO grateful for our hospitality.

I couldn't have asked for better company. We screamed, yelled, jumped, hugged, kissed, high fived, blew vuvuzela's, waved our flags and celebrated as though we have all been a family for decades.

An amazing day, an amazing win, a truly amazing experience. I told my friends that it was one of the best times I have had in a VERY long time.

 We decided to take our celebrations downtown yet again for a mini parade that didn't end up being so "mini"...I think we left the club with about 10 cars and 2 motorcycles, and once we got downtown we somehow managed to attract others who were coming from different venues.

We in the end had about 20-25 cars following us, at points even stopping traffic and attracting very positive attention  ...except from a few England fans driving home. We drove up and down the main strip numerous times, getting out at stop lights to wave and jump and screaming the ever popular "Ole Ole Ole Ole" song.

What a sight for bystanders - I can only imagine. 50-60 German fans in schwarz, rot und gelb gear, faces painted, flags waving, screaming obnoxiously in the middle of the road...but our actions seemed to bring out smiles from onlookers.

We did this for an hour before we all parked, got out of our cars and stood on the side of the road and celebrated.

Everything we did in the cars we did on the side one of the busiest streets in London. Every time it changed to a red light we would run back and forth across the street, yelling and screaming, doing cartwheels, signing. People were honking and waving, laughing and smiling. It was just an amazing day.

After we celebrated on the road for a bit we decided to hydrate and head over to a local bar and have some good eats. We headed over to TJ Baxters for some nacho's and beer meeting up with a few more Germany fans and just sat and talked, kicked a ball around, had some more laughs, took a few more pictures and just capped off an incredibly exciting day. I got home at dinner that day; it was a VERY long day!!

I was happy to get home, but just when I thought I could rest, all 12-15 of us crazy fans were on the computer, uploading photos and tagging each other, starting threads and discussing the game.

We made the London Free Press, we made the local news, and there was just soooooo much going on that the entire day ended up being longer then Christmas!

The A-Channel just loved us and stayed for a good hour at the German Club that day, and the segment on the news was amazing. So much footage, great representation of our passion and of course they always want to interview dad, which they did. So he looked great as he always does on the news.

Then that morning there was a big article in the paper about the win and a whole bunch of my friends from the soccer team (and dad of course) were quoted. It was great to have all that attention on the fans.

We welcomed a lone English fan, Riyaz, into our club that day. He was very much the centre of attention by both the Germany fans and the news.

He was such an amazing sport and so much fun to be around. It was great to meet all these new people who I now call my friends. I have included a few of the 100+ photo's that I took that game day. Hopefully you get an idea of how much fun we had that warm Sunday afternoon.

I am so proud of my team, and so proud that I got to celebrate that day with so many fantastic people. I can only imagine what the next game will bring. This is a do or die match for us, but after that win I am seeing our odds rising greatly.

Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate and support not only our German team but our local German club as well.

Many memories we were made.

Deutschland für den Gewinn!!!