World Cup Finale

World Cup Finale

Finale….ohh.ooohhh. …Finale…ohhh.ohohhooohhh
Finale….ohhohhoooohohhh
Finale!
Finale!
Finale in Berlin!!

Its coming home
Its coming home
Football is coming home!


So the World Cup ends. Its been quite a ride the past month. I didn’t know what to expect with the World Cup in Germany, but it was quite different and yet similar to the World Cup in Korea in 2002.

The Germans were great and it was fun to explore the county and talk with the German people and watch my misconceptions fall down. Germany is a great county full of really nice people. From Erfurt, to Munich and to Berlin, its hard to stereotype the Germans as it would seem.

The ride for me this time around was not as crazy as it was in 2002, for two main reasons: (1) My team (USA!!) did not do nearly as well this time around and if your team doesn’t do well the World Cup is in definition not as great. 2002 was like a dream come true. 2006 was reality butting in. But I guess, like some say, that is the beauty of soccer: you never know what ride the game is going to take you on. (2) I was working this World Cup where the last cup I was more of a fan. It was great to work photographing the cup, and I think from now on I will always come back as a photographer to the cup, but there were time when after a game that I had to think about getting my photos sent in and such that it got in the way of celebrating a bit. But of course if the USA had gone anywhere I am sure that I would have partied a fair bit ;)

Italy were the winners. Can’t say I was too excited about that, considering the flopped their way through their first four games before coming together to win the cup. But they are the undisputed World Champions so there isn’t much you can say about that.

As for me, the World Cup ends just in time. I’m beat up. I’m tired. I’m exhausted. Its been a whirlwind of memories and experiences that I will never forget, and I am sure will take a long time after I return home to properly comprehend. But I have a big smile on my face after the past eight weeks of traveling, and that’s never a bad sign. ☺

I will be staying in Berlin for another week, but I probably will update my blog only a few more times. This weekend upcoming is the Love Parade, which is a huge electronic music festival that is happening where the fan festival was in Berlin with some of the top DJ’s performing. There should be over a million people going to the event so it should be amazing. I’ll be taking photographs of that as well and post them here.

But thanks for being part of my trip and reading my updates.