Football fever

Here I sit in my hotel room in Cologne, just returned after a brisk 25 minute walk from the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten restaurant, when a message causes my Blackberry to buzz.

My friend Brian sent me a message informing me there's a football game on TV -- Bayer Leverkusen is playing against Aris Saloniki - in Saloniki, Greece.  This is not American football, rather it is "real" (according to the locals) football, aka soccer.

I am sitting a few kilometers from the Bayer Leverkusen stadium, cheering the lads playing for the team from Saloniki - a city where I lived for a few years when I was younger - something tells me I'm in the minority compared to the rest of the fans in this town.
Memories of going to similar games decades ago wash over me, as I watch the game.
The fans are a churning sea of yellow and black, chanting at the top of their lungs, worked-up to a fever pitch as neither team has managed to score and the game will soon be ending.
Color-wise, it is very reminiscent of Pittsburgh Steelers (American) football games, where black and gold colors dominate the stands and the fans are equally boisterous and loud.

The game finally ends 0 - 0 and the fans are delirious, as the visiting powerhouse club leaves without managing to score any points and has only a scoreless tie to show for its efforts.
I in turn, feel the excitement of cheering for a team, which despite having their trials and tribulations from the last few years escape my conscious, have managed to light some sport-related excitement in me on this chilly night in Germany.