Trinidad... Tobago!
All right, I hear you saying, enough with the atmosphere—how about a first-hand report of a game? We at WAATF aim to please and, hey, we were lucky enough to acquire a pair of tickets to the Sweden/Trinidad and Tobago match held last night in Dortmund. So, here's the scoop.
- Travel: We caught a train from Köln and were pleased to find that it was surprisingly uncrowded. The only other person near us was a fellow from Trinidad, although a few Sweden fans boarded later on. Trains seem to run right on time here, so it's a good idea for travelers to be prompt. We've also heard reports of delays on some lines (Germany's few Neo-Nazis are supporting Iran and there were protests yesterday in Gelsenkirchen) so be prudent if you're planning same-day game travel.
- Dortmund: Dortmund rolled out the red carpet for fans—literally. A few blocks from the main train station, we found a red carpet running up the block which continued for as far as we could see. Incredibly enough, this was their way of marking the path to the stadium.
- Stadium entry: They went through our bags pretty closely but were not interested in checking our IDs.
- The game: Borussia Dortmund's home stadium is the largest in Germany and it was packed with vocal fans. The Swedes made the most noise to begin with but T & T's fans grew louder as the game wore on. The red card that reduced Trinidad to 10 men early in the second half seemed to galvanize the neutrals in the crowd, many of whom started joining in with a call-and-response "Trinidad... Tobago!" cheer.
- Getting out of town: Surprisingly easy again. There's an underground stop right at the stadium and they had several trains queued up to take fans back to the main train station. We hopped one of these, checked the schedule for the return trains, then went off to get some dinner while watching Argentina/Ivory Coast.
- The oddest sight of the day came on the return train to Cologne, where we were surprised to see a couple dozen Scots wearing kilts with T & T jerseys. I asked them why they were supporting Trinidad and they explained that some of T&T's players also played on their club team, Falkirk. Here's what the train sounded like on the way back (use Quicktime or use link below to download):