Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I like World Football (Soccer) better than the American style. I like it that you can see the players' faces and bodies better when they play. Plus I never understood just what the Yanks were doing; it's too confusing, but the World Football rules are easier for me to follow and the games thus more exciting.

Does anybody remeber that All Star Soccer Team Cosmos New York ? Franz Beckenbauer "The Kaiser" and Pele , the brasilian soccer god, where in that team. A short period of trying to make soccer popular in US. Serious commentators called the US league an "Operetten League"
...and Markus, how was the result of the last match between Borussia and Munich ?

xpitt wrote:...and Markus, how was the result of the last match between Borussia and Munich ?

We´ve lost again. If we are playing in Munich, we lose. As I have said before, it has been the same since 1977 or so. Isn´t that funny? I mean all these different teams with all these different players have never won in Munich and never won at home against Bochum, but they have won in Cologne most of the time. Why? You should think that all these teams are different, because the players are never the same, and yet there are some rules concerning the results in "football".

I hope our American friends do not mind if I throw in a thought, why the American public does not seem to like soccer (or "football"). In most sports, that are popular in the US, the USA is the only successful or at least the most successful nation. This is different with soccer. Soccer is played all over the world and some third world countries are very successful - such as Brasilia. It seems that the American media will not accept this. And since America has no public broadcasting (aside from some local "public" channels, that are financed by sponsorship), only unique "American" sports are popular in the USA.

I think you are right that the lack of interest in soccer in the U.S. has largely to do with the media. There is a lot of money tied up in sports events, just look at the cost of Super Bowl commercials, something like $2 million per minute. Including world-based sports might dilute the revenue stream or, at least not have to immediate following to produce the income.

These days with nice "Indian Summer" days the Oktoberfest is on again ! This coming weekend - the second- is the so called "Italian Weelend" . Loads of italian people use to come across the alps wih thousands of campervans, more on the way down the highways than dutch during summer vacation.
What I just read in a newspaper: the economic worth of this event is about 1.000 million euros; about 390 millions are spent right on the festival site, 356 millions are spent for hotels and accomodation, and about 250 millions are spent in the Munich area for food, drinks, restaurants, shopping, cabs, busses and trams.
Expected six million visitors. Last day is Oct. 3rd. Whoever wants to come here some day, let me know!
When it's over I let you know (for those interested.. ) how many liters of bavarian beer ran down those six million throats !
Ah, one last remark : A dutch brewery has started a lawsuit to brew "bavarian" beer...

Alex: Thanks for this information. It certainly sounds like a very busy time. I appreciate you taking the time to bring us up to date.

Alex has forgotten to mention that this time we (Mönchengladbach) have won the soccer game against FC Bayern München in Munich ... By the way - an Octoberfest is not an exclusive event to Munich or Bavaria, the so-called "Herbstkrimes" (autumn fair) is celebrated in all of Northern Germany every year as well.

Indeed Markus ! Your team is one out of two this season beating "Bayern", congrats ! I felt with you last season and hoped your team would stay first class, they did, the new team manager gave 'em back their inspiration, like the new "Bayern" team manager did with our team this year !
"Herbstkrimes" is a nice word creation, would spell with "c" though.... Oktoberfest faking has something to do with it...

My longest lasting memory of Oktoberfest in Munich was experiencing for the first time the rather intimidating, amazing . . . uh, uh . . . beer output facilities.

Silly me, I had always though the Yellow River was in China.

xpitt wrote:"Herbstkrimes" is a nice word creation, would spell with "c" though.... Oktoberfest faking has something to do with it...

Oh, sorry, this automatic spell correction has fooled me, I meant "Herbstkirmes", of course. Isn´t it awful that Apple and Microsoft always want to tell you, what you must have meant to say?

But you are wrong concerning the tradition of autumn fairs in Germany. This tradition is much older than the popularity of the Oktoberfest in Munich. In the Rhineland and in Northern Germany people have celebrated a "Frühjahrskirmes" (spring fair) and a "Herbstkirmes" (autumn fair) for a long time, long before they knew where Bavaria even was and long before a "German identity" existed. Nevertheless you are correct that nowadays the "Herbstkirmes" is sometimes celebrated in the Bavarian style even in villages and towns that are far outside of Bavaria, just because the "Oktoberfest" in Munich, which is nothing more than a huge "Herbstkirmes", has become popular and internationally known, now.

johnhall wrote:My longest lasting memory of Oktoberfest in Munich was experiencing for the first time the rather intimidating, amazing . . . uh, uh . . . beer output facilities.

Silly me, I had always though the Yellow River was in China.

Yes, we used to drink a lot of beer over here. But unfortunately Germans are drinking less and less of this healthy drink nowadays. We still have the second-largest consumption of beer per capita in Europe (behind Ireland), but the youth is not drinking that much beer anymore. What a pity ...