Bremen With Hope

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Sunday afternoon. Not any ordinary Sunday afternoon but a Six Nations Sunday afternoon. Not just any Six Nations Sunday afternoon but the first match this weekend where Wales are playing. And what this all means is that the wife is out of the house and watching the game between Wales and Italy with "the girls". I and my daughter (who considers rugby "too violent") are at home.

Of course after the events of Saturday I wouldn't have gone out anyway. Was feeling a lot better. Not a hundred percent but enough to know that my vazovagal fear has long since gone. Still to be on the safe side a trip out in the getting increasingly cold weather was best left for another day, that day depending on the weather being next Saturday when the Welsh play England.

I might have spent the afternoon joining most of the rest of Wales and watched the game. Or ploughing through my Pobol Y Cwm recordings (moving to the beginning of December - they are being gone through at last). But instead decided to watch Werder Bremen, the Bundesliga team I follow.

Clearly an explanation to my choice of team is required at this moment. After all it's not closest to where I was born (West Ham) or the closest Serie A team to where my Italian relatives live (Fiorentina) or even that I bought a travel bag in Paris during my honeymoon years before the team become the dominant force in French football (Paris St Germain). Indeed I've never been to Germany in my life let alone Bremen (and the way the exchange rate seems to be going at the moment it looks as if I need to negotiate a loan just to buy lunch there).

No the reason I support Werder Bremen is that many (and I mean many) years ago I walked into the Nike store (no longer there) in the Macarthur Glen outlet store and saw this tasteful number on sale for just six pounds.

Radioactive Orange is the new Black

I have many years later bought a Bayern Munich shirt for my small haphazard collection. But it doesn't matter, this shirt was the first Bundesliga one I've ever bought so unless they ever play West Ham (I want them beaten) or the other teams in foreign leagues I follow (neutral) I'm one hundred percent Bremenite. I suppose I'm unique in supporting Bremen in this way. You could say I'm a Werder Original (sorry couldn't resist).

Indeed no one could accuse me of being a glory hunter by following Bremen. In the last couple of seasons they've hovered precariously on the cliff edge of relegation and this time is no different. Before the game they were just above the drop zone. They had lost the first two games of this year having been unlucky in facing not just Bayern Munich but Borussia Dortmund. The team had by all accounts been playing well. But unfortunately playing well in football is no substitute to winning.

The team they were playing against was Augsburg. Also in the lower half of the league but in a better position than Bremen. So it was a game that the team I supported needed to win if only to provide more impetus for the battles ahead in the rest of the season.

So the match began. The shirt was worn. The drink and food was ready.

A West Ham mug by the way

A quick aside. Nestle: The Blue Riband biscuit has shrunk to such an extent that it's only slightly bigger than my finger. You have to eat more than one of them to be satisfied and then you're accused of being greedy. Come on now.

It was a lively match. Early on Augsburg missed two chances because their striker had a sudden amnesiac attack and had forgotten how to head a ball. But gradually Bremen took control of the game and Selassie scored.

So then dancing in the streets....for all of two minutes given that was all it took for the home team to equalise. That's how it stayed at half time. In the second half Kruse scored for Bremen from the penalty spot, Kruse control if you will. However Augsburg equalised with about ten minutes to spare.

A draw then....a disappointment but not a disaster.

Then, in the last extra time minute of the match......disaster.

From a cross the Augsburg player was able to stick his leg out despite a defender nearby to score a late,very late, winner. It was as if someone had wrenched your heart from the body.

Football can be very cruel. Particularly for those teams battling to avoid the drop. Still whilst there is life there is still hope and the players of Werder Bremen showed a fighting spirit that's encouraging. Even to a follower far away in Wales like myself.

Until the next time.

In Which Amongst The Gloom There's Always Football And Why Breaking In a New Shirt Reminds Me To Make a Belated Apology To Denmark

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So I wake up at 6:09am in the morning and as I turn the TV on I discover the beginnings of a Labour party coup where senior figures start to turn on their leader and resign from their opposition posts. An incompetently handled Labour coup from people who rather start a civil war than try to deal with the disunited kingdom that the referendum has produced. And you wonder why as an Englishman decided to join Plaid Cymru.

But anyway. There's always the football. Let's forget about the Euro referendum and watch Euro 2016 instead......oh.

A quick note about England's match tomorrow against Iceland. The most ironic thing about that game is that even if the English fans acted like choirboys Europe will still want them beaten by Iceland even though it's not in the EU. Football can throw things like that up sometimes.

Anyway there were three matches to watch and was looking forward to doing this marathon having missed yesterday's games and knowing I'd miss tomorrow's ones because of work.

First turned out to be Republic of  Ireland vs France. A match that apparently the Observer Book of cliches was acting as co-commentator on ITV. The commentary had even more bizarre moments. After he took a free kick we were informed that Pogba "has powerful thighs". For a moment there I thought I was watching a different sort of channel. The sort which broadcasts after midnight and needs a pin number to watch it......or so I'm told.

It went surreal. Discussing the Irish (and West Ham reserve) goalkeeper the commentary said "Darren Randolph's left hand upright"......whatever that means.

The Republic scored first, with a penalty from a foul that was so obvious no French player argued with the referee.

Unfortunately for the Irish in the second  half France reacted with two quick goals and a sending off . A French victory then. And you know what? I wanted France to win. Because we all know that had they lost the Daily Mail and definitely The Sun would have used the headline FREXIT.

So to the next game Germany Slovakia. This was the only game where I had a football shirt in my collection to wear for the first time. It was this.

Germany

As you know by now I'm not the sort of collector that gets something and hides it away forever more. If I collected toy trains they wouldn't be kept in a box. They'd be used as nature and Mr Hornby intended. So as I had a shirt for Germany wear it I did. Of course this was the reason why they beat Slovakia 3-0 in a match that seemed more of a training session than a competitive game. They don't have to thank me.

The final match was Belgium Hungary. Belgium won 4-0 but they only really were dominant in the latter stages of the second half. They now face Wales as favourites. Which I think for Wales is a good thing as the hopes of a nation but not the pressure of expectation will be on them.

One more thing. Hungary had a player called Pinter. Who I assumed played cultured football and was the caretaker of their defence. Hope there wasn't a drama when he got substituted.

Wearing the shirt of a team in my collection has never seemed to effect the performance of the team in question. With one exception. That of Denmark.

I had bought this shirt in I think 2008 for £10. Promptly it was put onto a hanger and then to the wardrobe never to see the light of day again.......until 2010.

I rather like this shirt. It's simple,unfussy and has the colours of the Danish flag on it. You don't get the feeling that it has been given to a designer who was on drugs the night before.

Denmark

Anyway as I said we fast forward to 2010. It's the World Cup in South Africa. The last matches are being held in group stage of the tournament. Denmark are facing Japan. For the first time since it was bought it there's a logical opportunity for wearing the shirt and that's what was done.

Well, not wishing to appear pompous and patronising let me say that I have of course seen Asian teams beat European sides before and after this particular game. But it was the first match that I'd ever seen where the Asian side dominated almost from start to finish. Japan won by three goals to one, The Danish goal being a a late penalty scored I think by John Arne Thomasson.

So clearly the reason for this defeat was that I, whose closeness to Denmark recently was when we visited Legoland in Windsor a few years back wore the shirt. Somehow I'd cursed them. So the shirt wasn't worn again.....until last year.

Denmark were playing Portugal in a qualifying game for Euro 2016. As I recall both sides needed a win to be assured of coming to France. It was a dull game it has to be said. Portugal did not dominate the Danes in the way that Japan had all those years earlier. Yet the curse came back to haunt me again. For although Denmark only lost by one goal to nil, that goal at no stage in the play was touched by Ronaldo. A Portuguese goal where Ronaldo's not involved? Surely not? But that is what happened and obviously I was responsible.

So people of Denmark I'm sorry. I'll try not to do it again. Honest.

Until the next time.