Berlin

Ground: Olympiastadion

Visits: 2

Date: 16th May 1987

Match: Blau-Weiss Berlin - FC Köln 1-1 (Bundesliga)

Attendance: 9 189

Date: 30th June 2006

Match: Germany - Argentina 5-3 after penalties, 1-1 at full time (FIFA World Cup 2006)

Attendance: 72 000

Olympiastadion in Berlin was built for the 1936 Olympics and back then the capacity was more than 100 000. For the 2006 FIFA World Cup the stadium was rebuilt and modernised and nowdays the all-seated stadium has a capacity of 76 000. My first visit to Berlin and Olympiastadion was in 1987 when I was on a school trip to Berlin. To enter and travel through East Germany (and get a lot of stamps in your passport!) was of course exciting for a teenager. Going to East Berlin via the famous Checkpoint Charlie crossing was another highlight but as someone who had already developed a huge interest in sports I was looking forward to visit the old Olympic Stadium. It was here Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics and Hitler refused to shake the hand of a black athlete. This is one the the biggest sporting moments of all time and it was a very special feeling to be inside a stadium with so much history. We went on a guided tour and the next day I went back for a Bundesliga match as well.

When I returned to Berlin 19 years later a lot had changed, no East Germany and above all the Berlin Wall was no more. It was one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had in my life when I visited the old Checkpoint Charlie crossing, saw the tourists and remembered what it was like in 1987 when we crossed here. For this World Cup quarterfinal I arrived in Berlin with the night train from Malmö and since that train was in Berlin 6am I knew I had a long day in front of me. The visit to Checkpoint Charlie was one of several stops on a bus tour you could make. There was around 20 stops and you could leave and board buses when it suited you, hop and go. The match I was going to attend was Germany against Argentina and you couldn´t had wished for a bigger game than this. When I came to Olympiastadion three hours before kick-off there was already thousands of people there and when it was time for kick-off the atmosphere was electric. To hear around 60 000 Germans sing the national anthem was a breath taking experience and through out the game the home fans gave their side an excellent support. Argentina took the lead and were the better team but they made the classic mistake and stopped playing. 10 minutes before full time Germany equalised and forced the game to extra-time. No goals meant a penalty shoot-out. As a neutral this was what I wanted, a classic game with a dramatic finish. Germany are probably the best country in the world when it comes to penalties and this game was no to be an excpetion. Germany won the shoot-out 4-2 and progressed to the semis. My train back to Sweden was another night train meaning I had a couple of hours to spend at Berlin Hauptbahnhof but this was never going to be boring. The fans kept on singing and chanting and the atmosphere inside this huge train station will probaly never be as good again!

This was my sixth and last match of this World Cup and it had for sure been some of the most memorable days of my life, the fans and other people you meet during trips like this is what makes the World Cup in football and hopefully I will

be given the chance to see many more matches in a major tournament.

argentina fans