I would lick that candycane jersey right off Bastian

[exsequar]

As posted by crediniaeth, a meme!

- Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper on their LiveJournal.
- Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
- Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on.



Tada! German fussball team! Who's shocked? Anyone? Bueller? :) But if you guessed shirtless Bastian, well, I'm afraid my computer is being classier than that right now. *g* Honestly, I originally put this background up because I needed something innocuous for when I took my computer to IT, and a massive closeup of Basti and Poldi's faces didn't seem appropriate. But then I found the look of this one to be so classic, so beautiful, that I just kept it around! It captures such a gorgeous moment - just a team, together, dressed all the same, conferring in an echoing, empty stadium. Flood lights are on, almost surreal above the array of empty seats. It feels like such an uncommonly quiet moment - in a sport surrounded by so much hubbub, fan and media attention, this moment for the team to just be team is really touching and powerful to me. (Does anyone know anything about this photo? Photographer, location, time?)

Well that was at least 5 sentences, right? Take that, demanding meme! *g*

I really have been able to think of nothing but football (soccer...) recently. I honestly thought that after the World Cup I would sigh sadly and go back to my normal, football-less life, BUT NO. Bastian Schweinsteiger put his beautiful, strong hands around my heart and refused to let go. Honestly, I'm not complaining! *____*

Yesterday, Bayern München had its first game of the season with anything resembling its A-team! And it was the SUPERCUP! I watched it using a variety of crappy, pixellated feeds with German, Spanish, fuzzy English or no commentaries, AND IT WAS SO FUN! I figured I should document my first experience with a Bayern match, so come on behind the cut if you care at ALL! So Bayern faced FC Schalke 04, a team that I am entirely unfamiliar with except for the beautiful Manuel Neuer, the national team's marvelous young goalie for the 2010 World Cup. This was the rejuvenation of the Supercup, which hasn't been played for... 14 years, I think. The winner of the Bundesliga and the DFB Pokal are supposed to face each other, but because Bayern won both (<3333) they faced the runners-up in the Bundesliga.

Bayern itself had a fantastic lineup which I was already half-familiar with, and included my VERY FAVORITES. When I saw that Bastian was starting I genuinely SQUEALED, and then when he led a small child on who seemed to be walking very slowly so that Bastian had to keep looking back and gently tugging on his hand? Omg I think my ovaries exploded.


(Gifs thanks to accioaiko at bayernmunich!)

The lineup was: Kraft - Lahm(♥♥♥) Demichelis Badstuber Contento - SCHWEINSTEIGER Pranjic - Mülllller Olic Altintop - Klose!! So almost half the lineup was my World Cup babies and I was so so happy to see all of them. I didn't realize quite how much I missed their darling faces, sigh. It still wasn't quite Bayern's full complement, missing the very key figures of Van Bommel, Ribery, and Robben (who is out for 2 months, sigh), but it was still much more similar to the beloved Bayern than we've seen recently. I was amazed all the WC boys were playing so soon, even though they all started training Monday, but I had no complaints!

So the first half was really not a great game, but I was so excited to be watching Bayern at all that I didn't even care. Mostly I kept looking for Bastian and his taped wrists and sighing fondly. I also made complete flaily hands every time Lahm executed his signature gorgeous tackle from behind that only gets the ball and never fouls the player - STUNNING. Lahm never fails to make me weak at the knees with his tiny dynamic speed and talent, unf. I also was entertained by live-Tweeting with my #ger girls and then later live-blogging with other fans at my favorite Bayern blog, Bayern Offside. It's run by this great guy named Luke who's amusingly from Chicago, and I learned some interesting things by chatting with the handful of people in the liveblog. I mentioned that I thought Lahm was playing well, and someone named Juliet said that he always plays so well that he's easy to overlook, and if someone has a Lahm Bayern jersey you know they're a real fan - I said that I had a Lahm national team jersey and she gave me a high five, hee. That made me feel really good - I'm a "real" fan who appreciates players for their talent! \o/ (I feel this reasonably balances out my tendency to faint at the mere mention of Bastian Schweinsteiger and frequently declare my desire to bang him like a screen door in a hurricane. :D) Anyway, THE GAME. The only very good chance of the half was Bastian hammering a shot in (nnngh) but it was deflected by NEUER! Curse you, duckie! Curse you being so wonderful and lovable and talented! It was very conflicting to love the opposing goalie, let me tell you. :P The rest of the half was pretty unremarkable - Bayern had most of the possession but Schalke put enough pressure to keep them from really doing much with it.

The second half was much more exciting! Klose had an amazing chance - he beat Neuer but was defeated by the post! About 15 minutes in, Bastian was sadly substituted out, but I suppose he deserves some rest. The following is my live-Tweeting for the next few minutes of the game - I seriously apologize to anyone who follows me on Twitter but couldn't give a fuck about football, haha. If it annoys you, unfollow me now, before the season starts, I'm just sayin.' (I also just realized that I call everyone from Lahm to Neuer "bb" in this series of tweets - um, oops? It's affectionate! /o\)



Many important events in those few minutes! Demichelis got a bad knock to his ankle, and they were treating him after the game - hopefully he's okay. Lahm did make a GORGEOUS attacking run, getting almost all the way down to the end line and blasting a cross in front of the goal - he almost got it to Klose but Neuer made an incredible diving block. He's really amazing, dammit. AND THEN BB MÜLLER SCORED!!!! Klose did this really cool/lucky little push of the ball right over Neuer, batted it over to Müller who buried it in the back of the net! YAY! The World Cup stars STRIKE AGAIN! I was so happy to see Klose playing a role in the first goal. :')



Then Holger disagreed with the ref and threw a hilarious hissyfit - I am so entertained by him. Childish? Yes. Delightful? Also yes!



Only a few minutes later, Klose actually SCORED!!! I was so happy! But the goal itself was really all Olic's doing - he made a gorgeous run around the defense and then crossed it for an easy finish by Klose. Still, that's what Klose's amazing at - being in the right place at the right time to change that ball's direction right into the net! He's got an amazing striker's instincts. So that was really satisfying. I hope that this is a sign of things to come, that Klose will maintain his wonderful WC form for Bayern this year.

Then the game was over and BAYERN WON THE SUPERCUP! YAAAAAY! This means that in my very first time ever watching Bayern, I got to watch them lift a trophy! LOL. I think this is a pretty common occurrence as a Bayern fan, I might as well get some experience. ;) Lahm was so adorable lifting the trophy - they all did this super cute coordinated WHEE move, and it looks like Klose was the orchestrator, heehee.



And then I got to see Bastian lift a trophy, and it was so bittersweet because THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE WORLD CUP, DAMMIT, but it was still pretty cool. :)



I must say that over the course of this game, the candycane jerseys totally grew on me. It helps that the back is solid red so it's not overwhelmingly stripey. It helps EVEN MORE that Bastian and Lahm were wearing it, and I am stupidly easy for both of them, haha. I should totally have seen that coming.

So in conclusion, YAY BAYERN!!!!!! It was certainly an excellent way to begin my time as a Bayern fan! \o/ I'm already very fond of the entire team, and I can tell this is going to be so much fun. I'm really really excited about the Bayern-Real Madrid (!!!) game next Friday - hoping for my boys to get some revenge against the Spain dudes. (Yes - I'm still bitter. Especially since it was BOTH the Euro and the WC, grr.) It would do my heart so much good to see Bastian triumph over Sergio Ramos and co. (Sorry, Spain girls. We know where my loyalties lie!)

So an awesome side benefit of this whole new footie obsession is that I've reconnected with an old, dear friend of mine, novafairy! She was one of my FIRST LJ friends, way back in 2005 in the Queer as Folk fandom! It's not that we've ever fully gotten out of touch, but we've both been very busy girls and didn't really have a fandom in common. But she's German and a huge Bayern fan, so this is a really great thing that we now share! I love you Steffi! <333 We're already discussing plans for me to go over and visit, tentatively for September 2011 during which there will be Bundesliga, international, and all other kinds of fun games! She lives near Munich so we could even go watch Bayern train, and I could possibly tell Bastian how much his American fan loves him. *g* Of course it would also just be marvelous to finally meet her, but we could have SO much fun with the football. Whee!

Oh man I can't believe I just wasted an hour making this post. I spent all of today in my lab, doing one experiment but also trying to put together my presentation of my research for tomorrow morning. I was woefully unsuccessful in the latter goal, and still have quite a bit to do, including going back into lab to do the last step of my experiment. Yes, it's 11 PM. *facepalm* Sometimes my procrastination astounds me.

OH ONE MORE THING! Last night, I went out drinking with friends for the first time in a MONTH - much needed, let me tell you. This included a neat whiskey from a local distillery, nnngh it was so good, but also made me very drunk very fast. :P Anyway, while we were out and having a blast, I saw a guy in a - wait for it - BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER NATIONAL TEAM AWAY 2010 JERSEY. Oh my GOD. If you asked me what my favorite jersey in the entire world is, THAT WOULD BE EXACTLY IT. What are the odds?? Especially since they're not selling the away jerseys in America yet! He had to order it from Europe or a replica from Asia (like I did!). Now THAT'S dedication. I totally would have stalked him down and told him how awesome he was, but when I found him he was on a date with a girl and I didn't want to interrupt. It was still super awesome though. As was the rest of the night, including when we went to a German bar and drank a boot and sat at a table decorated with a panel on the wall that said München! Hee!

OKAY I'm going to go be productive now! I am such a failboat. I really did want to document this though. While I love Twitter and the immediacy of it, I hate that it is not recorded in any permanent way, so while I have to force myself to make LJ posts, I really want to do it to have an ongoing record of my life still. I am sorry that I've been so MIA - I'm unbelievably behind on my flist. :( Tell me if something astounding happened in your lives? ♥

Comments

[fandomonymous.livejournal.com]

SOME THINGS.

1) I will actually do this meme, and reveal my fiance's name in the process. Wait for it!

2) Supercup was so much fun! I found one place consistently doing the GolTV stream, and while it was a minute behind, it was great anyway because I practiced my Spanish and I LOVE Spanish commentators.

3) LAHM WAS AMAZING, UNF. Seriously, marriage did good things to his form, haha. Holger was hilarious, of course. My favorite person on that pitch that day though was definitely Miro - his assist was just perfect (distracting Duckie *and* getting the very neat pass in all at once), and his goal was great too, of course.

4) I look forward to your picspams and stalking reports next year. XD You guys will have so much fun!!

5) Jersey stuff - there is a local soccer shop in my town which is half fan gear and half player gear. It's partially run by foreigners (I think one of the managers used to work at Manchester United) so they may import their stuff, but I DEFINITELY saw legitimate away Germany kits, priced in US Dollars. And I believe they're a legitimate seller, too, as when I complained about the price, the guy behind the counter sympathized but couldn't do anything. (I believe Adidas, Nike, Puma, etc do not let official sellers lower the price on the kits.) Now, I don't know if they're capable of putting the names on the back (all I saw were blanks), but still. If the US wins one of the bids in December, I am going in and buying said away kit, plus the Miss America USA away, because YES. They also had the Bayern home kit - I wasn't that impressed up close, to be honest. The white stripes are like a layered mesh material, not flat white (similar to the side panels on the 2006 Bayern home kit) and I HATE the advertisment slapped on in silkscreen. Then again, I hate silkscreening in general on kits, so I usually don't even bother with club kits. *shrugs*

Good luck on your presentation!!

I have posted a ridiculously long and extensive Mannschaft rec list on my journal, posted a while back complaining about my fiance leaving and my views on the captaincy, and am planning to post later with more stuff I'm up to, but otherwise you haven't missed anything from me.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

1) I'm waitin! ;)

2) I found the golTV stream on Veetle but dear god the sound quality was atrocious, I just couldn't take it. (Also, are there two GolTVs? The one I was watching had a commentator speaking English.) I ended up finding a stream without commentary that was smooth and reliable and I really really liked that one.

3) LAAAAAHM. Thanks Claudia! Whatever you're doin, keep it up. ;) And MIROOOOO! ♥

4) Heehee, I really hope it actually happens! It's nothing more than a dream right now!

5) Oooooh, I'm jealous! I wonder if that guy got his jersey somewhere like that. I really wish I had gotten to talk to him, if only to find out if there's some easier way to get Germany kits around here! Bah! I know exactly what you mean about club kits though, and it's quite a bummer. Well, I'm getting my Bastian NT jersey for my birthday, so that should be enough to keep me satisfied for a while. ;)

Thank you! It's in 2 hours and kind of but not really complete? *hands*

I think I'm reasonably up to date with you - you're on my Fussball filter and that's the only one I've read much at all, haha. I am a terrible person, sigh.

[fandomonymous.livejournal.com]

(I just realized I stopped numbering after a while. *falls over*)

There are two GolTVs, but the main one is in Spanish. Mine was good quality but others were complaining about it, so who knows? *shrugs* Streams are weird things. I really wish my cable company and ESPN could come to an agreement, so I could finally get ESPN3 and just watch the Bundesliga main matches that way.

That shop is AMAZING. It's tiny and a little out there (relative to where I am) but man, was I lusting for things in there - not only did they have a good national kit selection + Bayern, they had all four of the EPL Big Clubs and Real Madrid and - get this - not only kits, but SCARVES. Scarves to match each team they had! Yesss! I am saving up all my money this semester and giving myself a "World Cup Awesomeness Fund": if the US gets the bid, I will go on a SHOPPING SPREE and it will be great. And then I will save for the next eight/twelve years for tickets and transport, haha.

I'm sure you'll do fine on your presentation. ♥

XD Thanks for keeping up with me. That rec list post is turning out to be a massive project, though, nearly as ridiculous as writing fic itself. Just when I think I've covered a lot of bases, something new pops in! XD