Strong support
July 9, 2011
In Europe, the epicenter of men's soccer, it's difficult to fill up stadiums when the world's best women play the beautiful game. This year's Champions League final between Turbine Potsdam and victors Olympique Lyon at Craven Cottage in London - the biggest game in all of women's club football - attracted a frankly meager 14,303 spectators, despite various attempts to induce more ticket sales. Barely half the seats in one of the smallest Premiership stadiums were filled.
Regardless of who ultimately wins, the quality of play in the knockout phase matches and whether any referee inexplicably misses another of the most flagrant handballs you could possibly envisage (remember Australia vs. Equatorial Guinea?), FIFA and the German Football Federation can already claim a major success where attendance is concerned.
The tournament-opener in Berlin, when Germany and Canada squared off in front of a European-record crowd of 73,680 supporters, understandably garnered the attendance headlines. But this was no flash in the pan.
Playing with a 12th lady
As host nation, defending champion and a heavily fancied option to win a third consecutive World Cup, Germany obviously enjoys the most packed stadiums - and the loudest support.
Even their third group match against France on July 5 in Mönchengladbach - a game that had very little riding on it as both sides were already guaranteed a quarterfinal berth - drew a capacity crowd of 45,867 at the Borussiapark stadium.
There were even French fans at the stadium, albeit outnumbered at least 10 to one.
"It's really nice to see how soccer, women's football, is appreciated here," Sophie from Strasbourg said after a hard-fought 4-2 defeat with 5 yellow cards and a sending off for French keeper Berangere Sapowicz. "I hope we can have that some day in France."
Of course German fans, young and old, were in the clear majority, often visiting for a family outing rather than the boozy lads' day out often associated with the men's game.
"It's my first ever Women's World Cup match, though I did go to Dortmund in 2006 for the men's World Cup," said Dirk Simon from nearby Leverkusen at halftime. "It's just a little bit slower, but easier to follow from the stands."
Dirk said the Germans would at least reach the semifinal, his young daughter said they would win it all: "Germany! They are very good."
Neutral matches still drawing fans
Even when the home favorites aren't involved, Germans are still flocking to the games. An exasperated security attendant in Wolfsburg greeted one fan decked out in the star spangled banner in English ahead of Wednesday's match between the US and Sweden, only to receive a response in perfect German.
"It's a nightmare! I've got no idea what language I should be trying to speak," he confided while checking Deutsche Welle's audio recording equipment for anything untoward.
Another German at Wolfsburg's Volkswagen Arena said he had shared a campsite with Swedish fans close to the stadium the previous evening, and had been given a spare yellow national jersey and a pair of neat Swedish flags, face-painted on either cheek by his newfound friends. He described himself as "Germany's biggest Sweden fan."
Exactly 23,468 people, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, were in Wolfsburg for this "neutral" game, a figure that is not far adrift of Wolfsburg's average Bundesliga attendance at the stadium this past season. Barely 2,500 seats were empty.
Several pockets of striking Swedish yellow shone out in the crowd. One father had driven nine hours to Wolfsburg with his family for a single match, and was set to return the next morning for work. Bus-loads of other fans flocked out of the stadium together singing after their somewhat surprising 2-1 win over the US, with three guys chanting a different verse rather more loudly than the rest. After being asked for a translation, the second to speak offered a more censor-friendly option than his less diplomatic buddy: "Everyone who's not jumping up and down is from America." Apparently it's a generic chant where fans make up an (often mildly rude) ending to fit a given game.
Going the distance
Many of the long-distance fans have close ties to the sport. Several Swedish players came over to their pockets of supporters after the game for long discussions and embraces that appeared far more than polite chit-chat with fans. As for visiting US supporters, former player and now administrative official Ann Durham and Rita Cheney, the mother of current US forward Lisa Cheney, were among their ranks.
"We're going to go see her after the game; give her a hug, brush this one aside and move on," Cheney said shortly after the 2-1 defeat. "It's very scary to have to think about Brazil, but we've played them before and we can beat 'em, we just have to play our game."
Cheney and Durham will both be in Dresden to watch the US quarterfinal against Brazil, but crucially for the success and profitability of the tournament, tens of thousands of Germans are sure to join them too.
Author: Mark Hallam, Mönchengladbach and Wolfsburg
Editor: Toma Tasovac