Germany do best to ignite party

SOCCER:THERE WAS a gigantic party in the centre of Berlin this weekend. Seven hundred thousand revellers danced and drank in the streets, cheering a result they had long been waiting for. Then yesterday, in the Olympic Stadium on the western fringes of town, the Women's World Cup began.

The rowdy celebrations were not to mark Germany’s 2-1 victory over Canada but to toast Christopher Street Day, Berlin’s Gay Pride, which was sweetened this year with the news that the state of New York had just legalised gay marriage. It was this jubilation that visitors to the German capital would have noticed as they strolled through the city on Saturday, rather than the small matter of a rather important international football tournament beginning the following day.

“We were expecting a party, but Mitte was dead,” said Monika Stellbogen outside the stadium yesterday, referring to Berlin’s most central district, home to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. “When we walked through town everyone looked at us as though we were aliens,” said her friend Vera Bockhoff, who, like her companion, was sporting Germany flags stuck on both cheeks, a miniature red, black and gold top hat and a home-made T-shirt showing a stiletto-clad foot kicking a ball.

“When Germany hosted the men’s World Cup in 2006, there were street parties, big screens, flags everywhere,” Stellbogen said. “But today, there was next to nothing. It’s very sad.”

“The German Football Association doesn’t give a toss about women’s football and neither does Fifa,” said Sandra Hennert, who had travelled up from Dachau in Bavaria with her football team. “There hasn’t been nearly enough promotion, nearly enough advertising.”

She may have a point: whereas the men’s World Cup in 2006 had a budget of €430 million, the women have had to get by on just €21 million.

“It just was not being taken seriously,” she said, citing a German sportsman, the Formula One driver Nico Rosberg, who last week compared the Women’s World Cup to the Paralympics. It was a competition, he said, for “people who can’t achieve quite as much, but which is exciting nonetheless for what it is.”

Just as patronising in some eyes was Fifa’s slogan for the tournament, which was billed as “The beautiful side of 2011”. Those who object to the fixation on women’s looks were also unamused this month when five of the Germany youth squad stripped off for Playboy. “Maybe I’m a bit of a prude, but I’d rather show off on the pitch,” said Martina Muller, who sat out yesterday’s game on the bench.

Despite these grumbles, there are signs that women’s football is slowly becoming more mainstream. ARD and ZDF, Germany’s two state broadcasters, had committed to broadcasting all the games live, trailing the contest with the slogan “Third place is for men” – a neat dig at Germany’s men’s team, who came third in the past two World Cups. The women’s team are the reigning world champions.

Though the first game of this tournament was actually France v Nigeria in the rather obscure town of Sinsheim in Baden-Wurttemberg (France won 1-0), the Germany match was the biggie. It sold out way in advance, with the Olympic Stadium filled to its 73,680 capacity.

Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, was in attendance, flanked by the beleaguered Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, who abandoned plans to walk on to the pitch before the game after the prospect of 70,000 football fans booing him was raised at a press conference on Saturday. Never mind his woes: the fans have not forgotten his comment in 2004 that more people would watch women’s football if the players wore “tighter shorts”.

Ten minutes into yesterday’s game Germany showed their class, with a goal from Kerstin Garefrekes. Like all of the Germany squad, the 31-year-old plays for a domestic team, in her case 1. FFC Frankfurt. A second goal came in the 42nd minute, from Celia Okoyino da Mbabi, who was making her debut for the side.

In the second half Germany continued to dominate. But they struggled to convert chances into goals – Garefrekes had the best chance to make it three after a perfect set-up from substitute Alexandra Popp, only to shoot over.

Things started to look shaky for the home side with eight minutes left when the Germany midfielder Simone Laudehr was booked for what proved to be a costly foul: Canada were awarded a free-kick and the captain, Christine Sinclair, who broke her nose earlier in the match, scored. Germany’s goalkeeper, Nadine Angerer, looked furious – in the last World Cup she did not concede a goal in the entire tournament.

Kim Kulig, another Germany midfielder, received a yellow card after a display of petulance minutes later. When the final whistle blew, Angerer had just stopped the Canadians from making it 2-2. She threw herself to the ground, hugging the ball, and the stadium erupted in relief.

Yesterday’s results

Group A – Nigeria 0 France 1; Germany 2 Canada 1.

Today’s games – Group B – Japan v New Zealand, 2pm; Mexico v England, 5pm (both games live on Eurosport).