Duisberg

   After an incredible win against the first place team last week, we managed to lose 1-0 to Duisberg, who is currently in 9th place. We are still in third place, but that loss makes it virtually impossible for us to move up to the first league, especially since Gutersloh won yesterday. The game was a huge disappointment. We couldn't manage to get much going in the offense, and they scored their only goal on a free kick. After the game you could feel a shift in our entire team's attitude. Everyone knew the significance of what losing meant, and we only had ourselves to blame. Now we have to focus on trying to win our final 3 games. Our next game is home against Bremen on Sunday. All we can do is learn from our game yesterday and finish out the season with three more wins.

Turbine Potsdam

We did it! We beat Turbine Potsdam, the first place team in our league. We prepared all week and got the results we wanted. We even had help from the assistant coach of the men's team and the coach of one of the boy's youth teams in the club. Both played a huge part in our teams' success. They will continue to help us while we are still in the race for first place. The three points we gained from winning will be crucial as our season comes to an end. We have four games left and are still 3 points behind the top two teams. The top two teams are Gutersloh and Potsdam who are tied with 42 points. The unfortunate thing is that Gutersloh's final games are with teams that are in the bottom of the table. All we can do is just hope they tie or lose, and we can do our part by winning the rest of our games. Despite that news the Gutersloh won their game on Sunday too, it was still a huge victory for our team to beat Potsdam. We celebrated by having a party at the Austrian girls' apartment. There was plenty of Jagermeister and Beck's to go around while German schlager music, or popular German songs you can sing to, played in the background. Winning that game helped remind us to still have hope and to continue the fight for first place.

Vienna, Austria

   One of the best things about living in Germany is that I get to travel around Europe. The weekend of April 1st we didn't have a game, so my roommate and I went to visit Vienna, Austria, or as we call it in Germany: Wien, Österreich. Our flight left on Thursday from Hannover at 7 in the morning. That meant that we needed to take the 10 p.m train from Cloppenburg that got us into Hannover at 1 a.m. because any other train would have gotten us there too late. So we pretty much spent the night in the airport, and proceeded to sleep on the plane to Vienna and then even on the bus ride into the actual Vienna city center. Needless to say it was a long night and after a long day of sightseeing on Thursday, we both fell asleep at 8 p.m. The next morning we went on a wine tour to the Wachau Valley. The valley is about an hour outside of Vienna and has the Danube River running through it. I think the wine tour was my favorite part of the trip. We biked through vineyards, tasted the local white wines and even hiked up to a partially destroyed castle. We got back Friday evening and decided to bar hop to some bars our native Vienna teammates recommended under the U-Bahn, or the Metro system. There were so many different types of people and a wide variation of music. On Saturday we explored the city and the major tourist sites, including the Schonbrunn Palace and State Opera House. At night went to some clubs in the Stephansplatz area which seemed to be a place where young working adults went out. Our trip ended on Sunday, but not before we tried some authentic wiener schnitzel at the famous Schweizerhaus. Schnitzel is my favorite food in Germany so I was pretty excited to try it in Austria. The main differences between the schnitzel in Germany and in Austria is that in Germany the schnitzel is made from pig and generally served with a ketchup, mushroom, cheese, or onion based sauce. In Austria, the schnitzel is made from veal and is cooked thin and crispy with fresh lemon. The schnitzel, combined with golden french fries and Austrian beer was the perfect way to end our trip in Vienna. It was such an amazing city and had such friendly people. I definitely want to try to make another trip to Austria sometime soon. 

Austrian Beer 

Schnitzel from the Schweizerhaus

      

Biking through the vineyards in the Wachau Valley.

Ruins of the Durnstein Castle 

Schonbrunn Palace

View of the Wachau valley from our hike to the castle ruins. 

This was one of our stops on the tour. We tasted the homemade chocolate and  Apricot liquor. 

We passed through about 4 different little towns on our tour. 

More of the vineyards in the valley. The Danube River runs along the other side. The bike trails along the river are major paths that people use when going on bike tours throughout Austria and even to other countries. 

We didn't see any grocery stores or major buildings in the towns, but we did ride pass this soccer field.  There is literally nothing else around except a few houses and the vineyards. 

A cathedral we saw while sightseeing. 

Easter Weekend Match

          Easter in Germany is pretty much celebrated the same as in America, except that here they call it Ostern and both Friday and Monday are national holidays. They have Easter egg hunts, lots of candy, and normally a big party on Saturday night. I only participated in the candy eating part because we had a game on Monday. Our game was in Jena so we drove about 7 hours on Sunday to get to the hotel around 8 p.m. Our hotel was a Best Western and even had a partially American style breakfast complete with bacon, sausage, eggs, and hash browns, which are hard to come by at a typical German breakfast. We didn't stay for long, though, because our game was at 11 a.m. In our pregame talk I learned that I would be man-marking not only Jena's top scorer, but one of the top scorer's in the league. Right from the beginning our team came out strong. We fought for every ball and completed many long pass sequences. We scored right before the half ended, and carried that momentum into the second half. Jena didn't have many chances offensively, and after we scored the second goal, any hope they had of winning seemed to deflate out of them. We celebrated our win by passing around a bottle of Jager on the bus and drinking German beer. I can tell you that the ride back to Cloppenburg was much more enjoyable than the ride there. 

          Now our next challenge, and quite possibly one of our most important games is against Potsdam. They are currently in first place, and with good reason. Our first encounter with them did not turn out so well and we lost 5-0. But now we will be playing them on our home field and this time we know we have a lot more to lose if we don't win. This week will be all about preparing for Sunday and hopefully our hard work will pay off and we will get the results we need. 

Easter Market in Vienna

There were dozens of crates filled with intricately decorated Easter  eggs.

Another Easter Market in Vienna near the Schonbrunn Palace. 

Fahrrad Fahren

While being injured for 2 weeks, I was limited to riding my bike around the city and in the gym for exercise. While driving my bike, or in German, fahrrad fahren, I would ride around paths through the city. Since I have lived in Germany for a little over a year, I sometimes forget that I am in another country because you just get used to every day life here. But when I ride my bike through some of the paths in the country, it really reminds me that I am living in a small country town in Germany. 

The Tie

Last Sunday was our game against SV Meppen. The outcome was disappointing to say the least. We ended up tying Meppen, and therefore accumulating only one point, at a time when every point is crucial. It was especially hard because I had to sit in the stands and watch due to my ankle injury. It was difficult having to sit there and not being able to do anything to help our team. But that is only a slight bump in the road on our way to moving up in the league. This past weekend was free, and now we will play Jena this upcoming weekend. Jena, Germany is about 500 kilometers away, which is about 5 hours driving, probably longer in the charter bus we are taking. Whenever we ask a German person how far away a place is, they always give us the answer in kilometers, even if it is just down the road. In America, I always say that something is about 4 hours away, or a 5 minute drive. We think that the reason they give us the answer in kilometers is because they have the Autobahn and how fast you get to a place varies on how fast you drive. Since it is so far away, we will be leaving on Sunday, playing on Monday, and driving back after the game. It is very important that win the rest of our games and get the most points that we can.