Friday Shuffle - All German Edition

To celebrate the end of the Bundesliga winter break. And to celebrate Bayern-München kicking Mönchengladbach's butt in their own stadium.

1. Am Fenster - City
2. Jesus - Marius Müller-Westernhagen
3. Alt wie ein Baum - Puhdys
4. Über sieben Brücke - Peter Maffay
   
5. Leb den Tag - Laith Al-Deen
6. Alkohol - Herbert Grönemeyer
   
7. Geh zu ihr - Puhdys
8. Sterne - Juli
9. Wenn du schläfst - Söhne Mannheims
10. Mensch - Herbert Grönemeyer

Let me guess. You English only speakers can figure out only "Jesus" and "Alkohol", right? Some things are truly international.

The winter Olympics are starting soon and it puts me in that weird position I find myself in when I'm watching international sporting events. Most of me wants to cheer for the United States but there's a fair portion of me that wants to cheer for Germany. I feel a bit like a traitor for not being fully behind my mother country but there are some events where Germans tend to perform better than the USA so I tend to lend my support to Germany. While I'd like to get behind Team USA, when it comes to events like biathlon or luge or bobsled, forget it. Still both countries perform well in both summer and winter Olympics and I go ahead and take pride in both coutries. It feels pretty win-win to me.

International soccer is worse. World Cup time rolls around that that's when I really begin to feel disloyal. I want to get fully behind the US. I really do. I watch every one of the games they play and I yell as loudly as I can when they score and when they win and feel bitter disappointment when they lose with one exception.

I confess that when the US plays Germany, I hope the US loses. There. I said it. I suppose I should just turn in my passport now because it's true.

It's not that I don't love my homeland. It's not because I don't think the US has a good soccer team. It's not that I don't think the US deserves to win. Well - that's not exactly true. Maybe they deserve to win but let's be honest - winning soccer matches just isn't important to most Americans. Most Americans don't know dick about soccer, couldn't care less, don't know what the World Cup is, couldn't name any top national teams and don't know the names of their own national team's players. The opposite is true in Germany. Even if you're not normally a regular fan of the sport you can't help but get a little interested when it's time for the European championship or the World Cup and even my MIL knows who Oliver Kahn is. It's the most important sport in Germany and it is truly a big deal if Germany does well or not. Bottom line, it's just more important that Germany wins any match over the USA simply because it means more to the people of Germany than it means to the people of the US.

So my fellow Americans, please don't hate me when I secretly hope that the US doesn't make it out of the opening round of the World Cup. Y'all don't really give a rat's ass about it anyway and it keeps me from having to endure the painful possibility of the US and Germany meeting up in a later match.

Homeland Security's gonna stop me at the border about this, aren't they?