Tearing Up the Turf BTV Style

After waiting over four months, I finally got to play in my first German soccer match. Woo!!! I've been training with this team since October and it's been great. However, a real game complete with referee and uniforms is another kind of playing. And we won, which made it all the sweeter. 

Feast your eyes on my *official German player's card*

Due to bureaucratic details, it's taken quite a while to get my Spielpass (aka player's card) which gives the okay to participate in games. Although today was just a friendly match, it was exciting to finally see that little green card. 

A la Bend It Like Beckham!

On the way to the game I was chatting with one of my teammates about women's soccer in Germany. To my surprise, I learned that earning money via soccer here is much more limited for women compared to men. While male players here on the top levels can become multimillionaires playing,  it's not really the case for their female counterparts. The women players at the same level are forced to take up second jobs to earn even a modest living. In the US you can also make arguments about women not getting their fair share of the professional athlete earning's pie. However, I was especially taken aback by the German soccer news. Maybe it's because we're learning about sozialle Ungleichheit (social inequality) in social studies right now.

Couldn't ask for a better day in Burtscheid!

Back to today's playing field, it was pretty similar to, say, a Saxon JV Girls game back at good ol' Gilmore Field in Salem. A few perks here, though, were the locker rooms directly next to the field, tall fences on all sides to prevent rogue balls, and complete turf. Pre-kickoff we, the Burtscheider Turnverein (BTV), did a little cheer incorporating our club's letters. Post-game everyone met in the middle of the field to shake hands/high-five and tell the opponent "Gut gespielt," or rather "Well played." 

Good sportsmanship is definitely international.

All in all, the weekend felt beautifully complete. Drinking lots of tea and coffee, hanging out with both immediate and extended host family, listening to Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and This American Life from NPR, and, of course, playing some soccer, all equate to my ideal Saturday and Sunday be it Salem or Aachen. BTV! BTV! BTV!