USA WOMEN PLAY THE WORLD IN GERMANY
City & Stadium Guide FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011
This summer
Germany hosts the 2011 FIFA World Cup of Women’s Soccer
from June 26 through July 17. Team USA will be playing at only four of
the stadium venues, which makes following the team through the competition
a travel planner dream. The opening ceremony of the tournament takes
place in Berlin on the 26th with the U.S Women’s Soccer Team playing
their opening match in Group C two days later on June 28 in Dresden,
with the U.S. women taking on North Korea, the fourth consecutive time
the U.S. has played the team from across the demilitarized zone in the
World Cup since 
1999 in the United States. Group C is judged as one of
the toughest of the tournament with three of the top six teams in the
world, USA, Sweden and Korea DPR, which is how team head coach U.S. head
coach Pia Sundhage likes it. “This is the best thing that could
have happened,” Sundhage said after learning of the draw in November. “It’s
a tough group and that’s exactly what we need.”. Looking
forward after a recent match U.S. Team Midfielder Shannon Box commented
on her teammates’ outlook. “That’s the mentality that
we want. We want tough and we want high energy”.
After Dresden
in Germany’s
former east, the team heads toward the west side of the country, meeting
Columbia in Sinsheim at the new
Rhein-Neckar Arena stadium, near the romantic old city of Heidelberg
with its famous castle on July 2, and taking on Sweden at Wolfsburg,
home of the Volkswagen Auto World on July 6. If Team USA finishes first
or second in the Group they would advance to face the top finishers of
Group D - Brazil, Australia, Norway and or Equatorial Guinea, and if
luck and all that energy prevails, the semi finals back in Dresden and
the finals in Frankfurt.
I recently
took a tour of the four cities to check them out and here is a little
mini
guide for the towns and stadiums the USA Team will see
for the 2011 World Cup (Frauen Weltmeisterschaft 2011 in German). First,
what is common to all the four stadiums (Stadion in German) where the
US will play. They are all quite new, built or rebuilt within the last
few years and quite similar. They each hold around 30,000 spectators,
with only two levels (except for the larger Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt)
close to the action. The seating areas are covered by overhanging roofs
with openings over the field. The field, or pitch, is required to be
natural grass for the World Cup. German stadiums are a bit unique in
that they have standing sections so that team fans can all lock arms
and sing songs - so German – but these sections will be replaced
by seats for the FIFA Cup action, reducing capacity by a few thousand
at each venue. The visitor of home team side won't matter so much for
the World Cup matches, South facing seats behind the north goal will
have a bit more sun in the eyes.
Tickets
for the FIFA 2011 World Cup games must be purchased through the FIFA
Website or via
local authorised ticket offices, though remaining
tickets on game day will be sold at the stadium. Women’s soccer
in Germany is thought of as second sister to the men’s championship
league football played there. Ticket sales are going well for what
is expected, but the first round
Group matches will probably not sell out with tickets available for game
time, while Quarter Finals may or may not, and Semi Finals and Finals
will likely
sell out before game day. © Bargain
Travel Europe
City & Stadium Guides
Dresden
Sinsheim/Heidelberg
Wolfsburg
Frankfurt
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Passes - Rail
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USSoccer
These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission. Team USA photo Renate Reimann courtesy USSoccer.
See Also:
FIFA
WOMEN'S WORLD CUP 2011 - TOURING GERMANY
HOW RAIL
PASSES WORK
CITY NIGHT LINE - GERMAN SLEEPER TRAIN
GERMAN ICE TRAIN – FAST INTER-CITY EXPRESS
