Five years ago today was the last time Hansi walked out by Jogi’s side, five years since Germany won the world cup. I could lie and say this was planned, that I left it until today to upload my new pictures of Hansi to make it that extra little bit perfect, but I won’t. It was a entirely a quirk of fate that happened, well that and endless procrastination. It’s not quite the return I wanted, for Hansi’s not returning to Jogi. Though the beginning of his new chapter with Bayern is a return of sorts for him, given that he played for Bayern and spent the better part of his short playing career there. Before the pictures of Hansi from Bayern’s first open training of the season, a sweet little reminder of that day:
Here it finally is, one year exactly since the World Cup final. 365 days since Mario Götze made history and became the first ever substitute to score a World cup winning goal. 365 days since the last time Hansi stood by Jogi’s side. In an interview he gave to a German newspaper, Joachim Löw said that he’s not doing anything World Cup related today, nothing special to mark today’s occasion. I’m not doing anything World Cup related either, nothing other than posting these posts which doesn’t count technically since all of the work was done before today. There are seven posts in total, which was of course deliberate. As is the way in which they are going to be posted, in lots of four. The first set at the time the match kicked off, the second at the end of the 90 minutes, the third at the approximate time the goal was scored and the fourth at the approximate time the match ended.
Random tangent, I can’t help but find it amusing that my first visitor today was from the Czech Republic. Amusing because they are one of the few teams to beat Germany in a qualifier under Joachim Löw’s command.
Despite not watching the final today or the even the goal, I have in other ways recreated that day. And not entirely intentionally, I can tell myself that I stayed up late because I did a year ago and I want everything to be just right. But saying so does not make it true, in having stayed up so late I wasn’t recreating that all so special day. I was looking for videos of Hansi online. As it turns out YouTube is a treasure trove of old matches and not just highlights either. I added three almost complete matches to my Hansi Flick collection. The day belonged to Hansi before it even really began, which just proves everyone’s point really. It’s the day of the World Cup final and instead of celebrating, I’m thinking about Hansi and looking for videos related to him. It’s not all about him, I did at least write some more of my latest Löw adventure, it’s not finished and it won’t be finished to be posted today. I think there’s more to the story and with the idea I’ve got to finish it, I think it will be worth the wait.
Deutschland sind zurück. Deutschland sind Weltmeister.
Tor, Tor, Tor, Mario Götze.
There are some things that you just never forget hearing, some things that upon hearing them they transport right back to the moment they were first said and bring all the feelings back with it. Those words above do just that. Even though on the actual night I watched the game in English and only saw it in German later, it’s not the English I remember. In fact I don’t remember any of the English commentary at all, though that may be because seeing it live was a more emotional experience then re-watching when some time had passed. I remember reading about the 1954 World Cup, how there are people who have the commentary memorized, or the important parts of it anyway. The first time I read that, I wondered how such a thing were possible. I know better now, I know now exactly how it’s possible.
I was going to just stick to those seven posts as originally planned but the Germans had other ideas. First my Die Mannschaft blu-ray arrived. Excellent timing, it was dispatched on the release date and arrives the day of the final. There doesn’t seem to be any special features, at least not according to the back of the case. I haven’t looked at the menu to confirm this yet. You might think it was perfect, it arriving today, that I could watch it instead of watching the final. Not so, I have no intention of watching it, not right now, I can’t. If Hansi were still there, I would however be doing so, I’d have re-watched all of the games in fact and the film.
The other interruption to my original plan was the video on the DFB site, an interview with Jogi after the final. Plus one with Mario Götze.
Löwland 