Allianz Arena, Munich (Bayern Munich v Werder Bremen)

Munich's Olympic Stadium used to host Bayern Munich and 1860 Munich soccer matches, but relinquished that duty to Allianz Arena in 2005.  Allianz is what Olympic Stadium would look like if its glass roof was inverted and formed the outside of that stadium.  On matchdays, the outside is lit up in red if Bayern's playing, blue if 1860's playing, or white if the German national team's playing. 

Luckily, I got a front-row ticket to the Bayern/Werder Bremen match, which was part of the annual tournament, called the DFB Pokal, involving German soccer clubs.  Bayern won two to one thanks to two goals by Bastian "Nice Italian Name" Schweinsteiger.

 

 

I just remembered something I saw in Berlin that relates to Allianz.  When I got off the train in Berlin a couple of weeks before the Bayern match, I heard lots of chanting in German (this sounds scarier than it is).  When I walked outside, there was a huge procession of people carrying banners and flags; there were twenty or thirty groups spread out across Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse, each representing one of the Bundesliga (Germany's professional soccer league) teams.  I found out that the march was in protest of the Bundesliga's fan unfriendly practices such as raising ticket prices and more aggressive police presence within stadiums.  Apparently, Allianz has earned the nickname "Arroganz Arena" because it is among the strictest stadiums in terms of fan-related policies (one rule states that fans cannot bring banners into the game that, when unfurled, a single person cannot hold).

One last point:  Front row seats are one of the great ironies of sports.  People pay more money to sit so close to the action, but ultimately, they miss a large majority of it--how stupid can people be?!  Oh wait, nevermind...  But even though I blacked-out for a second when I realized that I could actually get a ticket to the match and wrecklessly selected a front row ticket, it was a great time had by all 64,000+ people (strict policy or not), including me, at Allianz. 

To finish, here are some game highlights from German TV.  The 1:06 mark of the video has Schweinsteiger's second goal, which was worth the price of admission alone.