Supporting our T&T "Soca Warriors" Team at the World Cup
PILGRIMAGE & THE WORLD CUP???
Supporting our T&T "Soca
Warriors" Team at the World Cup
It is possible!! People were very doubtful when Living Water Community organized a pilgrimage to Germany, to coincide with the football matches. Well, as a pilgrim and a football sports fan, the combination was fantastic. A special thanks to Mancunia Travel Ltd of Manchester England, to Maureen our tour guide, to Sandra, and Father Llanos, our spiritual director.
On Friday 9th June, 34 very excited pilgrims left Royal National Hotel in London for Düsseldorf Airport, Germany. I am sure the British were very amused because at 6 am we caused quite a stir, singing our football songs, wearing our official LWC football jerseys and accompanied by loud soca music.
On
arrival in Germany we drove to the city of Cologne, to visit the cathedral. This
Cathedral
is huge and it dates back to the 4th century. The oldest
part of the cathedral was built in 313 AD. The architecture is amazing; the
spires are from the Gothic period. And they are over 157 m tall. This
cathedral also has the relics of the Three Magi; these were given to Archbishop
Rainald in 1164.
Germany is very, very rich in history, art and Christianity, with the north being Lutheran and the south being very Catholic. Every little village has 2 and more churches. Roof mural of football in Cologne
Cologne
itself was very busy on June 9th.Today was the opening of the World
Cup 2006 and Germany was playing on the first day. So the city was filled with
German supporters and big TV screens were set up for the games. We were welcomed
by all because we were wearing our football T shirts. What was amazing was that
wherever we visited in Germany we were warmly welcomed. Our Soca Warriors were
very popular in Germany.
We then journeyed to a little town called Troisdorf to spend 3 nights. And this
is how the pilgrimage was going to be spent---very long days traveling by coach
to and from the pilgrimage sites and to the football stadiums. Germany is a huge
country and even though we spent 11 days traveling from Düsseldorf to Munich we
only saw about 1/15th of the country!!!
On Sat 10th June we were very excited. This was the day that Trinidad was going to make history, playing for the first time in the World Cup and we were part of this history. We celebrated mass in one of the little churches in Troisdorf. Mass was offered for the Soca Warriors. I must mention that at the end of Mass we proudly sang the National Anthem of T&T. We then lit 14 candles for our team.
The little town of Troisdorf gave us a hearty farewell, wishing us good luck against Sweden. We were making a lot of noise in Troisdorf as we left. We had bought whistles, drums and a tambourine. LWC can pray and have a lot of fun!!
At the
Dortmund Stadium I was amazed to see so many Trinidadians and T&T supporters.
The stadium has a seating capacity of 64,000 and the game was sold out. The
sight I will never forget was when our “boys” came out on the field and the fans
just went wild. Many of us were in tears when our National Anthem was being
played as this was the first time ever that our National Anthem was being played
in a World Cup Tournament. It was so good to be part of this historical event.
The match was drawn 0-0. The Swedes were in shock and were silent and the Trini fans were overjoyed!! There was a carnival atmosphere. And then our boy, Dwight Yorke, was named "Man of the Match". This was the icing on the cake for us.