Deutschland 1, Poland 0

Watched the Germany-Poland match tonight in a jam-packed beer garden. If anyone is ever in Munich, and for all accounts you all should try to visit, I highly recommend visiting one or all of the several throughout the town. Germany snatched a late winner to assure advancement to the second round, and the horns are honking up and down the streets of Munich. The subway back to the apartment was loud and colorful, as otherwise-private German fans showed some national pride (irking Joe to the nth degree) and let their hair down in celebration. Tomorrow is a national holiday (not because they won tonight), so I'm guessing the horns will continue to blare through the night. They say a World Cup is best when the host country is doing well, and I really couldn't agree more. However, I'd trade a Germany win in for a US win over Italy any day of the week!

Now I just need to convince my friends here to go out and celebrate. Typical — I don't speak any German and have zero vested interest in the place, yet I'm wearing a fresh Germany jersey around town and the most excited about the home country's win.

Finally, a good luck to my good friend Connor Doyle. For those of you that don't know him, Doyle (Diesel) is a smart, irritable, irrational and argumentative friend of mine. He's also moving to Italy for the foreseeable future, so I wish him all the best. You better really start to like soccer, Doyle, and I hope you brought a good supply of deodorant.