Dortmund, Germany – Five days of opening World Cup calm ended with a volley of bottles and chairs as dozens of German hooligans clashed with police Wednesday before their country’s 1-0 victory over Poland.
For much of the day, German police worked with their counterparts from neighboring Poland to identify and arrest traveling troublemakers without incident. Homegrown hooligans lashed out about two hours before the late-evening kickoff after police confronted them in a central square.
By the time rain began falling after midnight, police said they had arrested 300 German and Polish hooligans – at least 120 Germans in the central square.
The trouble began Wednesday when police spotted about 40 men, later described as hard-core hooligans, and blocked the route between the outdoor area where they sat drinking and a nearby big screen where games are shown for free.
As police began apprehending the men they screamed: “We are Germans, too. We want to go to the big screen,” according to witness Cristel Lorenz.
Some started throwing bottles and chairs and shooting fireworks; backup police arrived, as did more hooligans, said Lorenz, who was rushed to the safety of a nearby restaurant. Police hauled handcuffed men into a bus outfitted with individual cells.
No officers were injured, police said.
Johnson “here for a war”
Eddie Johnson likened playing in the World Cup to going to war, a metaphor that came up after the U.S. forward was asked about the team’s visit to a U.S. military base.
The American team will spend tonight and Friday night at Ramstein Air Base outside Kaiserslautern, where the United States plays Italy on Saturday. The U.S. team was housed at Ramstein before an exhibition game against Poland on March 1.
“It was a bit touching,” Johnson said. “We actually got a chance to meet with some of the soldiers that were wounded in Iraq. … It’s like us in the World Cup. We’re here for a war. We came here to battle. We came here to represent our country.”
Johnson, 22, was asked whether he was comparing a sporting event to a war.
“Yeah,” he responded. “Whenever you put your jersey on and you look at your crest and the national anthem’s going on, and you’re playing against a different country, it’s like you do or die. It’s survival of the (fittest) over 90 minutes plus.”
