Dear Daily Princetonian

Editor's Note: This is the seventh in a series of postcards that The Daily Princetonian sports staff writers wrote about their experiences in the wide world of sports this summer. Keep reading throughout the next few weeks for more dispatches from across the country and around the world.

MUNICH — Last fall, I was randomly in Foot Locker on Nassau Street with a friend when I noticed a sale on soccer jerseys. Making a spur-of-the-moment decision, we both were motivated by some unknown force to drop 60 bucks and buy one; he chose Real Madrid (which I had wanted), and I settled for Bayern Muenchen.

The choice turned out to be a fortuitous one, however, when I learned in the spring that I had received a summer internship in Munich — the Anglicized version of Muenchen. So as I was packing up, I made sure to include the jersey, which I had worn all of one time, in my suitcase.

Unfortunately, the regular season in the Bundesliga does not start until mid-August, around the time I was leaving. Still, along with some Harvard students I had met overseas, I was able to catch the first preseason game.

I decided that since we were attending a European soccer match, it would only be fitting to do something hooliganish. The others, not wanting to be arrested by the Polizei, convinced me that going to an Irish pub would be hooliganish enough.

After enjoying a pint or four of Guinness in the one bar in Munich where English was the predominant language, I was ready to get to the game and show off my jersey, which I was certain would garner good relations with the home crowd.

We arrived at Allianz Arena, the brand new stadium built for the 2006 World Cup, and were immediately enveloped in a red glow. The entire outside surface of the stadium was illuminated in bright red lights, proudly aligning itself with the home team by displaying their color.

While waiting in a security line, we saw a German friend of ours, Oli, who worked with another Princeton student in town and had a certain "mutual interest" with one of the Harvard girls. He and his friends came over and promptly spent the next five minutes joking about my jersey. I was absolutely devastated. The situation was finally ameliorated, however, when I visited the concession stand and ordered a couple of Paulanerbraus.

The game, like most soccer games, progressed rather slowly, with a lot of people kicking the ball back and forth but no one actually scoring. Since this was a preseason game, Bayern did not play some of its best players, including scary goalie Oliver Kahn and Michael Ballack, the captain of the German national team as well as of Bayern. I did not know any players for VSB Stuttgart (nor do I know what on earth VSB stands for), so I'm not sure if they played their "A" team or not.

Finally, midway through the first half, Bayern scored on a header off a cross that glanced off the Stuttgart goalie's hand and into the goal. Stuttgart replied soon after with a shot from 25 yards out that somehow rocketed into the upper right corner.

After this action, the game settled down and no one scored. We were sitting close to the Stuttgart fan section, and their incessant chanting was getting annoying. The home crowd did not seem too invested in the game's outcome — saving their energy for non-preseason action — so I could not feed off of their energy and become motivated to act more hooliganish. But I figured another Bayern goal could change all of that.

Instead, the Bayern defense decided to stop playing two minutes before the end of the game. A Stuttgart player got a fast break and easily beat the goalkeeper (I am still convinced that scary Kahn would have made a save), sealing the game and sending us home dejected.

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Our spirits were soon raised, however, when our German friends suggested that we go out, so we headed back to the Irish pub for a couple or five more pints of Guinness. I am not exactly sure where the night went from there, but I suspect that Oli went home with the Harvard girl and that I did not last too long once I got back to my apartment. When I woke up the next morning to drag myself to work, I found myself sleeping in my bed, with my pillow on the floor and the Bayern jersey nestled gently under my head.