Christmas Truce Football Friendly

First World War Centenary Football Friendly

Last Saturday I played in the inaugural Christmas Truce Friendly at Emory University, England vs. Germany, sponsored by MLS Atlanta and Soccer in the Streets. Thanks to both the German and British Consulate-Generals for putting everything together - and great to see Terminus Legion out there - a great event.

The Truce Match was first played around Christmas in 1914, where German and British soldiers made their way into no man’s land to exchange foods, souvenirs, and even knock the ball around. Related, here’s a great story from BBC on how Britain thought football could help them win WWI. Ok, I won’t bog you down with anymore history, you can click the linked Wikipedia page above for more information.

The Game

We kicked off around 11am. As one of the only two non-Germans on the squad, I didn’t get the start, but made my entrance around the 20 minute mark, when the match still stood at 0-0. (I was surprised how well I could communicate and understand the Germans using my Danish!) At around the 33rd minute, our team took the lead when I put one passed the British keeper!

Goal Germany! 1-0 33rd minute. #FootballRemembers
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MLS Atlanta (@MLSAtlanta2017) December 13, 2014

I immediately wanted another, so I could secure my spot as the match winner, but, we ended up losing 1-4 on 4 second half goals. It was still a great time — awesome to play full-field for the first time in a while, and couldn’t pass up introducing myself to Arthur and Darren afterwards. You can find some pictures below, and a Facebook picture album from the event here, and also a great write-up from the AJC here.