This has been something I've been toying with for a while now but want to start making it a reality ... Does anyone here want to go to the WC in Brazil in 2 years time (assuming we qualify)? No concrete answer now is needed but it'd be good to start planning/thinking about it early as I believe you have to enter into a lottery system for tickets and such.
has anyone gone before? if we get a good estimate for costs, i would love to save up for it. airfare's about 1,200.
I have some family members that are hardcore KNT fans (watch WCQ, U-23, etc.) and we are seriously considering going. It might be a while before the WC comes back to our hemisphere!
The closest I've been to a World Cup experience was when I watched the KNT U-20 squad in 2007 in Montreal. That was my first glimpse of the Double Dragons, Shin Young Rok, Shim Young Sung, etc. USA still might get 2022 so you never know, 2026 will probably go to an Oceania nation or Canada/Mexico if they bid.
I'm planning on going. Hopefully I can (as I planned but didn't make previous 2 world cups). I was in Brazil a few weeks ago(July) for the first time, and I realized was that I needed to double my budget for the 2014 trip. Their "standard" accommodation would not be acceptable by most Americans. It was also pretty cold and places I stayed had no heater. You'll definitely want to spend money if you wanna be comfortable. Traveling is also difficult and hectic. Public transportation is not comfortable nor safe. Streets and freeways are congested as well. In my opinion, Brazil is far from being ready for WC and the Olympics. I recommend flying to each destinations and staying at 5 star resorts. Really. Anyway, I hope you're not discouraged by reading this. Brazilian girls ARE very pretty, and they love to party! I'm sure this makes up for all the negatives I mentioned.
One of my Professors actually went to some Brazilian flavellas for field research and said it wasn't that bad.
Am I the only one that wishes they were old enough to go to the USA WC? As for 2022 I can't see it being pried out of Qatar's hands. 2026 will definitely have the WC returning to roost on European soil. 2030 will be returning to Uruguay for the 100th anniversary. That's already over 15 years from now... I think the only way Canada will get the WC is by joint-hosting with USA. They simply don't have the stadia do they?
They don't plus Canada is a huge country that makes it extremely difficult/costly to travel. There's only like ... 6 cities that could realistically support hosting a WC (Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec City, Winnipeg). Sad since hosting a WC seems to be the only way Canada would ever participate in a WC proper. I'm caught in a dilemma ... go to the 2014 WC or go to Europe in 2013 and backpack + stadium hop across the continent. Decisions .. decisions ..
i am definately going. i will be going with my son for the wc and to do some brazilian jiu jitsu training. cant wait!
Anyway, those are just my opinions based on a few days spent there. So take it as you like, or don't.
My friends are going to rent a house/apartment for the month. That's what they did for the past two world cups. It's much cheaper than getting a hotel. People go for two week stretches and split the costs. The problem is they're not Korean, so our itineraries will be quite different, and I'll end up travelling on my own quite a bit if I stay with them. I'd much rather stay with fellow Koreans and travel in packs. I wish they could just tell us which cities we will play in ahead of time. Then figuring out whether to rent in Rio or Sao Paolo or elsewhere would be so much easier.
You don't want to travel through Europe during the summer anyway. There's no air conditioning. And watching a match without the KNT or our KPAs is not as memorable.
This might be the epic BSK meetup that has been spoken of in hushed tones for ages. But aren't even the group matches spread over several cities? I have no idea how people buy tickets and go to watch their team when everything is so uncertain.
Establish a base in one city. Buy tickets to the matches in the Korea supporters section. Travel together by plane if a long distance, rental car if close or train (not feasible in Brasil). Leave for two/three days and come back to base city. If two of the matches are in Sao Paolo or Rio, then that would be awesome cost wise, etc.
Going there with some Korean friends and my Japanese roommate Staying at my aunt's house (Thank god my uncle married a Japanese-Brazilian) Bring it on Brazil. Hot girls and a whole bunch of 22 year old college seniors? This is going to be the most intense vacation ever.
Besides, what's the point of visiting empty stadiums? The best time to go is during the winter and stadium hop to watch our KPAs...
Things were less organized when I went in 94 vs Bolivia. On the one hand I was surprised by the Korean fans making quite a bit of noise, but it wasn't the level of fanaticism it seems that 2002 built up that you see now... we were kinda making up cheers as we went. I had corner seats which weren't great to see the match in Foxboro, but we didn't lose to Bolivia so at least I didn't have a bad memory of the match itself. Going in we knew to wear red, but none of us knew how to get KNT jerseys and none were available in the stadium either at least in my concession area. I also had low expectations going in given that I was raised believing that Korea was a baseball country. I had an OB Bears stuffed animal (I recall it being Snoopy dressed in OB gear), my dad's dad always seemed to have a baseball game on the TV, and my mom's dad took me to batting cages in his form of bonding. I also knew none of the players back then... knowing even the big name guys on big clubs was hard when big time football was mostly in the form of late night highlight clips on what would become the Fox Sports network (not that I had cable mind you). The internet has made it such a more rewarding experience, between sharing amazing experiences like the Olympics with you guys, watching the KNT and KPAs play over streaming TV, and our domestic experts here providing context, news and perspective. That said, we played so gritty and tough in '94... my memories are pretty fuzzy (the spain match was a blur... just wiki'ed that we pulled out a draw vs spain (!)) but the Germany match was what made me a KNT fan for life. We were down 3-0 and we just kept clawing back with such determination that one so rarely sees in sport ... one couldn't help but fall in love with the KNT. In retrospect, knowing that HMB was such a key figure in that match makes our accomplishment particularly in the olympics almost seem like the logical conclusion of this stage in the evolution of Korean football. And '02 was more of the culmination of the potential I saw in '94 rather than the inception of the current rise we see today. Anyhoo, my wife and I had planned to go to '06 but kids became a good detour, and its unlikely that I'd waste limited vacation resources being stuck with so many other tourists for a place not that high on my to-do list. But that match I saw was such a cherished memory that I'm pretty certain anyone who did go would find to be an experience of a lifetime like I did at mine.
Ughhh... All we needed was that goal against Spain and we would have been through. [Speaking of Spain, I still have a mental image of Luis Enrique getting his nose crushed by the Italians and playing on with blood pouring down his face... What a tough mofo...] And that Bolivia match? Ughhhhhhh... Classic we couldn't score in front of the goal match... I think we all had so much hope that that would be the match where we got our first win. Amazing that it didn't happen for another 8 years. And I still can't believe we played against Germany in Texas during the middle of the day. I still remember Klinsmann scoring that volley against us and praying the punishment would end. But then we actually started playing well and the Germans were desperate for the match to end. Oh, what could have been...