Japan in Dusseldorf, Germany on Friday, September 23. Capacity of 54,600. Saudi Arabia in Murcia, Spain on Tuesday, September 27. Capacity of 31,179. These are definitely enticing destinations. Would USSF issue tickets? Or do we wait for the venues or country-specific ticket sites to make announcements?
USSF will likely get an away section allotment, which they’ll make available to us. That said, getting tickets will not be a problem. I’d guess attendance will be about 5,000 for each of these.
Eh, I'd expect bigger crowds than that, in part because both of our opponents are playing two games in the same locations, which should be a draw for their fans. Additionally, Dusseldorf is nicknamed "Nippon on the Rhine" due to the Japanese expat community, which is obviously part of the reason for choosing it, and the US tends to draw decent numbers most places in Germany, due to the large expat community and the well-connected transportation network. Murcia is a little less obvious--even within Spain it's not the most connected city (coming from Barcelona, I can only fly as close as Alicante, an hour away, and there's no direct train access). Choosing a smaller stadium in Madrid or Barcelona seems like it would have made more sense, since both have direct flights from Riyadh. Coincidentally, both Dusseldorf and Murcia are the 7th largest cities in their country, respectively.
I hope I’m wrong, since I’ll be at the matches. 5,000 might be a little low, but I just can’t see them being well-attended. Which is fine - these are being played in Europe for logistical reasons only. There may be large US and Japanese expat populations in Germany, but it’s not a given that they have any interest in soccer, and a 2:25pm weekday kickoff is a hard sell for anyone who’s not a diehard. Especially for the Japanese, who have the opportunity to see the team play twice in the same stadium a few days apart. Saudia Arabia has no traveling fanbase of note and Murcia is small and difficult to get to. And it’s on a Tuesday.
Hoping to do the Japan game. Have spent time in Dusseldorf before and love the city. A small group of friends is looking into flights now. And my birthday is that Saturday so would be a nice little trip.
FB page for others to share info on tix, events, etc.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/597450938531859
Apparently buying online tickets for soccer matches in Spain isn't a thing and it's more common to buy them at the stadium??? I realize it won't be hard to get a ticket to the game in Spain, but I'd still like to buy one in advance...but.....not seeing anywhere that has anything posted for tickets....a month out from the game....
Oh I agree they won't be well attended, I just think they (at least the Japan game) will be closer to 10,000, which is still sparse in a stadium that holds 50,000+. As for the afternoon kickoff, it works both ways--anyone coming from a few hours away, like Kaiserslautern, could take the train up that morning, go to the game, then head back. An evening game would require getting a hotel for a night. And, Japan's other game is also a midday kickoff (chosen so that they can be televised in Japan), so if any of their fans are going to choose one game to go to, it's probably more likely they'd choose the Friday game, than the Tuesday game. Agreed the SA game really makes no sense. Even living in Spain, I need to take a flight to Alicante, then take an hourlong bus. Train travel would take longer, and require two trains plus a bus. Would have preferred if they put it in Barcelona (Espanyol's stadium) or Madrid (Leganes, Getafe, Rayo would all work; teams in the 3rd division might work, with stadia around 5,000)
the decision-making from the people in charge of this team consistently seems out of touch with what the general consensus of people want....(for another example, look at the general consensus around the recent jersey designs.... yeeesh) which, I guess, is typical of the general pattern of decision-making in the US these days. the idea is just get in to power and stop thinking, I suppose. When "you" have "the power" you can thus releive yourself of the burden that comes with trying. Or - there is some strategic reason behind this decision - try to locate the game in a difficult to reach location to prohibit eyeballs on the team?? They clearly do not want a big crowd for this game for some reason..... As someone living in Spain, I'm glad the game is here...but almost any other location wouldve been way better.....
To be fair, US Soccer had little to no say in the venue selection for either game, as they're the "away" team. They could have pushed harder, or offered to host, but either of those options may have been met with a "no, if you don't want to play the game here, we'll just play XYZ instead." If that happened, there weren't a lot of other teams available due to Nations League, African Nations qualifiers, etc. Playing in Murcia's not ideal, but if the alternative was playing a low-ranked unqualified team from Asia or CONCACAF, that would have been worse. And agreed. I'm in Barcelona, I can get pretty much anywhere easily, but Murcia is one of the more difficult locales.
me too, actually...just looking up how to get to murcia...and nothing shows up on google other than via car.... I guess there are certain contingencies that are out of the hands of the coordinators but its just weird....like the frostbite in minnesota etc.... I think the calculus in all of the decision-making does not take into account the fan-side....like at all. gregg coached in ohio? okay lets put all the usmnt games there! etc I was wnodering if maybe the game was super cheap in murcia - so they thought they could make a bit more profit somehow via tv rights???
why is the US the away team? how is that determined? I guess the whole global push for nations leagues etc by FIFA has really made it difficult for teams not in europe to get decent matches outside of the actual world cup or copa america etc.....(which, I kinda feel was welcomed by those who decided this....another thing I wish the US wouldve pushed back against)
All right, I booked my plane tickets to Germany and home from Spain. Need to figure out my plan for when to fly from Germany to Spain.
Dusseldorf is a fun town, as is nearby Cologne. I'd stay in Germany at least through the weekend, maybe even until Tuesday itself, depending on flights. Murcia is a bit sleepy, so you're not missing much by not spending time there. If you want some beach time, I guess you could come a day or so early, and stay in Alicante (which is probably where you'll fly into, as they have direct flights from Dusseldorf and Frankfurt).
Typically for a neutral venue game, one federation will negotiate to secure a venue, including game day staff, negotiate a kickoff time, negotiate with local officials to arrange security, arrange accommodations and training sites, and negotiate who is responsible for ticket sales (which may also include a guarantee minimum number of tickets sold, to make it worthwhile for the venue) Once they've got everything arranged, they'll invite an opponent, and they may negotiate a little bit, but largely only on how many tickets the visiting fed is allocated, how that revenue gets split, and whether the visiting fed wants to use the training facility and accommodations the host has secured. It's not completely unheard of that a visiting federation, if agreed upon earlier, might say, "hey, if you put the game in XXX, we can guarantee ABC for ticket sales," but in this case, both Japan and Saudi Arabia are choosing to host both of their games this window in the same place, so I doubt they were open to moving. So there's a lot to call out about the way US Soccer operates, but this isn't one of them.
Saudi Arabia played matches against Colombia and Venezuela in Murcia in June. Seems like they have a favorable arrangement with the location.
Yep; I'm actually already going to be there, trying to figure out if I can swing an up-and-back from Munich for the Japan game.
Skipping the Saudi Arabia game but booked my travel to Germany. Used 60k American Airlines points and flying round trip Columbus-Charlotte-Frankfurt (leaving 9/21, arriving 9/22) for $125 total in fees. Then will take a train up from Frankfurt. Flying back on 9/26.
IAD->Frankfurt, also 9/21-9/22, but detouring to meet a friend before taking a train up to Düsseldorf later that day. Düsseldorf->Alicante earrrrly on 9/25, then 9/29 Madrid->IAD.
Less than four weeks from both of these games, and starting to get weird that between the three federations, the two host stadiums, and the two host clubs, no one has any ticket info--not even a "coming soon." I suppose it's possible they'd choose to play these as closed-door, but the only reason I can think is if they've decided the ticket sales won't allow them to recoup the cost of staffing the stadium, but in that case, the venue selection is odd (especially since they games will be televised). Reached out to USSoccer the other day and got no response, so I sent notes to both venues. May not result in anything, but if they do respond I'll share it here.
UPDATE: Yesterday, Merkur-Spiel Arena (or, the events company that runs the venue) told me they were not handling tickets for this match, and directed me to contact Fortuna Düsseldorf. I got a response from F95 this morning: So, not sure if there will be a US Soccer sale, specific supporters' sections, etc. But at least this is something. And, given what we're speculating about probable attendance for this match, it's likely everyone could just buy tickets direct, then form a supporters section once inside.
5am US Eastern time on Wed Sept 7th: https://www.f95.de/aktuell/news/pro...r-laenderspiele-japans-in-kuerze-erhaeltlich/ Would be nice to hear something from US Soccer, though there’s really no rush to get the tickets.
Yeah, there's no rush to get tickets, as long as we know that there are, in fact, tickets available. Also worth noting, per the link, that a ticket to the Japan game will also allow for free public transit that day. Still no word on the SA game in Murcia. Going back to their two friendlies there in the June window, I can't find anything with attendance figures. In fact, the only thing that proves people were at the match at all, is this photo on the Colombia federation's website recapping their match: https://fcf.com.co/index.php/2022/06/05/colombia-supero-a-arabia-saudita-en-amistoso-internacional/ So I guess that's something. Even if it's just "tickets will be sold at the gate," that would be nice to know before buying airline tix (hotel is booked but cancelable).