I, along with my wife, were a few rows up in the upper deck in the corner where Wynalda scored. I can not remember the price of the tickets.
Sometimes the Canadians go on strike. Randomly. Or just don't open fast. Happened to us a few years ago.
FIFA will make sure that doesn't happen. There might be some union bosses who mysteriously disappear.
There may be issues crossing the border w/r/t those who came to Canada or US on a visa. It isnt so simple to fly from say Cali, Colombia to Vancouver, drive to Seattle, and get back to Vancouver. Here is a scuffed interview with a congressman about that. He is a congressman, so there isnt much information, but somethings involved in did not think about https://open.spotify.com/episode/33CgyaxXRS7G15taaCLbzD?si=X6SNMefPQWSe1rUd708eYA
So at this point it has become obvious that FIFA arranged for.the supplemental window so that someone could sign CR7 before the CWC. Infantino did an interview yesterday where he practically begged somebody to pony up for.the guy. Then again, the man would pimp out his wife to.fill up some seats. I doubt if any team is going to want to pay the kind of money hes making now but a.short term deal is possible, aside from it making the tournament an even bigger farce than it already is.
One of the things that makes soccer so intriguing is that it’s both simple yet endlessly complex and inscrutable. What do most people fundamentally misunderstand about the game? All the things people take for granted. The passing and the physicality of the players that you see is not what you’re used to. A pass of a professional football player is not the pass of your friend that you play with when you’re in the park. A cross in a game looks like the cross that you finished; it’s not. Pinging a diagonal ball 70 yards straight away to your winger while under pressure, dropping it just on the other side of the opponent’s right back, for your winger to control under pressure — you’re not in a pocket like a quarterback, able to see the field. And if I go deep into other stuff — dribbling at full speed, you are always on one leg. You have to keep control of the ball while you’re under pressure, and you need to shift the ball to a different side because a defender is coming and then protect the ball, still able to see the game. People say, “Oh, come on, I would’ve scored that goal. Oh, come on, I would’ve made that pass. Oh, come on. I would’ve stopped him.” No, you wouldn’t. Great interview with Thierry Henry: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/soccer-genius-thierry-henry-says-he-was-driven-by-fear.html
The son of a former Bengals player and current DePaul soccer player has died. It was big enough news that TSN picked it up. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/loc...xpectedly-on-school-campus-at-age-20/3759317/
https://www.si.com/soccer/fifa-lowe...ket-prices-minimal-interest-messi-inter-miami The "get-in" price for Miami and the Egyptian team is now down to $55. The real laugh is this: FIFA president Gianni Infantino shared he is not worried about the worrying ticket sales when speaking with The Athletic back in April: “When I see some of the stadiums in the United States filling itself when some teams are coming to play some friendly games, exhibition games, then I’m not worried at all to fill a stadium when teams are coming to play a World Cup, to play for, you know, something, something real.” See, Gianni, here's part of the issue: Those exhibitions are household name A-list Champions League teams. Al-Ahly and Urawa Red Diamonds aren't exactly those teams.
If the Club World Cup means Miami and LAFC are going to be more fatigued at the end of the season, I'm for that. Other than that, I still give no f**ks.
Let's not confuse this with the Intercontinental Cup, shall we? (Talk about redundancy...then again, it's entirely conceivable the FA Cup and EFL Cup feature a split between the same teams.) Then again, between the 2022 World Cup in friggin November, the 2030 edition being split between six different countries, the shitshow of the 2034 World Cup and the 2038 World Cup being in CONCACAF or Oceania (which probably means Oceania), it's easy enough to care very little about that.
The idea was spoken out loud, that's it. Let's not start talking about a trans-pacific world cup just yet.
Considering the World Cup might be 72 teams by then, it'll be like both countries having their own World Cup. AFC and teams from eastern Africa and Europe will start in NZ and teams from CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and western Africa and Europe will start in the US. The semifinals and finals will all be in the USA. Nevermind the fairness or honesty of the draw in order to make that happen.
There is no way it will be that many. I have trouble seeing them go past 48. I mean, every team that should/deserves to be there is basically guaranteed to be. Maybe a fringe team in Africa misses out due to their qualifying setup, but that's about it. I mean, FFS Jordan and Uzbekistan just qualified today. Jordan and Uzbekistan. We are gonna have some Women's World Cup scores in 2026.
At a certain point though, just like with the CWC, people ain't traveling around the world to NZ to watch Algeria vs Jordan or Uzbekistan vs Poland. Hell, if they go to 72 we're taking about Honduras vs Albania or Togo vs Bolivia or something. People ain't paying to watch that, in person or on television.
The 2003 Women's World Cup had double-headers, but you can't exactly do that with the men's game, no matter what the circumstances. 2pm -- Poland vs Uruguay 5pm -- Algeria vs Jordan
Well, but that's the thing. NZ doesn't have much in the way of venues to begin with. The All Whites play in a 25,000 seater and there may be a couple more but they mostly have rugby and criket stadiums, which are a) small and b) not really suitable for FIFA unless someone wants to dump a ton of money. South Korea was happy to dump hundreds of millions of dollars on stadiums they knew they had little use for, but I doubt the good taxpayers of New Zealand would share that kind of enthusiasm. Secondly, New Zealand is part of the Oceania confederation, the weak red-headed stepchild of FIFA. Oceania consists of a bunch of barely-there islands. I don't know how many tickets they're going to sell in Papua New Guinea. (Sepp Blatter pushed through approval for them to join CONMEBOL ten or so years ago but nothing happened) It's just hard to see FIFA putting half of a World Cup in a country with a population of around five million. Last I heard, they have more sheep than people. I just can't think of a single reason why they'd put anything there. The travel costs alone are prohibitive for North America and Europe, which is where the money comes from. I'm skeptical.