WCQ: February 2nd, 2022 - Home vs Honduras (St. Paul, MN)

Eight ball says San Jose.

 

yeah I heard it's all but a done deal for San Jose for a source that's always been right in the past. Plus it makes total sense.

 

Would it make sense to get a paid membership with US Soccer ahead of time, like right now, on the high chance San Jose gets it?

From what I saw with previous announcements, if you weren't a certain level of membership prior to an announcement, you wouldn't get an email with the presale code.

 

It's up to you. It's a weighted random draw. You get more weight based on being a higher level and longer time. I do not know what the formula is, and doubt USSF publishes it. AO was Group 4 previously, so for $25 a year you can get in that basic level and toss your hat in the ring for tickets.

 

Brrrrrrrr. Columbus (1/27) and St. Paul (2/2) it is. Oy.
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/20...ul-to-host-critical-home-world-cup-qualifiers

 

Columbus and St. Paul seem like odd choices because of the strong possibility of inclement weather that might neutralize the US team's superior quality. I understand the travel concerns. Still, the US should be able to beat El Salvador and Honduras at any home location in the Eastern or Central time zones. Just avoid DC for El Salvador and Houston/Miami for Honduras.

On to the lotteries, um, weighted random draws.

 

well I'm far from thrilled over this decision. I'm still considering doing all 3 matches if I can get a ticket to the away match, but with the hype in Canada over their team that won't be an easy ticket. I'm also not looking forward to freezing my ass off 3 times in one week.

As for this match, I looked at the map and the stadium is obviously in St. Paul but well east of downtown Minneapolis where I booked my hotel. One nice thing about Cincinnati was that I was able to walk everywhere as the stadium was downtown. And it was cold (for me there), I'm gonna freeze in Minnesota.

Anyone know the area and can give recommendations on where to stay? I booked downtown Minneapolis assuming there was more to do there and some interesting things to see outside of the match and night before party. Is there anything in St. Paul near the stadium?

 

There is also a light rail between the airport and downtown Minneapolis, so you won't need a car on this trip. My wife is accompanying me (should I win the lottery). Neither of us has visited the Twin Cities. I reminded her that the temperature might severely curtail our sightseeing.

You don't need a car for Columbus either, although the bus between the airport and downtown is infrequent and circuitous. COTA #7.

If you are on it, you should pretty easily get a ticket for Hamilton, Ontario. I bought a Nations League ticket from ticketmaster.ca specifically for the away supporters section for BMO Field in 2019 because I didn't want to wait for the USSF allocation offer, which came later. You may have both options for this game. Tim Hortons Field ticket page.

Good luck to you, especially because you thought Cincinnati was cold, when it seemed pretty mild to me. I am guessing you never lived in a cold weather area.

 

Thanks @wixson7 and @Eddie Stiel . Great info. I'm all for using light rail. But I'm wondering if it'll be like San Jose where after games I've had to wait a long time to finally get on a train. It was annoying in SJC, but if it's near midnight and 0 degrees it would really suck. I can't imagine leaving a match early but might consider it if it's super cold and I'm miserable.

yeah it was cold to me, especially the night of the match! In San Diego we break out our parkas and stocking caps when the temps dip into the low 60s, and look on in amazement at the tourists walking around in shorts and t-shirts. I did grow up in New England but that was a long time ago, I don't like the cold.

 

I really don't know but I can't imagine it being an "easy" ticket. The hype is crazy in Canada right now with all these new fans wanting tickets. They aren't required to give an away allocation to USSF are they? I don't think USSF gives an away allocation to away supporters that visit us. There was no Mexico section in Cincinnati.

I think Nations League (and Gold Cup) are different. Those are CONCACAF events that are "neutral" so tickets have to be made available to both teams. I don't think this is required for WCQs. But I don't know for sure or know what the Canadians will do.

There's always the secondary market but with high demand in such a small stadium the prices could be crazy high. But there's always some willing to sell their tickets to make a buck.

 

You must have been waiting for Caltrain, which is heavy rail and runs about once per hour outside of commuting times. I'd bet that the Minneapolis metro rail will have a short waiting time, maybe even more frequent gameday service. Austin had buses lined up after the game. If they can do it there, they can do it anywhere.

 

maybe it was, it also may have been the Centenario match in Levi's. I've been to 3 matches up there and just remember the train platforms being mobbed after games with super long lines and then packed trains going back to downtown San Jose. It's really not any worse than most cities' systems after a game lets out, it's just if it's zero degrees the wait becomes a lot more unpleasant.

 

Yeah, at Levi's Stadium, you would be waiting for the VTA Light Rail and describe the situation perfectly, although I go in the other direction.

I was thinking US/Honduras at what is now PayPal Park.

 

I was at that match too but it all gets blurry which was which. I'm pretty sure I took public transportation back downtown for that one too. I'll be using it again for the Minnesota match so hopefully they'll have it set up well with some trains stacked up and also hope a heat wave (relatively) hits the region that week!

 

Coming from someone who lives in Minneapolis I’m excited about the first World Cup qualifying match in Minnesota but also I know that it has the potential to be seriously cold. On a positive note, last year we had a high of 46° on February 2, which is balmy compared to our normal February temps.

 

100% the second option, win or lose. The after party at the Pitch in Cincy was great. I don't remember exactly but I don't recall there being bars near PayPal (Avaya then) in San Jose. Maybe I just went out the wrong exit.

 

i actually work in the weather field so I pulled up some data for the hell of it and I see that indeed 2/2/20 had a high of 46F but a low of 31F and maybe more importantly 6 inches of snow fell that day.

Assuming it's a night game well after the sun goes down, the daily lows are probably a more important number. Cincinnati didn't kick off until after 9PM so it was well after 11PM by the time we left the stadium.

 

so just for fun I pulled the Wx data for FEB-2 for Minneapolis since 2010 for High/Low temp and snowfall. Data source: State of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

date high low snowfall
2/2/2010 : 21⁰F / 8⁰F - snow: 10 in.
2/2/2011 : 12⁰F / -4⁰F - snow: 13 in.
2/2/2012 : 36⁰F / 28⁰F - snow: trace
2/2/2013 : 9⁰F / 0⁰F - snow: 4 in.
2/2/2014 : 14⁰F / -7⁰F - snow: 15 in.
2/2/2015 : 16⁰F / 0⁰F - snow: trace
2/2/2016 : 30⁰F / 24⁰F - snow: 1 in.
2/2/2017 : 17⁰F / 8⁰F - snow: trace
2/2/2018 : 12⁰F / -7⁰F - snow: 4 in.
2/2/2019 : 39⁰F / 12⁰F - snow: 4 in.
2/2/2020 : 46⁰F / 31⁰F - snow: 6 in.

so what's interesting to me is in 4 of the 11 years the low was 0⁰F or lower (i.e., really cold). Also, that in all 11 years there was at least some trace snowfall, with 3 of the years being significant (10 inches or more).

before some climo scientist slams me I know 11 years of data for a single day doesn't mean a whole lot and certainly I'm not trying to forecast what the weather will be like 2 months from now, just throwing this out there for fun.