For those that don’t know, I’m a huge football (soccer) fan. One of my friends from college got me hooked about 4 years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’m a loyal follower of Tottenham Hotspur, and also follow FC Barcelona on the side. About 3 years back, I was fortunate enough to be in Munich for the 2006 World Cup. While I didn’t have tickets to any matches, the atmosphere alone was incredible. We visited Salzburg and Prague while we were over in Europe as well, and those cities were had the World Cup buzzing as well. Nothing better than watching Argentina play in the Old Town square in Prague on huge big screens while eating some dinner and drinking a Pilsner.
So this brings us to 2009, where the first round of random draw tickets for the 2010 World Cup took place. I put my application in about a month or so ago, and went for the priciest tickets hoping the economy would push people away, and the fact that South Africa is one of the more difficult places to get to around the world. There is an option to accept lower price tickets if you don’t get the pricey ones, so I checked that off as well. I really don’t care if I’m sitting on the roof, I just want to see the game live. So we waited a couple weeks for the draw, and heard nothing. I guess FIFA once again got buried in applications (1.65 million) as was a tad behind on notices. I was paying my credit card a few days later, and had noticed quite a large charge that had cleared…..from FIFA…WOOT!
Cape Town
But still no email for full confirmation, so I was still a little skeptical. I could also check online through FIFA, but the same status “Still Pending.” A few more days went by, and I finally got the email that confirmed that we got tickets to both games I put in for, and kind of unluckily, got the priciest tickets available. Oh well, what do I care, how many World Cups you really going to go to?? I’m pretty pumped, especially since both games are in Cape Town, and they are only 3 days apart, and we are pitch-side for both matches. The first match is a #3 vs #4, but the second match is #1 vs #2, so we are guaranteed to see one of the top 8 teams in the world….at least at the time of the draw. Obviously I’d be over the moon if we got to see England play, but there are so many countries that would be fun to watch. At the current time, based on the international ranking of teams in the world, we would see one of the following:
Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, England or Croatia
I don’t think I’d mind watching any of those teams live to be honest 🙂 It will be another 8 months until the draw and to find out what teams we will actually see, so again we must be patient. The plan of attack now is to figure out how we are getting there, where we’ll stay, and what else we can see while we are in that part of the world. I’m thinking we could see Zambia and Zimbabwe if we do a side trip to see Victoria Falls, and then maybe a small safari in Botswana, and some beach time out in Mauritius. I don’t think flying all the way to Cape Town for a week is very doable, so why not stay a while and see some places you’ll likely never see again. On top of that, our friends Mike and Charlie got tickets as well already, so this experience won’t be had alone.
Off to start making some coin to pay for this thing. Later
Robben Island
Circling the Globe with the Mulkeens 