piba del futbol: chasing the beautiful game: argentina

Showing posts with label argentina. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Soccer Fans!

Many friends have asked me to help them understand how to best prepare to take on planning a trip to Brazil for next years World Cup Finals Festivities. As I was writing a message to friends I thought I'd share my research here in case folks are interested:

there are a few parts to this so i'm going to try and break it up for maximum clarity.

Overview: We are in the final phases of qualification for the World Cup Finals. Once qualification is over for each federation the final draw for group round seeding will take place in Rio de Janeiro on Dec 3 2013.

What does that mean? Although ticket sales have begun (see match tickets section) fans will not know whether and/or where their teams will play until the qualification rounds have finished and the draw has taken place.
Why does that matter? Brazil is a big country! If you are planning on following the US and/or other countries through the group rounds they may be playing at a few different stadiums which will include the need for travel within the country.

Basic tournament schedule: The 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals will take place between June 12 and July 13th 2014.

Group round: June 12- June 26
Round of 16: June 28- July 1
Quarter finals: July 4 & 5
Semi- finals: July 8 & 9
3rd place match: July 12
Final match: July 13

Match tickets: Match tickets are being sold a few ways, the first is through travel agents and soccer tour companies. This can be a good deal if you're not interested in figuring out your own logistics. I have included a few links to companies that do this. You will pay a premium for this service. The second way to is to buy your tickets directly from FIFA. In order to make ticket purchasing fair FIFA has a whole complicated processes with phases, i'll do my best to explain.

FIFA has 3 ticket purchasing periods for the international public (Brazilian citizens). Each of the three phases of ticket sales, the first two rounds have a lottery round and a first come first serve round.

Phase 1 (lottery): Aug 20- Oct1
Phase 1 (first come first serve): Nov 5- Nov 28
Phase 2 (lottery): Dec 8- Jan 30
Phase 2 (first come first serve): Feb 26- April 1
Phase 3 (last min sales phase): Apr 15- July 13

What does that mean? This means that between rounds tickets can only be purchased through travel agents etc.
Whats the difference between lottery and first come first serve? Lottery means you apply for tickets and FIFA will let you know if they can approve your request. First come first serve sales will indicate as you purchase whether or not your request will be granted.
You can apply for individual tickets, ticket packages for a specific host city stadium or tickets for a specific team. Once your team has qualified team specific packages make most sense. You can buy team packages from 3 matches to 7 matches. If you purchase a 7 match package and your team only makes it through the group round you can still attend the round matches for which you purchased tickets. Here is a table with general costs for tickets per match round.
If you're confused read this ticketing guide from FIFA to get even more confused.

Travel & Host Cities: Depending on where your team is playing you'll likely have to travel around Brazil on domestic flights, trains or busses. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are both centrally located in relationship to the other host cities. See map of all host cities here.

My two cents.

The best bang for your buck is attending the group rounds through the round of 16. you get games every few days and you can either follow your team around or hang out in a specific host city and catch all the games that take place there.

Don't wait until the Dec 6 drawing to try and buy tickets if you really want to go. Buy a flight to a major city and figure out lodging and domestic travel later, its not worth tickets selling out or being forced to pay way more for tickets from agents.

If you have the funds I would apply for USA specific match packages now. Now that we have qualified it's going to be a rat race to get tickets. If you can't do it now my best advice is do it before the Dec draw.

Nate and I haven't made final plans yet and our visit is a little more complicated because we are trying to follow 2 teams but as we settle on plans i'll let you all know in the event you want to make adjacent plans. As of right now we are planning to be in Brazil for the group round and the round of 16 and will travel around Brazil and Argentina for a week or two maybe coming back for the semi or final match if things work out.

It's a lot of info I know but shit is complicated!

USA! ARGENTINA!

Vamos a Brazil!

Saturday, August 3, 2013

getting ready for brazil 2014

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

sweet relief

messi trained with the team and will be starting against colombia!

Monday, May 6, 2013

locura: el superclasico

craziness at the argentine superclasico (river plate v. boca juniors) at la bonbonera in Buenos Aires yesterday led to the closure of two fan sections.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Amazing Lionel Messi Interview on 60 min

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

El único hábitat que complica los retos de Messi

Monday, March 25, 2013

they say it's tough to play in mexico city

try la paz, bolivia.

i'm baaack! & we're number 3!

it's been a while i know. but things are heating up and we are rumbo al mundial!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

"En la Argentina, Messi pasó de la mentira a Dios"

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

when it really counts....

it's been a while amigos! but i'm back... just in time for world cup qualifiers for CONMEBOL and CONCACAF.

last friday messi provided a master class against uruguay in my beloved mendoza while the US made every minute count in a lack luster performance against antigua and barbuda.

today, i am not watching the argentina game but we were up 2-0 at half time with another gol by messi and the US is bouncing back from a crappy start with a convincing lead against guatemala.

it's amazing to see a US dominated crowd in the heart of the country (sporting kansas city). that's how our boys should get rooted on every single time they play on american soil... that's how the rest of the world does it.

on a last note, i think i finally forgave deuce for leaving fulham.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

clash of the titans: argentina v. brazil at metlife stadium, NJ

in case you live under a rock and missed it each team tied at 34 wins a piece against each other with 24 draws, my albiceleste took on the samba boys in new jersey last saturday june 9th in an EPIC match for the ages.

argentina won 4-3 with a hat trick from king leo,

wacth his 3 and game winning goal here.

LEO SOS EL MAS GRANDE!