Getting Really Close Now : World Cup Russia 2018

Getting Really Close Now : World Cup Russia 2018

So last week, the ‘Last Minute’ Ticket Sales period opened for business, and unlike other years, we did not need to rush to get our hands on some missing tickets. Obviously, we have all the tickets we wanted, with the exception of the World Cup final match, that we will now only be able to get if we get incredibly lucky. I have maxed out my allocation of tickets, (tickets for 7 matches), so I am keeping my fingers crossed that either Yates or David are able to get their hands on those rarest of tickets…

As in the past, there may be a facility to get our hands on tickets that are returned before matches kick off, so we are hopeful that this option may be available to us. 

Anyway, here are the games for which we have tickets:

Match 4 – St. Petersburg - Morocco vs Iran
Match 17 – St. Petersburg - Russia vs Egypt
Match 25 – St. Petersburg - Brazil vs Costa Rica
Match  39 – St. Petersburg - Nigeria vs Argentina
Match 51 – Moscow - Winner of Group B v 2nd in Group A
Match 56 – Moscow - Winner of Group H v 2nd in Group G
Match 62 – Moscow - Winner of M59 v Winner of M60

The later matches in our schedule look like they could be interesting with the teams most likely to move forward from Groups A & B include teams such as Russia, Uruguay, Spain & Portugal, and any combination of those 4 teams would make for an exciting match. The teams most likely to progress out of Groups H & G are a bit more difficult to predict, but could include any 2 of the following 4 teams; Belgium, England, Poland & Columbia.

So we are getting close now…… For Fiona & I it is only 20 days until we start on our trip with a flight to Australia & Alice Springs. 19 days later we will meet up with Yates in St. Petersburg, which is just 8 days before the whole tournament kicks-off…. 

Happy New World Cup Year: World Cup 2018 Russia

Happy New World Cup Year: World Cup 2018 Russia

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted, but we are now well into 2018 and all the arrangements for our trip have now been made. 

Work has been busy for me for the past few months, so I have not really been thinking about the trip much. But now we are about halfway through March, I have suddenly realised that it is only about 2 month before we head away, (62 days in fact), and the excitement rises again. 

All the fights are arranged, the various hotels and AirBnB apartments booked and paid for, and nearly all the tickets we set out to buy have almost been brought. We are ready....

The full plan for Fiona & I is to head off to Australia for a couple of weeks in late

May, where we will be renting a camper van and driving from Alice Springs to Sydney.... From there we fly to St. Petersburg where we will meet Yates and a rotating cast of his family members, staying for about 3 weeks, and attending 4 matches. At the end of June we will transition from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where we spend almost another 3 weeks, taking in 3 matches, and if we can get tickets, the World Cup final, before Fiona & I head off to Barcelona to celebrate Fiona's birthday for a week or so.... The last leg of our trip will be a handful of days in Hong Kong to depressurise and relax from our hectic holiday schedule, before heading back toward the New Zealand Winter.....

Only 90 Days until the World Cup Kicks off....

The results of the World Cup Finals Draw: World Cup 2018 Russia

The results of the World Cup Finals Draw: World Cup 2018 Russia

So after 3 years of qualifying and hundreds and hundreds of games of football around the globe, the draw for the World Cup Finals in Russia took place last weekend, and we now know which teams we will be seeing in the group matches we already have tickets for. They are: -

Match 4 - Morocco vs Iran

Match 17 - Russia vs Egypt

Match 25 - Brazil vs Costa Rica

Match  39 - Nigeria vs Argentina

So whilst the Morocco v Iran game is a bit of a low-wattage match, the other 3 games in the group stage look quite good. From experience, it is always great when you can attend a match with the world cup hosts involved, as there is generally a great atmosphere, and Russia v Egypt could be a significant game in the scheme of things, (Egypt are my tip of a bit of a dark horse…!). And anytime you get to see Brazil or Argentina play is always a special event, so overall, I am quite happy with the draw so far. 

Using my understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of each of the teams, and based on who I think will finish 1^st & 2^nd in their respective groups, there could be a good chance that we could see later games in the tournament involving teams such as Spain, Uruguay & England. And if my "guessing" is correct and matches go to form, there is a potential Argentina v Germany semi-final in our future… How about that….!

The next round of Ticket Sales open in the next few days, and we are still after tickets to Match 56 and the elusive World Cup Final match, so keep your fingers crossed for us that we do well in the next random lottery.

Germany to Win the World Cup...?? : World Cup Russia 2018

Germany to Win the World Cup...?? : World Cup Russia 2018

In my last Blog, I forecast that the following 8 teams would be successful in making it through to the final 32 of the World Cup qualifying process: -

Italy / Croatia / Denmark / Ivory Coast / Peru / Northern Ireland / Australia / Senegal / Tunisia

Well, I got 5 out of the 8 right, so not too bad. Almost no one was expecting Italy to be defeated by Sweden and miss out on their first World Cup Finals since 1958, but they did..! Switzerland managed to bully their way past Northern Ireland, and Ivory Coast conspired to loose out in their qualifying group to Morocco.

So there you have it, the final 32 teams for next year’s World Cup Finals.

The Final Draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia is happening in Moscow on Friday 1 December, and will start at 18:00 local time. It is live on TV here in New Zealand at 4am on Saturday, and I will set my alarm to get up and see it.

The draw itself is generally a very convoluted and complex thing, and I have found a YouTube video to explain it: https://youtu.be/jDkn83FwioA

Obviously being a geek, I have conducted my own unofficial draw to see if I can guess which matches we will be seeing in the opening group games, and come up with the following:

M4 Costa Rica v Saudi Arabia

M17 Russia v Sweden

M25 France v Iceland

M39 Panama v Belgium

As I am a bit of a nerd, I have also done a complete mock-up of the whole of the Tournament based upon who I think will progress through the group stages to identify who we might see in the succeeding games:

M51 Brazil v Sweden

M56 Poland v Switzerland

M62 Belgium v Portugal

M64 Germany v Belgium

So I am forecasting that it will be a Germany v Belgium final, with Germany going on to lift the World Cup in 2018…!! 

I wish I could predict England for the World Cup......, but that would be madness...

The end of Qualifying. Who will qualify..? : World Cup 2018 Russia

The end of Qualifying. Who will qualify..? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, enough about tickets and travel arrangements, it’s time to look at the World Cup Qualifiers, and who is going to make it into the last 32 teams to play in Russia. So far the following teams have qualified :

Russia / Brazil / Germany / Spain / France / Portugal / Argentina / Mexico / Belgium / South Korea / England  / Nigeria / Columbia / Japan / Costa Rica / Poland / Egypt / Iceland / Iran / Saudi Arabia / Serbia / Panama

From my perspective, the most significant team that is not on that list is the USA, who somehow manage to contrive to throw away their chance to reach the finals with some incredibly poor results in their last few game, not helped by results elsewhere. After having done so well in Brazil in 2014, it feels like a real backward step for US football, and I genuinely hope that they can turn things around over the next few years and make a better fist of it for 2022.

There are however still 9 places left to be taken for next year’s finals, and over the coming weekend the last round of qualifying and knock out games will take place. As is tradition, I am going to try and guess which teams are going to make it through to the finals. The African Conference are playing their last qualifying games to sort out who goes through, and I am going to choose Senegal, Tunisia & the Ivory Coast.

In Europe, there are 4 play-off games taking place, and I have highlighted who I think will go through over two legs below:-

Croatia v Greece / Northern Ireland v Switzerland / Sweden v Italy / Denmark v Rep of Ireland

The 5^th place team in Central American Conference, Honduras, are playing off against runners-up in the Asian qualifying, Australia, and I choose Australia to win that one. This is based on nothing more than me holding Honduras accountable for knocking the USA out of next year’s tournament with their ridiculous late goal in qualifying.

Last but not least is my adopted home country New Zealand, (winners of the somewhat farcical Oceania qualifying group), are playing Peru, who finished 5^th in the South American Conference. If my heart ruled my head, which it is apt to do on occasion, I would go for New Zealand, but if I really thought they stood a chance, I would have brought tickets to the play-off game and thrown my support behind them. But alas not…. So unfortunately I am choosing Peru to go through.

So there you have it…. I am expecting Italy / Croatia / Denmark / Ivory Coast / Peru / Northern Ireland / Australia / Senegal / Tunisia go through after this round of play-off games…

How will I do….?

We have Tickets..... Yay : World Cup 2018 Russia

We have Tickets..... Yay : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well stone the crows…..!!

The result of the First Sales Phase lottery are in, and we have been very, very lucky and scooped almost all the tickets we requested, how about that….!!

We have received confirmation of match tickets for each of the following 6 games, out of the 8 games that wanted to see: 

• M4  - Friday, 15 June 2018 - 18.00 - St. Petersburg
• M17 - Tuesday, 19 June 2018 - 21.00 - St. Petersburg (this game will include the hosts Russia)
• M25 - Friday, 22 June 2018 - 15.00 - St. Petersburg
• M39 - Tuesday, 26 June 2018 - 21.00 - St. Petersburg
• M51 - Sunday, 1 July 2018 - 17.00 -  Moscow Luzhniki
• M62 - Wednesday, 11 July 2018 - 21.00 -  Moscow Luzhniki 

We missed out on the following:

• M56 - Tuesday, 3 July 2018 - 21.00 - Moscow Spartak
• M64 (World Cup Final) – Sunday, 15 July 2018 - 18.00 -  Moscow Luzhniki 

I am not surprised about not getting the Finals tickets, as they are always in high demand, but we still have 4 additional sales phase to try and get the remaining tickets.

Now all we need is the qualification to finish and the draw to take place to know what matches we will be attending at next summer’s competition.

Only 227 Days, 18 hours, 25 minutes until the 2018 World Cup kicks off...!!

Tickets go on Sale… What..?? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Tickets go on Sale… What..?? : World Cup 2018 Russia

Well, unbeknownst to me, and at odds with any information I have previously found on the FIFA website, or any other site on the internet come to that, the first of the ticket sales phases for World Cup 2018 Russia has started…??

The Sales Phases are organised as follows:

Sales Phase 1

-     Random Selection Lottery Period – From 14^th September to 12^th October 2017

-     First Come, First Served Period – From 14^th November to 28^th November 2017

Sales Phase 2

-     Random Selection Lottery Period – From 5^th December 2017 to 31^st January 2018

-    First Come, First Served Period – From 13^th March to 3^rd April 2018

Last Minute Sales Phase – From 18^th April to 15^th July 2018

So that means that Yates and I need to sort our ticketing strategy to make the most of the 5 available opportunities we have to buy tickets. We need a ticketing strategy as we are after tickets for 8 location-specific matches, split between St. Petersburg & Moscow, for up to 8 people. This is a problem in itself as applicants can only apply for a max of up to 7 matches, and for a maximum of up to 4 tickets per match. But we have a cunning plan…..

If ticketing works out the way it has over the past handful of World Cups, we will get some of the tickets we want in each sales phase, with the only real sticking point being getting our hands on tickets for the World Cup Final, which we have been unable to do for the past 6 World Cup Tournaments. But we will be in Moscow at the time of the Final and will try everything we can to get are sweaty little hands on those oh so elusive Finals tickets…. 

Wish us luck…!