Joy and despair in Hamburg
- 30 Jun 06, 12:26 AM
HAMBURG – The incident between Svan and a gate post, leaving us spending the night on a Fiat garage forecourt, brought me crashing down to earth after what I thought was my biggest achievement of the trip.
I managed to purchase a World Cup ticket via Fifa’s website.
After three weeks of frustration, clicking on apparently available tickets to be met with the message “Sorry, no reservation possible”, I was beginning to think it was a sick joke Fifa were playing on me.
I’m sure I must have clocked up four figures in failed ticket applications.
I was on the verge of asking this blog if anybody had succeeded in buying tickets this way, just to assure myself it was possible and I wasn’t going mad.
Fletch got through twice, once he didn’t have my details with him and the second time my login didn’t work.
But third time lucky, eh?
I am now the proud owner of two tickets for Friday night’s quarter-final in Hamburg, although the 185 euro price tag did stay my hand a little over the confirm button.
So on Thursday morning I was full of the joys of spring looking forward to seeing my second match of the tournament.
And then I totalled Svan.
I’d like to offer a number of excuses, but all of them pale into insignificance against the fact that it was me at the wheel.
Happily, though, our encounters with helpful Germans has continued to the extent that the customer services chap at this garage offered me a map of Hamburg, instructions to the nearest tube stop and use of the toilet facilities – much better than many of the campsites at which we’ve stayed.
As long as they can patch us up on Friday, I’ll be well up for the game again.
I can’t see past Italy really, but there do seem to be three Ukraine players in your team of the tournament so far, so who knows?
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Grats, your probably bought some overpriced tickets for the worst match this round, inability vs great hollywood style acting.
Why there are 3 ukraine players in that team of tournament is beyond me. Maybe i'm seeing different games.
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I think that the Italy v Ukraine game could be a suprise package. Certainly none of the top teams have performed well this tournament, and with a player of Shevchenko's skill, and understanding of Italian football we could see a cracking game of football, with a few disappointed Italian hearts at the end.
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On buying tickets via the FIFA website, we met a couple of Munich fans (one Bayern, one 1860, both of whom were also supporting Ghana) after Ghana-USA at the fanfest and one of them, being a computer programmer, had some kit (which he avoided describing in detail) that allowed him to pre-empt other people applying for tickets on the FIFA website (a bit like a sniper programme used to buy stuff on e-bay but doubtlessly more complex). Still, he was a nice enough bloke and we had a good chat about FIFA's branding of the tournament and the presence of good German beer at the fanfest.
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It depends on which Sheva shows up - the overly emotional guy who can't find the net or the leader Ukraine needs. We've seen both along the way. As for the team that tied the US, they looked much improved against the Australians, but not enough to worry Argentina.
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It is surprising that Fifa website sometimes play with the people. So, it is expected that Fifa website would be up to date so that people can get the recent news and information about world cup. You are lucky that you got the ticket at the end but there are some people who have failed to turn their dream true especially in the Asia Fifa’s ticket distribution policy is not so much satisfactory. If anyone say that Italy v Ukraine match would be a dull match then I want to say that both the team have proved their performance in the first two round and this the round like do or die, so there will certainly have something exciting for the fans.
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In the intial preparation phases for Germany VS Argentina, the streets of Miami appeared to be full of flags of Argentina and Germany. I also saw one house with three German Flags.
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As my wife is German and a fully fledged convert to the three lions my mates at work are up in arms about her patrionage.Throw in a the fact that we were not to long ago in a bit of a tiz with Argentina...and I live in Germany working for a German company....I am thinking of changing my job as a carpenter to Diplomatic Ambassador for Anglo German relations board...!! Come on England !!
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