2026 World Cup

This year, the world cup is happening in North America, and I entered the draw long time ago but did not get any tickets :(. I was looking at the final ticket information in NJ and found that the price was only affordable by sugar daddies (wish I can have one :D). One of my good friends went to the Kansas city and watched the match between Netherlands and Tunisia. The price is $180 per ticket after winning lottery, and the parking was $150. She reported that day as “the ocean of orange”. She said that there were many Netherlands’ fans running on the streets despite of the rain. The local news reported as “The Kansas city people were panic, and they have never seen so many people out on the streets the same time”, which is just hilarious to me :D. Here were some snapshots shared by my friend (many thanks).

In this year’s world cup, the most real, heavy, and touching story must belong to the team of Cape Verde and their goalkeeper Vozinha. In the first match with Spain, after the first half was over, Vozinha was squading down in the field crying and the story reported by the media was, “he finally made it, but his dearest grandparents were not able to see it anymore”. Initially, his mom can’t afford the visa to see his matches in US; the US expedited her visa and later she was in Miami watching Vozinha and Messi’s soccer art. As a person who had done an athlete before, I can understand that this type of happiness was nothing else comparable. “Goalkeeper can be a star” “40 years not too late” “little resources do not matter” — these just first principle manifests in life. I wish you believe that it can be you one day!

Me and the world cup: The world cup to me is not only about soccer but also a grownup event reoccurring every 4 years. The memories are relayed —- every world cup, passing those big TVs in the bars on the streets, I am often thinking what the last, and the last last world cups were like in my life. There were often vivid pictures of what was like in the room where we watched the matches.

My oldest memory of the world up was with my dad. When I was several months old, my dad just gave me a bag of oranges to play and munch in bed, while he can concentrate watching the world cup himself (my mom was at work). After I was getting a little older, I have memories of staying up late or getting up in the middle of night to watch the world cup via a small box of TV, with my dad, and we turned down the volume of TV avoiding disturbing others. My favorite memories, of course, are watching the world cups with friends. Although nowadays many of my friends no longer have such passions or availability, I just made my son to watch the finals with me 🙂 This year, I was walking on the streets of China and admired those big TVs in the bars :). 2022 I was in New York City and did the same thing.