2013 comes with a mission for US Soccer: Making the 2014 World Cup, to be held in Brazil. The last hurdle to that goal is CONCACAF's fourth round of qualifying, known "the Hex": ten games against Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, and Panama. The top three qualify directly to the World Cup; the fourth has to play a home-and-home qualifier against the top team from OFC (which will likely be New Zealand).
I've decided that my mission in 2013 is to go to all ten of the games in the Hex. I'm still not sure that this is at all feasible, but I'm determined to make a go of it. The biggest question is getting time off; I think I'll be able to make the travel reasonable if I put some effort into doing it somewhat frugally.
The first game is February 6 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Honduras being first makes me a bit nervous. To be truthful: I've not traveled much outside of my comfort zone. Sure, I did make the trip to the Azteca in Mexico City in 2009, but D.F. sounds like a cakewalk compared to what I've heard about Honduras these days. Plus, it helps when you have friends going with you, including those who've gone before.
I haven't bought my plane tickets yet because I've been waiting to hear from the American Outlaws about who else is going. US Soccer has said they'll help arrange some security for travelers, but will only be able to do that if fans will be staying at the same hotel. (So, AO... throw me a bone here, eh?)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment