Thursday, July 1, 2021

This Weekend's Soccer Dilemma

OK, so there has been no international soccer yesterday nor today.  But it's going to blow up this weekend, and I'm in a bind.

Quadruple header Friday.  I'm going to go see the Spain-Switzerland Quarterfinal tomorrow at 11 at some bar, and hopefully they'll turn it up.  I'm going to have to miss the end of the Italy-Belgium Quarterfinal because I start work, so I'll be home by the time it kicks off at 2.  I might be able to listen to the Peru-Paraguay in its entirety at 4, depending on if I get to work at a station where I can listen to Sirius XM (that's a two-in-three chance) and if I have to get up and doff off my headphones to work (and I probably will have to, unfortunately).  For Brazil-Chile at 7, I'll have the run of the place to myself, so I'll be able to crank it up ... and hear Brazil rout Chile.

Saturday, I'm afraid, is a bad dilemma, and it's my fault.  One of the two Minnesota United FC Matches I bought after opting out of my season ticket this Year is Saturday's Game vs. San Jose.  It did not dawn on me, at all, that I bought a ticket for a day where there will be four international soccer tournament Matches will be playing.  I bought a ticket for that Game for two reasons.  The minor reason is because I thought the Loons could beat the Earthquakes.  The main reason is I kind of thought there would be 4th of July fireworks at Allianz Field after the Match is over.  I have no concrete information that the team would.  I just thought they would because baseball teams have fireworks after their Games.

For the past week or so I've been trying to sell my ticket.  First I went for gold; there is a ticket for another Game later in the summer I could attend, but it's a little more expensive than the ticket I bought for Saturday's Match, so I listed it at a price that would allow me to pay for that pricier seat.  Three days, no one bought.  So I lowered the price to one where I would recoup the money I paid for the seat I bought.  One day, no one bought.  Last night while scoring tests I went on Seatgeek and lowered it twice.  No dice.  And this morning I lowered it, one more time, at a huge discount, priced to move.  I haven't checked yet, but if no one buys it at the price, well, it no one's gonna buy it.

Game's at 7.  The 11 o'clock Denmark-Czech Republic Quarterfinal I'll get to see at another bar.  I'll come home and eat an early dinner while watching England-Ukraine at 2.  But if I want to see as much soccer as possible, I might have to leave early.  Because that Uruguay-Colombia Quarterfinal intrigues me, but that's at 5.  The stadium isn't open that early, and yet I won't be able to just vege out at a bar close to Allianz all Match because I'll miss at least the start of the MNUFC Game.  And forget Argentina-Ecuador at 8; I might be able to catch the Second Half, but will I be able to watch it at the stadium bar, or will I have to go somewhere else?  It might be an Argentinian rout; that might be the only saving grace for missing it.

Now that I have written my plight on Wailing And Failing, I really hate myself for buying a ticket for Saturday.  Otherwise I could just go home and watch and listen to three soccer Matches on the TV and radio, and I'll avoid the numbskulls that might be marauding around town that night, doubly hyped-up because it's a Saturday night, triply hyped-up because it's Independence Weekend.

And I'm not gonna get to see fireworks, either.

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