My USA World Cup Story From 1994

Going to a World Cup final was on my sporting bucket list along with watching a Brit fight for the heavyweight boxing title at Madison Square Garden and a Brit playing in a Wimbledon tennis final. The three sports having been my favs since a young bairn.

I had already made the decision to combine a tour of the US with going to the World Cup so even though England didn't qualify I still made the trip taking my football mad youngest son who was 17 at the time.

PS. I ticked the boxing off the list by watching Lennox Lewis fight Evander Holyfield in their first title fight at MSG which Lewis controversially lost on points - but Lewis took the title in the rematch.

I've been to Wimbledon but never been lucky enough to get tickets for a final.

Back to the USA 1994

We kicked off the tour in New York for a World Cup that turned out to be one of the most lacklustre in recent times - with the exception of Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland team who  opened their tournament by defeating eventual finalists Italy 1–0.

I had pre-booked match tickets and accommodation all the way up to the semi-final and third place play off but pre-booked final tickets for good seats were a fortune so I decided to take a risk and buy from touts.

Panic sets in

After watching the semi-final between Brazil and Sweden - where I got a photo taken surrounded by those gorgeous Brazilian samba girls that I had ogled in previous World Cups - the touts were still asking crazy prices for the final between Brazil and Italy.

Our seats for the semi-final in the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles were so far back from the pitch it looked like a Subbuteo game and the touts were asking c$500 for those tickets, about $1150 in today's money.

I decided to wait until the third place play-off on the day before the final to see if the prices would drop - but my son was starting to panic that there would be none left.

Keegan & Beckenbauer's friend

On the morning of the third place play off at breakfast in our Los Angeles hotel a guy on the next table leaned over and asked if we were from Newcastle - not a difficult assumption seeing as my son had a Toon shirt on.

The guy was a corpulent German - the all Breitling watch and gold ring type - and in no time was telling us that he was a good friend of Kevin Keegan, Franz Beckenbauer and virtually everybody from the Pope to Ronald Reagan.

Absolute BS was my opinion and then came the 'bite'...

"Do you have tickets for the final" he asked. No? "I have very good tickets for just $200".

Absolute BS was my opinion again. A rip off in the making so I declined the "offer". He gave me his room number just in case I might have second thoughts.

My son couldn't understand why I had refused to buy the tickets - so I gave him a lesson from me, an expert, in spotting BS's and fraudsters.

What happened next?

At the third place match final tickets from the touts hadn't dropped a cent.

So... I was left with paying $1,000 to watch a Subbuteo final or...

Taking a chance on being mugged by the German and buying tickets from him.

'Mr BS Expert' took a chance on being mugged and handed $500 over back at the hotel for what appeared to be genuine tickets in decent seats - and crossed my fingers.

The final

Later that same day when we returned to our room there was a message to call the German - I met him in the bar to be told that for just $100 more...

I could sit with the FIFA delegation in the best seats at the Rose Bowl and travel to the final by limousine with our new best friend. Was this more BS and an even bigger sting?!

No. it was true.

The guy genuinely was a German FIFA official and friends of his had cancelled their flights to the final so he offered the tickets to us - clearly he should not have been selling the tickets but who was I to care.

I was told we had to pretend to be his friends and when we got to the Rose Bowl - the limo waved through to an underground car park - we were to go straight to our seats and not follow him into the FIFA reception room.

My son and I watched the game - a dour 0-0 won by Brazil when Roberto Baggio blasted a deciding penalty kick over the bar -from the best seats in the house for $600 combined and had free drinks and snacks served to us throughout the match.

The limo took us back to the ground by which time me and Helmut were slapping each other's backs and no longer having to pretend we were friends. He had some great stories to tell about football legends and we drank late into the night.

YCMIU... and I haven't :)

It's hard to believe that it was 32 years ago and that my 17 year old son at the time will be 50 on the last day of this year.

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