Best and Worst of the World Cup

Greatest Things About the 2006 World cup

1. You get to say Zinedine Zidane a lot (fun during the 1998 World Cup too)
2. A great chance to meet people from all over the world.
3. Very well organized (the Germans are good at that)
4. Wasn’t as crowded as you would expect
5. Chance to watch soccer fanaticism at its finest
6. Fan Fests in all the cities were awesome
7. Australians and Brazilians still party whether they win or lose
8. Seeing the enthusiasm in my son playing soccer outside the games
9. Beautiful places around Germany to visit in between the games
10. The weather – sunny and warm almost every day the 3 weeks we were there
11. The stadiums were all wonderful and the new ones gorgeous
12. Germany was a great host for the World Cup
13. Affordable housing (we rented an apartment and had a cheap hotel)
14. We got tickets from FIFA for 3 games and only had to pay face value.
15. Chinese Tower Beer Garden in the English Garden – the best place to watch the final match (and you could actually buy grilled fish and hear an oompa band!)

Worst Things About The World Cup

1. $500-$5000 tickets for matches if you didn’t get them from FIFA
2. Only Budweiser beer at all the games.
3. Police at games give you WWII nightmares
4. Munich failed with transit to semi-final game and parking.
5. Difficulty finding healthy meals (for us vegetable focused folks)
6. Expensive to fly there if you waiting until last minute (we used FF miles)
7. Watching Brazil fizzle out during the France match
8. Expensive transit $2.75 one way to ride a bus or train
9. Official sponsors on everything (even cologne)
10. When Zidane headbutted the Italian player. (my instincts said the Italian guy must have said something really aweful to him for that to happen)

At least the Good outweighs the bad.