After stage 7 of the Vuelta a Espana was over, I met Nicole at the El Corte Ingles. Rather than drive to Valencia’s city center, I thought we should check out the area surrounding Levante’s home stadium – Estadio Ciudad de Valencia. However, there was not much in terms of restaurants so we drove back to the city center.
Pre Game DiningLast Sunday, before the Valencia football match, we spotted a couple of pintxo restaurants opening as we were leaving for the Mestalla. Thus, Nicole wanted to try …

With a limited number of sporting events in the region, I chose to attend the Copa del Rey second round match between two Segunda Division B teams (Spain’s Third Division) – CD Alcoyano and Villajoyosa C.F. Last year, Villajoyosa was in the Tercera Division (Spain’s Fourth Division), but was promoted to the next level this after they won the division last year.
I chose to attend this match because, 1) Alcoy is the closest city to where Nicole and I are staying in Spain (about a 30 minute drive) and …

The Ultimate Sports Wife and I decided to spend the afternoon touring Valencia since we had decided to watch Valencia square off against Sevilla at 7 pm on La Liga’s opening weekend.
Obtaining TicketsI had already bought two tickets to Sunday’s match on Thursday night so we would not have to deal with buying tickets on Sunday evening. We may have been able to beat the 20 euros ticket price at the window but taking our time to get to Estadio Mestalla was worth the peace of mind for not …

One part of Spanish soccer I do like is the late start times of soccer matches. La Liga’s weekly Saturday night contest begins at 10 pm (meaning it ends close to midnight) – no sporting event in the United States has that scheduled start time. Last season, I remember thinking it was crazy that Game 2 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs had an 8:37 pm start time at Wrigley Field.
Thus, I should not have been surprised when the Europa League Play-off match …

The main event of the soccer doubleheader was between FC Barcelona and Chivas Guadalajara – a match that I attended at Soldier Field on August 3 last year. With Leo Messi and Thierry Henry playing for Barcelona, the first half of the game was exciting even though neither team scored a goal. After all of the star players were removed in the second half both teams scored a goal – Barcelona in the 49th minute and Chivas in the 63rd minute.
During the second half the Mexican fans lighted …

Today is a complicated day for three sporting events – at least two of them are at the same venue. The wife and my original reason for being in San Francisco is for Nicole’s sociology conference – the American Sociological Association’s annual event. She is giving a presentation scheduled for 4:30 pm this afternoon (Saturday) and to be a good husband I thought I would attend.
With the San Francisco Giants game starting at 1:05 pm and a soccer doubleheader at Candlestick Park (Game 1 is between the San …

Game 2 of the doubleheader started at 9 pm and what else could you ask for when sitting in a luxury box at Soldier Field with unlimited food and drinks – extra time and penalty kicks to make the night last as long as possible.
After the hour long break between matches, Liam and I walked back into the luxury box and to our surprise a Soldier Field employee asked to see our tickets. I guess we did not “look” like we were supposed to be in the box with …

After witnessing history at U.S. Cellular Field Thursday afternoon, I headed to Soldier Field to watch the Gold Cup doubleheader Thursday evening. As I wrote yesterday, my friend Liam called me with luxury box tickets for the event – the first time I would sit in a luxury box at Soldier Field.
Pre GameI took the train back from U.S. Cellular Field to the Roosevelt red line stop where I was to meet Liam. As I walked by Sam’s Wines and Liquors, I noticed they had a wine tasting …

As I wrote yesterday, one of my favorite sporting event start times are weekday afternoon games. Today I am planning to combine a weekday afternoon baseball game with a Gold Cup soccer doubleheader at Soldier Field. The Chicago White Sox are scheduled to play the Tampa Bay Rays at 1:05 pm. This is the first time I will have seen the Rays play at U.S. Cellular Field since April 23, 2004.
At 6 pm the United States plays Honduras in the first game of the doubleheader followed by …

After the Cubs game, I drove to Toyota Park to watch the friendly match between Cracovia Krakow (of Poland’s Ekstraklasa) and CF Rayados de Monterrey (of Mexico’s Primera División de México).
Obtaining TicketsTickets for the match ranged between $25 and $45 at the box office which I considered expensive. I ended up paying $15 for a “comp” ticket with a face value of $0. But I still saved $10 than buying the ticket at the box office.
The GameMonterrey defeated Krakow 2-0 after scoring goals in the 47th and 71st …