I was the first person to my car in the U.S. Cellular Field parking lot and the race was on. Could I get to Toyota Park, buy a ticket and get into the stadium within 20 minutes? Since both U.S. Cellular Field and Toyota Park are relatively close to Chicago’s Interstate-55 it was definitely possible.
Parking and Obtaining TicketsI was at the Toyota Park parking lot at 6:55 pm (luckily for me there was no Saturday evening Chicago traffic) and used my media parking pass to park quickly. Since Jamie Trecker, …

Rather than squeeze in the White Sox game (first pitch 3:05 pm) in between the two international contests, we chose to head to the restaurants by Soldier Field. After taking our time leaving Toyota Park, we parked in a lot between S. Wabash Ave. and S. Michigan Ave. on 14th St. for $25 around 4 pm – giving us plenty of time before the 7:15 pm kickoff.
While searching for parking, we saw the American Outlaws partying outside of Weather Mark Tavern – a bar the Ultimate Sports Wife and I …

Today is International sporting event day in Chicago. At 1 pm, USA Rugby hosts Wales at Toyota Park in a friendly. At 7:15 pm, USA Soccer hosts Honduras in the first World Cup Qualifier hosted at Soldier Field. I am planning to attend both games with Blackhawks Jim and his son Carl. The Ultimate Sports Wife and Blackhawks Jim’s wife and daughter are planning to attend the rugby match.

We went back to Dusseldorf’s Altstadt area before taking the train to Mönchengladbach for our third and final soccer match. While in Altstadt we saw Arminia Bielefeld fans wandering the area. Since Mönchengladbach is not mentioned in the guide books it probably makes sense to stay in Dusseldorf if planning to attend a Borussia Mönchengladbach match.
My brother, being tired of German food and multiple sausages, decided we should eat at the Italian restaurant across the way from Uerige – Ristorante La Grappa. While eating lunch, we considered the idea of …

We woke up early Saturday morning in order to take the train from Heidelberg to Dusseldorf. Bayer Leverkusen was playing in Dusseldorf for the second half of the season because they were re-building their stadium in Leverkusen. We had chosen to attend the Bayer Leverkusen match rather than the Borussia Dortmund match for several reasons:
1) Borussia Dortmund was sold out and Bayer Leverkusen was not.2) Dortmund was further away than staying in Dusseldorf.3) We had a friends and family certificate to stay at Marriott hotels. Dusseldorf has a Renaissance Hotel …

After spending the first day in Frankfurt, we took the train from Frankfurt to Heidelburg on Friday morning with the plan to attend the Bundesliga match between Hertha Berlin and 1899 Hoffenheim.
Any trip to Heidelberg should include a tour of the Old Town, Heidelberg Castle and the University of Heidelberg (the home of Sociology). We spent Friday afternoon touring the city after the Marriott would not allow us to check in early.
Obtaining TicketsWhile still in Chicago, I did research on how to purchase tickets for the Bundesliga matches we planned …

Back in late March, my brother (who lives in San Francisco) and I decided we should take a weekend trip somewhere. At the time, airfares to fly overseas were pretty inexpensive and we narrowed our list down to three choices: 1) Australia, 2) Tokyo, or 3) Germany
We determined that Australia was too far to fly for a long weekend, even though round trip airfares to Melbourne were only $700 from San Francisco and $850 from Chicago – unheard of low fares.
Tokyo was similarly priced to Australia but not nearly …

To my disappointment, the Primera Division did not schedule any soccer matches for the weekend in Mexico City. Three teams could have been home (America, Cruz Azul, or Pumas UNAM), but none were. The next best option was to travel to Pachuca which is 88 kilometers from Mexico City.
On Friday night I had negotiated with the cab driver to drive me to Pachuca – about a 90 minute drive from Mexico City accounting for some traffic. Before the soccer match Saturday night, I could not figure out …

A few years ago, I started using my birthday to attend random sporting events that Nicole would never attend if it was not my birthday. In 2004 we attended the Gary Steelheads of the CBA, in 2005 we attended the Chicago Storm of the MISL and in 2007 we attended the Chicago Shamrox of the NLL.
This year was a little different in that I chose an event that was outside of Chicago and a much better event – the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team was hosting Mexico in a …

In the first Champions League match I have attended since 2001, Arsenal defeated Dynamo Kyiv 1-0 on a late goal by Nicklas Bendtner. Once again, I attended the match with “Hospitality Jim” who started to think I was an Arsenal jinx since Arsenal had played 177 minutes without scoring a goal with me in attendance. Instead, with a free kick from beyond the mid field line, Cesc Fabregas launched a pass to Nicklas Bendtner who put the ball in the net for the only goal of the game.
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