What is there to see and do in Vancouver? strikes me as Auckland but with snow in winter and skifields less than an hour away which does not help in June!.
Yeah some similarities with Auckland. The Chinese have pushed up real estate prices in both! Though that narrative has real legs in pretty Vancouver.
Expensive real estate aside (and wet cold winters) there are good reasons it's always up there near the top of those 'most liveable world city' indexes.
Grouse Mountain, Granville Island and Stanley Park. A ferry across to Victoria on Vancouver Island.
My brother lived there for 3-4 years, and through his work we got a seaplane from Vancouver Harbour to Ladysmith on Vancouver Island, the birthplace of Pamela Anderson. If your budget stretches to a sea plane trip - do it. Very cool
What is there to see and do in Vancouver? strikes me as Auckland but with snow in winter and skifields less than an hour away which does not help in June!.
Go check out Hastings Street... probably the dodgiest street I've ever walked down in a modern western city.
What is there to see and do in Vancouver? strikes me as Auckland but with snow in winter and skifields less than an hour away which does not help in June!.
Go check out Hastings Street... probably the dodgiest street I've ever walked down in a modern western city.
If you are homeless in Canada, Vancouver is the place to be. The one city where you won't freeze to death.
Hi team - have recently perked up to the idea of a world cup trip as 2 games in Vancouver ticks the boxes for me for a number of reasons. I've kind of ignored what the process is for tickets etc as didn't previously think a trip was feasible, but now I'm considering it. What are the options and chances of securing tickets to these games? if this has been discussed previously on this thread let me know. cheers!
That FIFA having Iran (20th) ranked higher than Egypt (34th), have likely got it about right.
Caveat being everyone knows an Egypt with Salah is much stronger than one without.
Remember the despair of Pharaohs fans back in 2018, when Salah got injured in the UCL final by a Sergio Ramos tackle, and looked likely to miss the Russia WC.
He recovered to play their last two pool games, but Egypt lost all 3 matches. From memory the feeling was he wasn't fully fit, and his injury ruined Egypt's chances in Russia.
They didn't qualify in 2022 - losing a qualifying playoff on pens to Senegal.
At 34 next year, will be some pressure on Salah to finally deliver for his country on the big stage. Like us Egypt have never won a WC game. This will be their 4th WC, and beating us will be their minimum benchmark.
Rather than looking at UAE verus Iran & then Egypt, perhaps we should look at the recent November window and a 4 team tourney played in the UAE. Egypt's Euro based guys played then.
Uzbekistan beat Egypt (Salah & Mostafa Mohamed started for the Pharaohs) 2-0 in one semi final. Iran had beaten Cape Verde (on pens) in the other semi.
In the final the Uzbeks beat Iran on pens (0-0 in NT). 3rd/4th playoff Egypt beat Cape Verde on pens (1-1 in NT). Marmoush with Egypt's goal. Salah sat that game out.
In my (humble) estimation Boxall & Bindin will take out Salah, Rufer will strangle Marmoush, and we'll hose it. Long as we score.As for Iran, they're a car crash waiting to happen.20251202_162432.jpg1.7 MB
Ben Sigmund has come out publicly saying Iran will be easier than Egypt, after Nelsen was also sounding very bullish about us playing them. Few people in this thread seem to think Egypt are a lot better too. I don't understand the naiivety. I hope the team isn't so foolish or we could be in for a very rude awakening in our opener. Iran will be seeing the Sigmund and Nelsen comments and they will only serve to motivate them further.
Baze & his analysts have 6 months to pore over all the footage. Doubt there be many surprises or secrets on any team at the WC, by June next year
The AWs team won't pay a moment's notice to what Ben S says. Maybe a little to what legend Nellie muses. Ryan might be coming from the angle lets have self belief and fear no one. He's that sort of leader.
I agree Egypt stack up as the most winnable pool game. In this instance the rankings look correct.
But all 3 matches we will be the underdogs, and need to be at our very best, plus near full strength to get a result. Lets also hope aging 'golden generation' Belgium 2026, are shades of fading reigning WC champs Italy circa 2010.
Canada have their second and third pool games in Vancouver as well, so I suspect they will get first dibs on Team Base camp in Vancouver.
I think reason we did so well in South Africa was having a team base camp that was not a hotel in a city. Looking at the team base camps on Wiki, not sure anything is similar
Hi team - have recently perked up to the idea of a world cup trip as 2 games in Vancouver ticks the boxes for me for a number of reasons. I've kind of ignored what the process is for tickets etc as didn't previously think a trip was feasible, but now I'm considering it. What are the options and chances of securing tickets to these games? if this has been discussed previously on this thread let me know. cheers!
Just bumping this comment as I am also curious. Any takers?
Unfortunately the downside of playing in a smaller-ish city like Vancouver (as opposed to LA for example) seems to be a complete lack of accommodation for less than $1000 per night. Wondering how prohibitively expensive a trip to just see those two games might be.
I signed up for updates on ticket info on the All Whites Hub thing a few months ago.
Seeing the draw today, I realized I'd never heard from them - no emails or anything.
Go to the website now to see what's going on, and apparently, the window for tickets has already closed!
What a shambles - was Ticketek involved?
NZF sent out emails yesterday to the WC Whanau telling us that big things are afoot.
I seem to be getting all their emails except the ones about the world cup.
It says online that a very short second registration window will open soon, but I haven't received any emails about that either.
Looking back through my mails, there was on email on 29th Nov subject "Football Whānau Priority Pass - New Zealand Football Important Update" which said there was an extra registration step that you needed to do by 1pm the 3rd December. I missed that email, and it doesn't look like there were any "Hey, you haven't done this step, please do this" type follow ups. Grrrrr
I signed up for updates on ticket info on the All Whites Hub thing a few months ago.
Seeing the draw today, I realized I'd never heard from them - no emails or anything.
Go to the website now to see what's going on, and apparently, the window for tickets has already closed!
What a shambles - was Ticketek involved?
NZF sent out emails yesterday to the WC Whanau telling us that big things are afoot.
I seem to be getting all their emails except the ones about the world cup.
It says online that a very short second registration window will open soon, but I haven't received any emails about that either.
Looking back through my mails, there was on email on 29th Nov subject "Football Whānau Priority Pass - New Zealand Football Important Update" which said there was an extra registration step that you needed to do by 1pm the 3rd December. I missed that email, and it doesn't look like there were any "Hey, you haven't done this step, please do this" type follow ups. Grrrrr
I missed it too but sent a polite email to NZF asking to be added. Flying Kiwis also trying to get something sorted (I think). Having been on many Flying Kiwi gigs, it will be a lot of fun, especially for the younger (at heart) fans here.
Personally I'm trying to get as many AW and Iran games as I can. I see Seattle is going to do a pride game on the day Iran beats Egypt. That may not go down well with certain quarters of either team.
For those thinking Egypt is better then Iran and us, Mo is going to be owned by Boxy.
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites
Hi team - have recently perked up to the idea of a world cup trip as 2 games in Vancouver ticks the boxes for me for a number of reasons. I've kind of ignored what the process is for tickets etc as didn't previously think a trip was feasible, but now I'm considering it. What are the options and chances of securing tickets to these games? if this has been discussed previously on this thread let me know. cheers!
Just bumping this comment as I am also curious. Any takers?
Unfortunately the downside of playing in a smaller-ish city like Vancouver (as opposed to LA for example) seems to be a complete lack of accommodation for less than $1000 per night. Wondering how prohibitively expensive a trip to just see those two games might be.
Am looking at flying/training in as it's so rip off there.
Supporter world's best and worst football teams: Waikato/WaiBop, Kingz, Knights, Phoenix, The Argyle, The Whites & the All Whites
The best option I found for accommodation in Vancouver was the Holiday Inn Express Vancouver Airport. Not an appealing option, particularly, but it's very close to the airport in Richmond and then a 10 minute walk to the Bridgeport Park & Ride station which gets you on the Skytrain into downtown. It's not the line straight to the stadium, but it stops (Yaletown Roundhouse) 10-15 minutes from the stadium. Note, the 'Express' is important because there's a Holiday Inn Vancouver Airport a kilometre away from the Express, but it's a 35-minute walk from the station and more expensive.
Both train stations in Seattle and Vancouver and quite close to the stadiums. The Seattle station is a couple of blocks from Lumen Field and it's a 15-minute walk from Pacific Central in Vancouver to BC Place. I've only ever done it once and it took forever because someone threw themselves in front of a train in Vancouver as we were getting ready to leave, so it took much longer than the scheduled 4 hours, but that's surely exceptional circumstances.
The ferry in Seattle is sort of between downtown and the Space Needle and then it drops you off in Victoria right near downtown. The airport in Victoria is a long way from the city centre, so taking the ferry has a lot of appeal. The downside is the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver dumps you in Tsawwassen, which is 50 km from downtown, but an express bus to Bridgeport station and then the SkyTrain will get you there relatively quickly (75 minutes). From what I've seen Victoria is much cheaper than Vancouver during the tournament (and Victoria is usually quite expensive too) and there were some really affordable options even taking into account the cost of a ferry trip. There was a BnB (not an AirBnB, an actual BnB) attached to a pub that looked quite appealing.
There's an airport in Abbotsford that has an EBus into downtown Vancouver via the Pacific Central train station, but there aren't as many flights to Seattle as I would have expected - and they seem very expensive at the moment. But definitely cheaper to stay way out there than in the city and if you're near that airport there's a fairly quick way to get into the city.
If anyone is thinking of driving, White Rock is just on the Canada side of the border, is beautiful and hotels are reasonable. It's a good hike into the city, but you could drive to a park-and-ride and then take the Skytrain for the last 20-30 kms.
Everything on the North Shore seems expensive. There aren't a lot of options in Coquitlam, but the Skytrain from that part of the city goes straight to the stadium. Downtown was staggering. There's not a lot of great options, but for me, finding a hotel that was expensive, but not insane, near the airport in Richmond and Bridgeport station was the best option I found when I was looking.
We booked an Air BNB for a week in Vancouver when it was announced, 2 people less than $400 a night. Straight bus ride to stadium. I have budgeted $200 pn pp and so far everything is coming in under that.
Controversy around Iran v Egypt in Seattle being chosen for the Pride Match (the date was already pre-chosen by the local organising committee). Other matches not an option as USA v Australia celebrates Juneteenth, and the others involve Egypt or Qatar.
What's bizarre is they had a choice between Iran v Egypt and NZ v Belgium for Seattle or Vancouver that day... wondering if there's still a chance it gets switched around for this reason. Iranian and Egyptian FAs already complained.
What is there to see and do in Vancouver? strikes me as Auckland but with snow in winter and skifields less than an hour away which does not help in June!.
Go check out Hastings Street... probably the dodgiest street I've ever walked down in a modern western city.
Just saw the Fan Fest location in Vancouver... It's in Hastings Park, a big park near the stadium where Landy and Bannister ran the 4-minute mile at the 54 Commonwealth Games... and to get there from downtown on public transportation, your only real option is a bus straight down East Hastings. LOL
coochie hit the highlights for places to see (though there's plenty more depending what you like), but my first piece of advice is to avoid East Hastings and the lower east side in general. Anything east of Main Street (or even east of Columbia tbh) is not a great idea. Once you get east of Gastown it gets really dodgy, really fast. Once you're farther east you're fine. The Fan Fest location should be great, but getting there from downtown looks like an Uber trip IMO. Also, Granville Street (which is right downtown and not far from the stadium) usually has lots of street people and can be lively, but for the Olympics they cleared them all out and I wouldn't be shocked to see the same for the World Cup... but there's no clearing or cleaning up East Hastings.
I signed up for updates on ticket info on the All Whites Hub thing a few months ago.
Seeing the draw today, I realized I'd never heard from them - no emails or anything.
Go to the website now to see what's going on, and apparently, the window for tickets has already closed!
What a shambles - was Ticketek involved?
NZF sent out emails yesterday to the WC Whanau telling us that big things are afoot.
I seem to be getting all their emails except the ones about the world cup.
It says online that a very short second registration window will open soon, but I haven't received any emails about that either.
Looking back through my mails, there was on email on 29th Nov subject "Football Whānau Priority Pass - New Zealand Football Important Update" which said there was an extra registration step that you needed to do by 1pm the 3rd December. I missed that email, and it doesn't look like there were any "Hey, you haven't done this step, please do this" type follow ups. Grrrrr
Hey as the poster above just said, they have opened it up again for anyone who missed it earlier. Best of luck.
I have free accommodation in Vancouver but getting match tickets might be the issue. I registered with NZ Football today but that's no guarantee either. Can't get into the FIFA page to register for the random selection. Trying to decide whether to commit to flights and at worse just have a nice holiday over there
I have free accommodation in LA, but am in England fan and our games aren't there. Aiming to go to the 2028 Olympics instead which is just in the one city so much easier to do.
