On the way to the World Cup we stumbled upon Egypt and were able to do a little touristing. Very nice. Now I am at two days of no sleep and no showers, and I walked all day around the desert at 38 degrees. I ate a lot of hummus. I have a nine hour flight ahead of me. I stink. This should be fun (for the guy sitting next to me). More as it develops…
The adventure begins. Carrying those sombreros is going to be a major pain the ass.
Corona brought me the new album and a box full of sticker packets. I have a lot of work ahead of me, but expect the progress report, just like before, soon. Friends and family (and strangers), start saving those repeats. It’s hard to find people collecting these things in Austin, TX.
Please enjoy your next 6 minutes by watching the video below of the ten best goals of 2009.
The Final Draw is over. Here are the results:
Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana,
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d’Ivoire, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
Yes, Mexico will be opening the World Cup. Pretty cool.
They announced the pot allocations for the Final Draw to be help in Cape Town in two days. CONCACAF teams were placed in pot 2 together with Asia and Oceania. This means that no matter how lucky we get, things will be tough for Mexico.
A campaign for the U.S. to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups has started. I already signed it. Go and do your part.
On April 29 I wrote about my new World Cup sticker album. A little over a month later I am happy to report that I’m 14 stickers short of completion. Check my Progress Tracking page… maybe you can help me!
On a related note, I received the following letter from Modena, Italy last week:
That’s right my friends… the most sought-after sticker is finally here: Marcos Kirsch
Rumor has it that for 10 of these you can get one of Maza Rodriguez.
And now, decide for yourself: Who looks angrier, Marcos, or superstar, legend and crack Guille Franco?
Every four years, the world gets ready for the big party. And every four years, millions of soccer fans buy the Panini Wold Cup Official Sticker Album. I now I’ve been doing it with my brothers since 1982, and still own the 1986, 1994 and 2002 editions (I need to look for the rest).
For the 2006 World Cup in Germany the italian company Panini published the album as usual. They sell it all over the world…. except in the U.S.A. (or at least I haven’t seen it, correct me if I’m wrong). This makes things a whole lot harder. Still I press on and I am in the process of completing mine. Since buying the sticker packets must be done long distance, and trading duplicates with friends is hard because they all live in a different country [Editor’s note: Marcos has friends in this country, they just didn’t get the album], I have created a small webpage where people can track my progress (becuase YOU care!).
Yeah, it seems like it was a lot of work and makes me look like an obsessive-compulsive anal-retentive childish nerd. In reality, you wouldn’t be that far off the truth… but seriously, I promise it wasn’t bad.
Moi, Arturito, Mauri and Abrahamcito drove into town from Monterrey last night. They bought a whole box of sticker packets for me and some more for themselves. I need to paste them and record the duplicates so that I can send them down with them on Monday to my agent in Mexico. He has all the right contacts in school.
And now, presenting the My Panini World Cup Sticker Album Progress Tracking page. As of right now, I have 39.86% completed.
[UPDATE 5/2/2006] Now that didn’t take long… Moi started his own album, and made my script look pretty.