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IRVINE, Calif. () — Soccer fever has taken over Southern California as the city of Irvine prepares to welcome the U.S. Men’s National Team in their first public training session Monday, June 8, ahead of the FIFA World Cup.
The team is using Irvine’s Great Park as their team base camp.
“After some evaluations of the facility, FIFA selected us, which then put us in a catalog of options for nations to choose from and then for a couple years we did tours with a lot of different countries, interested parties, and earlier this year, January, we were selected by the United States Men’s team,” said Community Services Manager Great Park Athletics, Steven Stewart.
The community training session will give fans a rare opportunity to watch the team up close as players get ready for the World Cup, but only if you were able to snag a free ticket through their lottery system.
“Unfortunately, now the tickets are sold out, they were free, but part of a lottery system. The community is really excited. I think there’s going to be a really good opportunity for the people to see the team here in Irvine. It’s going to be really a legacy,” Stewart said. “Unfortunately, you can’t access the site or the park unless you are one of those ticket holders but for the lucky few, they’re going to have an opportunity to see the team here and that’s the only opportunity.”
Over 30,000 people entered the lottery, and only 5,000 people were selected.
“I looked up to see if they were holding open practices at all and it just happened I looked up the day after the entrance for the lottery system, the tickets had closed,” long-time U.S. Men’s Soccer team fan James Beckner said.
A SoCal native, Beckner had the unconventional idea to turn to the internet, posting on forums and putting himself out there in hopes that someone with tickets is willing to let him tag along.
“Anyone who is willing, you know, kinda put themselves out there and meet me at the stadium, I feel like, are willing to make new friends as well. I feel like I’m a pretty easy going guy… based on my Reddit posts, I’ve been like really open about, hey, I’m willing to buy you a beer and all this kind of stuff. It’s been interesting so far. Like I said, hoping it works out and hoping to get in and see the boys practice,” Beckner said.
Beckner added that he has some leads, but nothing set in stone yet. As for Irvine, hosting the national team will put the city on soccer’s global stage.
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