{"id":1265,"date":"2026-07-21T20:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T20:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2026-07-21T20:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T20:10:17","slug":"a-burst-plane-tyre-a-100-mile-uber-and-the-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1265","title":{"rendered":"A burst plane tyre, a 100-mile Uber, and the World Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/div>

<\/p>\n

\n

Henry Winter\u2019s World Cup Diary, Day 35<\/h2>\n

Order the latest copy of World Soccer here<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Miami\/Philadelphia\/New Jersey<\/strong>
Sometimes you have days that expand your horizons, challenge your perceptions of people and test your ageing hamstrings\u2019 ability to withstand runs through airports and down hard shoulders, across highways, through shopping malls and into stadiums. In a foreign country. With a group of strangers (and baby) who have just whipped your team. What a day yesterday was, a day of patience, occasional sprints and, above all, friendship in a crisis.<\/p>\n

World Cup final day. The big one. Next to the Big Apple. Excitement building. Except I was still at Miami airport, having covered the bronze-medal madness the night before, and now slightly concerned to hear two ground engineers discussing a burst tyre on our plane as we boarded. Probably of more concern to those passengers who\u2019d just landed on it.<\/p>\n

Take-off time was 6.37am. Passengers were ordered to deplane. Some, returning along the bridge to the gate, grumbled. That was met by one of the engineers with a stern \u201cyour life is in my hands\u201d. We waited patiently, me and, at the most, 20 Argentinian fans, who\u2019d chosen Philadelphia as New York was struggling with the smoke from the Canadian fires.<\/p>\n

New departure time: 8am. Then 8.30am. Apparently they have to jack the whole plane up, a complicated business. Fair enough, I struggle with a tyre change on a Mini. I got talking to a couple in Argentina shirts, Julia and Fernando, inevitably Messi shirts. He\u2019s River Plate. So I asked whether they were going to the final and wanted to share an Uber to the MetLife, about 100 miles. Evan, an American with a Peruvian dad and Mexican mother, a Chelsea fan, was already ride-sharing with them so we joined forces. They added two more, both Argentinian, both in Messi shirts, with their two-year-old boy who apparently gets into games for free, even World Cup finals.<\/p>\n

They immediately all mentioned Atlanta and Thomas Tuchel and what was going on. I had to relive all of that which added to the misery of the morning. I explained that my first World Cup involved covering Diego Maradona against Brazil at Italia \u201990 \u2013 that pass to Claudio Caniggia in Turin \u2013 and had covered all of Messi\u2019s four Champions League triumphs, the World Cup in Qatar, and most recently his skewering of England and, planes and Spain permitting, was about to cover a second star for the mighty maestro.<\/p>\n

They talked proudly of Messi\u2019s humility and how well he represents their country. The same with Lionel Scaloni, and we had a brief detour through his West Ham career and why he is loved by Liverpool fans. Having been at England games with Argentina at St-Etienne, Sapporo and Geneva, I was able to contribute to a discussion about their best defenders. We all concluded Walter Samuel, the Wall.<\/p>\n

Ground crew then announced we were getting another plane, and had to head to D21, a short hop on the Skytrain away. Evan was concerned about missing the final. Julia radiated belief. The two-year-old continued to sleep through the drama. Take-off time was now 9.24am. The clock was ticking a bit louder.<\/p>\n

Julia and Fernando explained why they had to go to the final. They\u2019d watched the semi at home in Denver, where they worked, and decided they had to be in New Jersey. They somehow got tickets at an eye-watering price, bought flights from Boulder to Miami to Philadelphia, and booked her mum to baby-sit their two young ones. She unhesitatingly flew in from Buenos Aires for baby-sitting, nine hours apparently.<\/p>\n

Like Evan, Julia and Fernando were shocked by the price of the tickets. Welcome to FIFA. They had good jobs, engineers and food producers, but it was still a fortune. They explained that every Argentine would make such a sacrifice. Football, a World Cup final, and Messi, meant the world. Even if it cost the earth. I argued that, being in their early 30s, they were likely to live for another 60 years so spreading the cost over their lifetime was $116 a year. Bargain. And they got to see Messi in a World Cup final.<\/p>\n

The six (and a half) of us agreed to share an Uber. I organised a group whatsapp \u201cOPERATION KICKOFF\u201d with a headshot of Scaloni for inspiration. They appreciated even more videos of Argentinians celebrating in Atlanta that I posted to welcome them. They helpfully added pictures of their compatriots taking over Times Square. It seemed a distance away. And it was, about 1000 miles. We eventually boarded at 9.35.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to World Soccer<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The pilot apologised for the three-hour delay on a day already under time pressure with a 3pm kick-off. \u201cWe know many of you are going to the game,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we cannot just put safety as a secondary\u201d. Fair enough. Now get the wheels up and put the foot down. He promised to have us on the ground in Philly by 12, and nailed it. \u201cWe have a quick taxi to the gate and then you guys can go and watch your World Cup final.\u201d The clock was still against us. Twenty blue-and-white shirts swarmed through the terminal, one clutching a remarkably stoic baby. We were in the Uber by 12.30, driven by a Moroccan, still lamenting his team\u2019s exit, but more than happy to talk about his beloved Barcelona.<\/p>\n

We talked about everything, strangers brought together by a passion for football. How do non-believers start conversations? Fernando mentioned Enzo Fernandez\u2019s \u201cMalvinas<\/em>\u201d banner after the England game and what I thought of it. I mentioned I\u2019d read a comment under an article in the Telegraph<\/em> or Athletic<\/em> where the reader mentioned that the UK Government should just release a statement saying it was unhappy with Mr Fernandez\u2019s demonstration but would be using the \u00a34m it receives in tax from the Chelsea employee every year and would be spending it on the defence of the Falklands. Fernando gently changed subject, and spoke of his favourite English players, including Alan Shearer and Joe Cole. Argentinian respect for English football has never been in doubt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One problem. We needed gas. Our Moroccan friend pulled into a service station. Our hearts fell to see a line of cars at each pump. Evan jumped out and ran to the front car about to fill up. He explained our plight and the American kindly let us cut in. As pit-stops go, it went quickly. On nearing the MetLife at 2.35, we gambled on getting out early, shaking hands with the driver who wished us luck, pausing for a quick group selfie, and then tearing off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A mile and one lift ride later, I was puffing my way into the North press tribune with 10 minutes to spare. Just before kick-off, we all swapped pictures. We\u2019d all made it. Strangers, divided by the semi-final, united by the final. Football, bloody swell.<\/p>\n

Catch up on the rest of Henry Winter\u2019s World Cup Diary here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Winter\u2019s World Cup Diary, Day 35 Order the latest copy of World Soccer here Miami\/Philadelphia\/New JerseySometimes you have days that expand your horizons, challenge your perceptions of people and test your ageing hamstrings\u2019 ability to withstand runs through airports and down hard shoulders, across highways, through shopping malls and into stadiums. In a foreign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.worldsoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286163105.jpg?w=8040","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2515,2512,41,147,2513,2514,2516,40],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-100mile","tag-burst","tag-cup","tag-final","tag-plane","tag-tyre","tag-uber","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}