My
good friends at
BootsnAll are achieving their long time dream of attending the World Cup. And now that I want to do more story leads on
Written Road, I figured this one is a natural.
So, if there are any of you out there with a reason to do an article about the World Cup, Germany, travel in Europe this summer, etc - these are your guys. What's cool is the centerpiece of their their trip, and their passion: the
World Cup Blog. I was with them when they started it in 2002, but now, it's built out beyond all expectations.
I interviewed Chris Heidrich, the Managing Director of the WCB, about their trip and the blog to end all soccer blogs. Read his answers on the next page. It might trigger some story angles for you...
Where will you be going, how many games, etc.
We've rented an apartment in Berlin where we'll be staying for the entire tournament. We have tickets to a couple of USA games which will mean travelling on the train to cities like
Kaiserslautern and
Nuremberg. We'll probably move around depending on what games are being played to gather content and photos for the blog.
What are the best features about the World Cup Blog, or what would you'd like people to notice about it?
We have a blogger for each individual team and even one for the referees. Try and find information about the
Saudi Arabian team in English anywhere else. These are real fans who give real opinions about their teams. You can also
buy tickets to the games, get information about
travelling to Germany,
place a bet on the games, or buy
supporters' gear. Also cool are our
tags pages which allow readers to find all the information about a subject across all blogs. We also have
RSS feeds for every blog so folks can be updated when their team blog has new entries.
Who is rooting for who?
Obviously I want Australia, Nick is pulling and blogging for
Togo, Bob wants
Angola and Sean has connections to both
Poland and the
Ukraine. Chris O'Neill is a die-hard England fan, but he's blogging about
France. And we'd all like the
USA to do well. The favourites are Brazil by a long way, but England, Argentina and Italy are all offering decent odds.
And what's the most exciting thing about this World Cup?
Lots of new teams making their World Cup debuts - Ivory Coast, Angola, Czech Republic (kinda), Ghana, Togo, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine. Australia making its first appearance in 32 years. Also, there are a lot of exciting young players likely to make their mark on the world stage in their first tournament.
Who are the two teams that you will expect to go all the way?
Brazil should win it all. Germany, being at home, is also considered a favourite, but only with the bookies and German fans. They suck. Argentina is strong and England have probably their best chance in a long time, yet they always seem to choke. Italy could be outstanding and Portugal is an outside chance.
STORY ANGLES:- How to get to the World Cup and see the games
- Best places to stay during the World Cup
- How to travel in Europe without getting snagged by World Cup traffic
- A day in the life of a World Cup fan
- How to bet on the World Cup (I'll be writing up this one)
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