41. 2017 Confederations Cup
Russia is hosting this year's Confederations Cup football tournament ("soccer", for all the Americans out there). This is a warm-up for Russia's hosting duties at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The eight-team field for this tournament includes the the winner of each regional tournament during the last year (Chile, Portugal, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, & Cameroon), the previous World Cup winner (Germany), and the host country. Games are being held in four cities: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, and Sochi. I'm generally not much of a sports fan, but everyone in Europe loves football and Russians are no exception.
The tournament does not seem to have made much of an impact on the crowds in St. Petersburg. This is the height of tourist season anyway, so what are another 10 or 20 thousand visitors? Anyway, the football stadium is on Krestovsky Island, well north of the city center on the Petrograd Side. The biggest impact the tournament has had locally are additional registration requirements for foreigners. The new registration rules were passed hastily and without sufficient detail to be enforceable, so apparently there have not been any extra documentation checks for people leaving the country. Nevertheless, my employer has recommended that I not leave Russia for the next few weeks, unless I want to spend time completing a ton of extra paperwork.
Last weekend, I went with one of my German expat colleagues to watch a game at an outdoor spectator area near the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Russia played Mexico in the final Group A match of the first round. It was "do or die" for Russia - only a victory would allow us to advance to the semi-final round. Alas, it was not to be; Mexico took the match 2-1. It was fun to watch the game with a bunch of fans and enjoy a beer outside on a nice summer evening. The following evening, I also watched most of the German victory over Cameroon while enjoying dinner at a Belgian gastronomic pub on Rubinshteyna Ulitsa a few blocks from Tolstoy House.
The tournament does not seem to have made much of an impact on the crowds in St. Petersburg. This is the height of tourist season anyway, so what are another 10 or 20 thousand visitors? Anyway, the football stadium is on Krestovsky Island, well north of the city center on the Petrograd Side. The biggest impact the tournament has had locally are additional registration requirements for foreigners. The new registration rules were passed hastily and without sufficient detail to be enforceable, so apparently there have not been any extra documentation checks for people leaving the country. Nevertheless, my employer has recommended that I not leave Russia for the next few weeks, unless I want to spend time completing a ton of extra paperwork.
Last weekend, I went with one of my German expat colleagues to watch a game at an outdoor spectator area near the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. Russia played Mexico in the final Group A match of the first round. It was "do or die" for Russia - only a victory would allow us to advance to the semi-final round. Alas, it was not to be; Mexico took the match 2-1. It was fun to watch the game with a bunch of fans and enjoy a beer outside on a nice summer evening. The following evening, I also watched most of the German victory over Cameroon while enjoying dinner at a Belgian gastronomic pub on Rubinshteyna Ulitsa a few blocks from Tolstoy House.
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