Jet Set Go

Part 2 – Qatar and FIFA World Cup Semi-Final: Argentina vs Croatia

As I write this article, the quarter-final stage of both the Copa America 2024, and UEFA Euros 2024 has begun. After my incredible experience watching FIFA World Cup 2022 games live and in-person in Qatar, international football/soccer has grown to excite me like no other sport and I often wonder if one day, war between countries may be replaced by soccer matches so that no death and destruction will be involved. It may be argued that the sport does not resolve disputes but then neither do wars. Yes, I digressed. This article is the second installment (Part 2) on my ultimate once-in-a-lifetime experience watching  FIFA World Cup 2022 football/soccer games in Qatar. In Part 1, I shared our last-minute scramble to attend the quarter-final match between Argentina and the Netherlands, and the nerve-wracking moments during the game at Lusail Stadium. The content of this segment, Part 2, is as follows:

• The Decision to Stay for the Semi-Finals
• Katara Beach
• Galeries Lafayette
• Night Experience at Souq Waqif
• The Pearl
• FIFA Fan Festival @ The Corniche
• Getting Semi-Final Tickets and After-Game Arrangements
• The Semi-Final Game: Argentina vs Croatia
• Semi-Final Outcomes
• After the Game
• Conclusion
• Tips and Recommendations

The Decision to Stay for the Semi-Finals
My husband and I already knew that should Argentina make it through to the semi-finals, we had to quickly decide whether we should stay to watch the game or save our money, head home to Las Vegas, and just watch the game on television. As we had already reserved our Fan Village caravan to cover up to the semi-finals and our fully refundable flight tickets back to Las Vegas were for departure the day after that match, the only factor left to consider was getting the match tickets.

We checked the StubHub website for resale tickets and found the lowest-priced on offer at that time to be around US $2000 per ticket before taxes and fees. That was decidedly beyond our budget. However, we learned from friends back in the United States that many Argentinian fans wanted to come to Qatar to support the country’s team for the semi-final match but flight ticket prices had gone up by a few thousand more than the usual price range, making it impossible for them to afford even just the flights. This made my husband and I feel fortunate to already be in Qatar and that we should not waste this invaluable opportunity. 

Based on our experience obtaining last-minute tickets for the quarter-final match, we decided to take our chances by waiting out for desperate resellers who could not sell their tickets before the start of the game to lower their prices. The high risk we had to take was that waiting too long might result in all the tickets being already sold out. We decided to take that risk and could only hope that our strategy would pay off.

After the two other quarter-final matches on December 10 (the day after the Argentina vs Netherlands match) namely Morocco vs Portugal and England vs France, the teams and fans had two days to rest before the semi-finals on December 13. My husband and I watched the two matches in our caravan and decided to spend all our other free time touring Doha and visiting the World Cup 2022 dedicated fan sites. We would, of course, be frequently checking ticket reselling websites for ticket price drops. Our target price was US $1000 or lower per ticket. 

Touring Doha, Qatar, and Visiting the Fan Festival

On the digital Hayya card app on our phones, there was a page on recommended places to visit in Doha. We also spoke to a few people who had already visited those places to let us know the best ones on the list to visit as it would be impossible to visit all of them within two days. Based on the recommendations, we chose to visit Katara Beach, The Pearl Island, revisit Souq Waqif at night, and last but not least, the Fan Festival.  

Katara Beach

We started by visiting Katara Beach. The metro route map at metro stations provided clear directions on how to get there. As we exited the Katara station, we found ourselves near the entrance of the luxury shopping mall, Galeries Lafayette. We walked past the area to reach the plaza and cobblestone path towards Katara Beach. The plaza was encircled by lovely Qatari traditional-style buildings that likely housed cultural and administrative centers. At the center of the plaza, there was a fountain pond with quaint modern structures. The buildings were adorned with artwork to welcome FIFA World Cup visitors. For example, on one wall, there was an illustration of two young boys of different cultures looking delightedly at a soccer ball being held up by the index finger of one of them.

We went past the plaza and walked through a pleasant lane to arrive at the beachfront promenade. The promenade was clean and peaceful. We arrived just after 2 pm and learned that the beach itself would not be open until 3 pm. We could see the calm sea and huts lining the beach selling crafts and souvenirs but the vendors were all still arranging displays. Interesting structures displayed at the promenade included a traditional boat, a teapot spouting water, and a huge headphone. In the distance, on one end of the promenade, there were modern yet traditionally designed buildings. At the other end, there were sleek skyscrapers that we learned were luxury hotels. There were stores, restaurants, and some food vendors along the promenade.

We treated ourselves to Turkish ice cream-on-cone from a vendor when we decided to take a short break from walking. My husband enjoyed the trickery performance by the vendor before getting handed the ice cream cones. We met a family of three Argentinians who happened to be fans of the football club Independiente, just like my husband. So, we chatted for a while before moving along.

We then headed towards Galeries Lafayette to get back to the metro station. On our way, we find ourselves at a beautiful mosque called the Masjid (Mosque) of Katara. Visitors were welcome to go inside and tour areas outside the prayer hall and be provided with all the information they wanted about Islam and the mosque itself. Everyone there was so friendly, helpful, and welcoming. Outside the mosque, there were restaurants and cafes with outdoor seating shaded from the sun by lovely tents adorned with flags of all FIFA World Cup participating countries. There were also two tall sand-colored cone-shaped structures with spikes jutting out of the walls. I saw birds perched on the spikes and later learned that those were/are called Pigeon Towers.  

Galeries Lafayette

We made our way again to Galeries Lafayette and walked past more Qatari traditionally-designed buildings with eye-catching art displays. Just past that building, we arrived at the gorgeous Galeries Lafayette plaza and promenade. The European-style buildings looked grand. The promenade was lined with charming alfresco cafes and decorated with eye-catching arc structures with a soccer ball at one end of each arc. The whole area looked and felt elegant and luxurious. We entered one of the buildings just to have a peek inside and visit the restrooms. As expected, we found only luxury items on display for purchase, and the sales staff were all dressed impeccably to serve high-end customers. Based on how my husband and I were dressed, it was clear that we did not fit that profile, and yet, the few sales staff we spoke to were still very friendly and helpful to us. Kudos to the staff!

Part of the Galeries Lafayette building was connected to the metro station. One staff member readily showed us the way to the basement area where the station entrance was. We then made our way to Souq Waqif to experience the night-time ambience there as recommended by other visitors.

Night Experience at Souq Waqif

We arrived at Souq Waqif as the sun was setting. The place was a lot more crowded compared to how it was when we visited before the quarter-final game. This time, the vendors were selling mostly textiles, jewelry, arts and crafts, incense and perfumery, souvenirs, and souvenir food items.

We made a quick detour to a nearby mosque that we found to be rather quaint. Unlike other mosques, the prayer hall, washing area, and other function rooms formed the perimeter of the single-story building while the flooring of the hall at the center was left in unfinished sand form. The paint on the wall structures was patchy with sandy stains all over. As the building does not look old or abandoned, I got the impression that the mosque was designed in such a way that it exudes a unique desert character. Unlike the mosque at Katara, other than one local man who welcomed us to go inside and explore the building, we could not find anyone there to ask about this mosque and did not see any information signs or posters to read. I later learned that the mosque is called the Domes Mosque.

After about 10-15 minutes at the mosque, we walked back to Souq Waqif where we visited the Souq Waqif Art Center. The art center was designed with beautiful intricacies all around. On display were Qatari cultural artifacts including traditional colorful lamps and musical instruments, pottery, carvings, as well as portraits, and paintings including those that feature the Qatari ruling royal family members, and World Cup 2022 commemorative items. It provided the souq’s visitors with something else to do other than just shopping and eating while providing glimpses into Qatari culture and creativity.

The night-time experience at Souq Waqif was a lot more vibrant and lively compared to our daytime visit, although it felt overwhelmingly crowded at some points too. We ended our experience there with a delicious dinner at a Syrian restaurant. We especially enjoyed the hot and fresh pita (Arab flatbread), and dome-shaped grilled kibbeh (bulgur pastry) filled with minced meat, nuts, and pomegranate. We shared the dishes we ordered including the lamb liver appetizer and the mixed grilled meats main dish.

The Pearl

On December 12^th, learning from our experiences on previous days, we only left our caravan to continue visiting recommended places of interest in the late afternoon. It finally became clear to us that most places are not open or not fully open before noon and some only open at 3 pm. We started by visiting a beautiful marina on a man-made island called The Pearl.

Upbeat music echoing through the entrance area welcomed us upon arriving at The Pearl a little after 4 pm. The visual feast of elegant boats and yachts on serene waters, grand Qatari traditional-style buildings against the background of majestic taller ones, palm trees with trunks draped in lights, eye-catching bright-colored African-art structures, and charming alfresco cafes got visitors like us excited to explore the marina. Beautiful changing lights all around added a magical element to the area as night falls. Buildings, trees, waters, yachts, and decorative structures were all illuminated in pleasing shades of purple, blue, green, pink, red, and yellow. At night time, colorful musical fountains started dancing to lively music across the canal too.

The buildings there were mainly high-end hotels, and those housing luxury residents, restaurants, and stores. As there were reports of a shortage in accommodation for FIFA World Cup visitors resulting in the organizers including rooms on cruise ships as an accommodation choice, we wondered if at least some, if not all, of the elegant yachts at the marina were offered as luxury accommodations as well.

Although we truly enjoyed the visual treat, somehow all the opulence made us feel too intimidated to even enter any of the buildings except for one less intimidating-looking pharmacy not far from the entrance that I entered in search of a personal care item. It seemed that we were not the only ones who felt that way because we did not see too many visitors going in and out of the buildings but saw some guests arriving and leaving in luxury limousines. There were not too many diners visible at glass-walled and alfresco restaurants and cafes there either. In fact, within an hour after sunset, the place began to look and feel quiet and deserted. Perhaps, the Pearl was more vibrant on nights when events were held there, and during earlier stages of World Cup 2022 when fans from more countries were around. We were told by a security officer that at 7 pm, there would be a ceremony to officially bring in the real World Cup trophy (not the replica) to a guarded structure there for safekeeping. However, we decided not to stay that long.  So, after only about an hour or two of exploring, we left The Pearl and headed for the Fan Festival at The Corniche.

FIFA Fan Festival @ The Corniche

The FIFA Fan Festival was one of the three zoned areas of the Doha Festival @ The Corniche. As narrated in my earlier post (Part 1), we visited the Global Street Festival in the south the day after arriving in Qatar for the quarter-final match. The Fan Festival was in the center zone, and the Future Experience was in the north although we ended up not having the chance to visit the north throughout the FIFA World Cup event.

The Fan Festival was specifically set up for large crowds of international fans without match tickets to enjoy watching the games together via huge screens. As we walked towards the entrance from the metro station, we were awed by the amazing changing light display of flags of the four countries in the semi-finals on towering buildings overlooking the zone. The flags were displayed one at a time for about five seconds each time. As we approached the entrance, we were drawn by the uplifting vibe projected by tall colorful structures and upbeat music. The festival area was heavily guarded by uniformed security personnel at what seemed like a ratio of at least one guard to four visitors. It made us feel very safe. I felt that their presence was especially necessary on match days when the crowd there gets really big and dissatisfaction with game proceedings and outcomes could easily trigger clashes among fans of opposite teams.

Upon entering, we walked past a fenced-up outdoor performance theatre with a stage and huge screen. There was a live performance on stage at that time but we could see that the theatre would be turned into a live match broadcast facility for fans on match days. There were colorful and eye-catching structures all over the festival ground displaying slogans, logos, and messages from organizers and event sponsors. Food and beverage kiosks, exhibition rooms, fun soccer game enclosures, and vendors selling FIFA World Cup memorabilia were spread all over. Enclaves with relatively smaller screens and beanbags to relax on were also available in some areas. We had no doubts that fans without match tickets could still have a wonderful time watching the games at the Fan Festival. The ambience there was magical and thrilling.

My husband and I shared two large slices of pizza from one of the stalls there for dinner. I had hoped to enjoy local street food but all the stalls only offered pizzas, burgers, and other western fast food items. We made our long way back to our caravan via metro and shuttle buses after exploring the festival grounds for about 90 minutes.

Getting Semi-Final Tickets and After-Game Arrangements

That night, upon checking the StubHub website for the umpteenth time, we were able to find resale tickets at a greatly reduced price of about US $1200 per ticket before taxes and fees. We snapped up the tickets immediately as it meant a total saving of about US $1600 from the initial resale prices we found right after Argentina got through to the semi-finals. What a relief!

Before going to sleep, we decided to plan our next steps based on two possible scenarios of Argentina making it to the finals, or not. The final game will not be until December 18, meaning that we would have 4 days after the semi-finals before that day. I researched accommodation prices in Qatar versus neighboring Dubai as well as flight prices. I discussed my findings with my husband and we then agreed to book flights and a hotel room for an initial two-night stay in Dubai. We thought that even if Argentina did not make it through, we would still like to visit Dubai since we were already so close to that United Arab Emirates (UAE) state.

We knew we could not enter Dubai unless we had onward flight tickets or tickets to return home to the United States. So, we bought tickets back to Las Vegas on United Airlines for a flight on December 16 knowing that if Argentina made it to the finals, based on United Airline’s purchase terms, we could still make changes and use the reservation for a future flight instead. In summary, we decided to:

1. Cancel our reserved but fully refundable flight back to Las Vegas from Qatar which was scheduled to depart on December 14, the day after the semi-final game.
2. Book a one-way flight from Qatar to Dubai for departure on December 14 instead.
3. Book a hotel room in Dubai for two nights, December 14 to 16.
4. Book a changeable one-way flight to (tentatively) return to Las Vegas from Dubai on December 16.
5. Be prepared to make further research, changes, and arrangements to stay in Dubai till December 18 and return to Qatar from Dubai instead should Argentina make it through to the finals.

The Semi-Final Game: Argentina vs Croatia

On December 13, we arrived at the brilliant and magnificent Lusail Stadium 90 minutes before kick-off. Once again, my husband and I wore the Argentinian team jersey with Messi’s number 10. My husband also wore the Arab ghutra with an Argentinian flag motif held by an iqal, just like he did for the quarter-final game. Argentinian fans (and the team players too, I was told) were/are all superstitious such that whatever they did, wore, ate, etc. on the day they enjoyed victory, they will do it again for all other games. Our tickets got us seats behind the goal on one side of the field, not an ideal location. However, the seats were high enough for us to get clear views of everything that went on and yet close enough to the field for us to catch clear sight of the players’ faces whenever they got to our side. We thought it was still great value.

We were delighted to get to see Argentina’s goalkeeper, Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez engaged in warm-up exercises and light practice activities at the goal on our side. Later, we got great views of both the Argentinian and Croatian teams warming up in the field. It was surreal, to say the least. I was not such an ardent fan of football/soccer in my younger days and never thought I would feel so fortunate to get to indulge in such a treat. Argentina’s fans were still the majority at the stadium and their continuous cheers and team anthems echoed resoundingly throughout the game.

Semi-Final Outcomes

When the supercharged game began and after about half an hour of play, Argentina’s striker Julian Alvarez was fouled by Croatia’s goalkeeper earning a penalty kick for Argentina. I have noticed that Dibu Martinez has the superstitious habit of kneeling and looking the opposite way whenever a teammate takes a penalty kick and he did the same for this one. Messi took the shot and scored in the 33^rd minute to the euphoria of the team’s fans. Then, in the 38^th minute, as part of a speedy counter-attack, Julian Alvarez took the ball just before the half-line and then single-handedly dribbled it right to the Croatian’s penalty box, passed at least three defenders before knocking the ball past the goalkeeper to score Argentina’s second goal. Needless to say, Argentina’s fans were exuberant. Croatia’s team made a few great attempts but failed to score. After half-time, within the 68^th minute, Messi engaged in the now famous scene of “dancing around” a masked Croatian defender with high-skill dribbling moves to get close to the Croatian goal before finally passing the ball to Julian Alvarez for him to just kick the ball in and score. Argentina’s fans went euphoric. The game ended with a 3-0 win for Argentina. We also learned that France had beaten Morocco in the other semi-final match. This meant that Argentina would face France in the final game for the coveted FIFA World Cup 2022 champion title.

After the Game

The Argentinian team went to our side of the field to celebrate with us after the game. We were overjoyed to get to see all of them so close to where we were seated. My husband and I were elated by the outcome of the match but as much as we wanted to stay a little longer to celebrate, we had to hurry back to our caravan to prepare for our early morning flight to Dubai on Qatar Airways as the flight fare was lowest on that flight. As with our match tickets for the semi-finals, we also wanted to wait till the very last minute before buying our match tickets for the finals for the lowest possible price.

As our flight was scheduled to depart at 7.50 am, we had to arrive at the airport by around 5.30 am. So, we booked a taxi to pick us up at the Fan Village Caravan City at 5 am as it would take us less than 30 minutes to get to Hamad International Airport. We arrived back at the village from Lusail Stadium at around 1 am, grabbed a quick local supper from a kiosk at the village that was still open (as we had skipped dinner before the final match), took a quick shower in our caravan, made final packings, and headed for the reception area. We looked fondly at the caravan village as we left as the place was a significant part of our incredible memory in Qatar.

Conclusion

The semi-final match between Argentina and Croatia was extremely exciting although not as eventful and nerve-wracking as the quarter-final match with the Netherlands. After the game, I watched an interview with Luca Modric, Croatia’s team captain who expressed his opinion that the penalty awarded to Argentina was not justified. Yet, when I watched replays of the relevant moments, it seemed justified to me although I am far from being an expert in football/soccer. Nevertheless, there was never any enmity or ill feelings between the two teams. Therefore, there were no clashes or exchanges of unpleasantries to mar the game.

My husband and I fully enjoyed our stay in Doha, Qatar, and the wonderful Qatari hospitality for FIFA World Cup fans. We were ready to explore neighboring regions after the semi-final game. In my next post, Part 3 – Dubai and FIFA World Cup Final: Argentina vs France, I will share our experience navigating initial uncertainties in making flight and hotel reservations while doing our best to keep our expenses, including match tickets for the final game, as low as possible. The highlight of Part 3 will be, of course, the final game itself.

Tips and Recommendations

Based on our experience in Qatar before and during the FIFA World Cup 2022 semi-final match between Argentina and Croatia, the following are tips and recommendations I can offer:

1. To maximize the time between watching matches and visiting places of interest, rank, and list “must-see” places so that when your energy gets depleted and you find that you need not stay longer to minimize spending, you would have already covered places at the top of your list.
2. There will very likely be events or places specifically organized or set up for international visiting fans. Do try to make time to visit at least some of these as the experience is not available at other times. If you cannot visit all of them, ask around to get reviews or access online reviews if available to decide on the ones that best suit your own interests and preferences.
3. Again, if you are willing to take the risk of possibly not getting tickets, wait till the very last minute to buy resale tickets and compare prices from various legitimate online third-party platforms. Prices usually drop significantly a few hours before matches.
4. Do your research on transportation costs, and compare accommodation prices between those close to match locations and those further away. If you are on a tight budget, you will usually find that accommodations much further away which might take up quite a bit of travel time, will save you a lot of money even when transportation costs are factored in. Like us, you may even be lucky enough to find that public transportation is provided free of charge to fans. You just need to be willing to put in travel time.
5. Again, be as flexible as possible in making reservations to ensure accommodation of last-minute changes in decisions. Non-refundable and/or non-changeable bookings are often cheaper but may be a lot more costly if you end up having to make changes to your plans.