{"id":13943,"date":"2026-06-10T19:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=13943"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T19:32:44","slug":"paraguayan-fans-break-the-bank-to-see-their-team-play-in-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=13943","title":{"rendered":"Paraguayan fans break the bank to see their team play in the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a long 16-year wait for Paraguayan soccer fans, and many are now willing to spend thousands of dollars to see their team play in the World Cup in California.<\/p>

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\u201cF\u00fatbol [soccer] is part of our passion,\u201d says Viviana Figueredo, who lives in South Jordan, Utah. Figueredo, who has already been at Paraguay\u2019s training session in San Jose, is planning to be in town for all of her team\u2019s three games in California, driving or flying back and forth each time. She says eight family members will join from Paraguay.<\/p>\n

For Paraguay\u2019s opening game against the U.S. in Los Angeles on Friday, Figueredo, 43, plans to drive with her husband, daughter, mother and 10 friends to support and enjoy the atmosphere around her national team\u2019s debut in this World Cup, but doesn\u2019t plan to go to the game because prices for the match are among the highest set by FIFA for the whole tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cL.A. is beyond our possibilities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Figueredo and her family hope to go to one of Paraguay\u2019s matches in the Bay Area, planning to spend up to $500 per ticket. For their L.A. trip, she estimates they\u2019ll spend up to $2,500 in transportation, food, three nights of accommodations and souvenirs. Figueredo, who is originally from Paraguay\u2019s capital of Asunci\u00f3n and has been in the U.S. for 11 years, has a small maintenance business and is also the president of the Association of Paraguayans in Utah.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup is every four years and it\u2019ll be some time before it\u2019s so close to us, so it\u2019s worth it,\u201d says Figueredo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an enormous joy. Something difficult to explain,\u201d says Miguel Zaracho, 69, president of the Paraguayan Soccer League of New York, who plans to come with two friends to the Bay Area to see Paraguay\u2019s matches against Turkey and Australia at Levi\u2019s Stadium. \u201cParaguayans have been expecting this for 16 years.\u201d Zaracho works in construction, lives in Westchester, New York and has been in the United States for 42 years.<\/p>

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Zaracho is a lifelong soccer fan who goes to New York City FC\u2019s MLS games about four times a year. He roots for Club Cerro Porte\u00f1o, the second-winningest team in Paraguay\u2019s professional league. In 1998, Zaracho traveled with his two oldest kids to the World Cup in France. \u201cIt was a complete party, people singing\u201d on the streets, he says. \u201cI hope we\u2019ll see that (in the Bay Area), but France is a soccer-mad country. The U.S. is not, but it might become one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jazm\u00edn Gustale Gill, 44, founder and managing partner of iThink.VC, a venture capital firm for Latin American startups, plans to travel from Asunci\u00f3n and spend the summer in Palo Alto with her husband and four children to watch her national team play. Gustale received an MBA from Stanford in 2017. Coming back to the Bay Area, she says, is like going back home for her and her family.<\/p>\n\u201cIt is a great milestone for the national team after 16 years, especially playing in the U.S.,\u201d says Gustale, who went to several of Paraguay\u2019s qualifying matches. \u201cF\u00fatbol is everything for us Paraguayans.\u201d\n

She says she got tickets through FIFA\u2019s lotteries, lucking out twice, paying way below current prices to buy tickets online. She bought plane tickets to Miami, then booked the final leg to the Bay Area after Paraguay was assigned to two games at Levi\u2019s.<\/p>

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\u201cCalifornia is super expensive,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why it was important to plan ahead of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Her mother will join them for the second game in Santa Clara, while her father and three brothers will go to games up and down the West Coast.<\/p>\n

With two games in the Bay Area and one in Los Angeles, Paraguay is among the teams traveling the least throughout the group phase. SoFi Stadium and Levi\u2019s Stadium are 350 miles apart.<\/p>\n