Covering a World Cup is a privilege, but it’s also a month-long grind

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — For a soccer journalist, there’s no bigger privilege than covering a World Cup. That doesn’t mean that it’s a paid vacation to the other side of the world. In fact, it’s not that at all.

I don’t just say that to reassure my bosses while I’m 16 time zones away. World Cups are long and a lot of work. It’s not just covering games, it’s covering everything around them — and a lot of the time is spent getting from one place to another.

Sometimes, that’s getting from the U.S. practice site in Auckland’s northern suburbs to the team’s media hub downtown, then south to Eden Park for a game at night. Or it’s going from one host city to another, and all of those trips require flights. None of the host cities are close enough to each other to have good intercity rail service like there is in Europe, Japan, or America’s northeast corridor.

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That’s even more true if you’re traveling between New Zealand and Australia, which the U.S. will do if it reaches the knockout rounds. (That I just wrote “if” instead of “when” is a story in itself, obviously.) It’s a nearly four-hour flight from Auckland to Sydney, and it crosses two time zones. Think of a flight from Philadelphia to Denver, and it’s about the same.

The good news is that the cities themselves are very easy to get around. That’s especially true of Auckland and Wellington, the two cities I’ve been so far. They’re very walkable, they both have major public transit systems, and the stadium in Wellington is on the north edge of downtown.

The only drawback was Wellington living up to its reputation as the windiest city in the world. It’s the winter here in the southern hemisphere, and it got plenty cold during the U.S.-Netherlands game, even though it was an afternoon kickoff. I packed a pair of fingerless gloves at the last minute before leaving home, and I’m glad I did.

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On game days, the press areas of stadiums open three hours before kickoff, and if you aren’t there at least one hour before kickoff, you risk losing your place in the press seating area. There aren’t press boxes at World Cup venues — instead, there are areas of the seating bowl that are converted into workspaces for the writers and broadcasters who’ve come from across the globe.

(This will happen at Lincoln Financial Field in 2026, along with all the other host stadiums in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.)

You have to pace yourself when you’re working at a World Cup. If you try to write every little thing every day, you’ll wear yourself out fast, and you definitely won’t get enough sleep. The cliche that sleep is for the weak is false. It’s good for your mental health, and there’s nothing wrong with prioritizing that.

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This is my fourth career women’s World Cup and my second for The Inquirer. When I did a full run for the first time in 2015, I was fortunate to have friends and colleagues who’d already covered men’s and women’s tournaments. They had me prepared for the grind, and I was ready for it again this time.

I’m thankful that I have a lot of backup from colleagues back home, especially Gus Elvin, Lochlahn March, and Sapna Bansil, who are leading the way on our morning recaps online.

I try to take a little time to myself each day, whether it’s buying the New Zealand Herald newspaper in the morning or going for a walk on the waterfront. The walk from my hotel to the U.S. media facility is especially pretty, as I take a bridge over the harbor that leads to a great view of the Auckland skyline.

On days when I’ve had a decent amount of spare time, I’ve gotten on one of Auckland’s many public ferries and taken a ride across the water. The views have been amazing, and it’s among the cheapest way to take everything in.

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On the one true day off I’ve had so far, I took a ferry to Waiheke Island, a popular vacation spot for city folks. It’s also a big tourist attraction, and on this day, a whole lot of Americans in town had the same idea I did. The weather was perfect, sunny and in the low 60s, the beach was gorgeous, and the main shopping street had a great laid-back vibe.

Even better, I got there early enough in the morning that I was able to walk up a hill and take in a chorus of birdsong. I won’t forget that any time soon.

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I wasn’t in Wellington for long, just from the day before the U.S.-Netherlands game until the day after. It’s a smaller city, but because it’s the nation’s capital, it has a bustling downtown. On the morning of the game, I took the city’s historic cable car up to the botanical gardens, then walked down through the gardens to the New Zealand Parliament building, which was on the way to the stadium. That definitely got my steps in for the day.

You can see some of the photos I’ve taken on my X — the app formerly known as Twitter — feed, @thegoalkeeper. (It still sounds too weird to use that new name.)

I’ve been Down Under for two weeks now. If the U.S. goes all the way to the final, I’ll have be gone for 5½ weeks.

It’s been the trip of a lifetime, and there still could be a lot left to go: more moving from event to event, more time on buses and trains and planes, more games, more writing. I haven’t even watched a lot of the tournament’s other games live because I’ve been too busy to do so. Fortunately, New Zealand’s main sports channel has been airing replays all the time.

I want to reiterate that I know how much of a privilege it is to be here. I wouldn’t trade a second of it. But sometimes people like to get a look behind the scenes at what it’s like for journalists to cover a big event, so hopefully this piece has given you some insights.

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