Egypt's World Cup Camp Is In Spokane, Washington

The FIFA World Cup is here, and the epic tournament kicks off this week, rolling through North America for more than a month. This year's World Cup spans 3 countries and 16 cities, with a bulk of those in the United States.

Toronto
Vancouver
Guadalajara
Mexico City
Monterrey
Atlanta
Boston
Dallas
Houston
Kansas City
Los Angeles
Miami
New York (East Rutherford, New Jersey, technically, but that doesn't look as flashy as NYC)
Philadelphia
Seattle
San Francisco (Again, technically, it's Santa Clara)

The United States team plays in Seattle next week, but good luck getting tickets. Last I checked, entry prices were around $2,000.

Those are the match locations, but each team needs its training sessions to stay crisp throughout the month-long tournament. One of the training locations is just a 3-hour drive from Missoula.

Egypt Trains In Spokane, Washington

Spokane is one of the official training sites and will host Egypt, currently ranked No. 29 in the world and competing in Group G.

What are the chances that any members of the Egyptian National Team had ever heard of Spokane, Washington, before finding out they were training there? A quick Google search shows that traveling from Cairo, Egypt, to Spokane, Washington, takes nearly 20 hours.

Egypt is training at Gonzaga's soccer field - Luger Field.

Other nearby(ish) locations are Renton, Washington (Team Belgium), Portland, Oregon (Team Jordan), and Sandy, Utah (Bosnia and Herzegovina).