Full Cup experience

Oling, 54, was introduced to the sport at an early age. His mother was English and his father worked for Lufthansa Airlines, so the family spent many a summer in the United Kingdom. He started playing the game with his cousins and a love affair began.

Then came his taste of the World Cup. He was in the UK in the summer of 1966 when the English won it all. He saw the 1970 Mexico edition on closed circuit television and the 1974 Cup in West Germany on pay-per-view. He had finally had enough.

"I said, 'Hey, I got to see this in person,'" Oling said. "'I need to see these matches.'"

Following the 1978 Cup in Argentina, Oling made it to Spain (1982), Mexico (1986), Italy (1990), United States (1994) and France (1998).

For Oling, the World Cup is not all about soccer. While the games are the central theme, he enjoys all the accouterments that go along with it.

"It is so festive. You can be downtown, outside the stadium or 100 miles away. Everybody is so into it," Oling said. "The businesses slow down, if not stop. People take the time out to watch the matches."

He is also not one to sweat the details. He decides he wants to go, finds the cheapest airfare he can find and then deals with things as they come.

"For me, it's an adventure," Oling said. "It would be nice to have everything set up, but if you're wanting to see a match, you have to figure out where it is (and you may not get there in time). Maybe you can't see England play, but you got to see a great match."

Besides, when you're not flying by the seat of your pants, you could miss out on some great stories and memories. In 1990, Oling went to Italy with a group of soccer players and played a number of "friendly" matches against local teams. He said he watched about 10 World Cup games.

In 1994, he went to Pasadena to watch the third-place match between Sweden and Bulgaria. He couldn't secure tickets for the finals between Italy and Brazil and was walking through the Rose Bowl parking lot. He and his friends noticed a chauffeur watching the game in the back of his limo. He popped his head in and asked if they could watch with him. While watching the game, they started chit-chatting. Turns out the driver had been the chauffeur for O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown-Simpson on several occasions.

During the '98 France games, Oling was in Germany for the wedding of a friend -- the groom was American and the bride was German. After the wedding, he took them to France and he happened to get a ticket to the U.S.-German game. He bumped into a man who was from the Caribbean. They struck up a conversation and as they went their separate ways, the man gave him a ducat for the game. Turns out the man was part of the soccer federation from that tiny island and had tickets to almost any game.

"I got that miracle ticket," Oling said.

Oling missed the '02 Cup in Japan/South Korea but he made the best of it, getting together with friends and family to watch games in the wee hours of the morning. He's trying to get to Germany next week. He already has a ticket waiting for the U.S.-Italy match and he cleared one more hurdle Wednesday, bringing him one step closer to the '06 Cup.

"It's not 100 percent, but it's more than 50," Oling said. "But I'll be enjoying the matches no matter where I am."

So will millions of others.<