Birthday ideas for a soccer fan in San Jose

March 21, 2016 10:14 PM

So my husband's birthday is coming up, which is going to be his first birthday we're celebrating as a married couple. I tend to like to gift experiences rather than things, and I'm thinking of doing something soccer-themed this year, as he really loves soccer and we've never actually attended a soccer game together.

So I'm just wondering, for a complete soccer-game-locating novice, if anyone knows of how to find seats for games, what teams there are around the bay area that are fun to watch, etc. I know Messi is his favorite player and he likes European teams but I'm sure he wouldn't be disappointed to go to an exciting soccer game, even if it's a US team.

Another side question I had is: for married couples sharing a joint bank account, how do you decide how much to spend, since it's coming from the joint account? It also somehow feels less like a gift if we're both paying for it.

posted by massofintuition to Grab Bag (3 answers total)

It depends on how quickly the birthday is coming up and whether you can switch in a more interesting game later perhaps but in the summer many of the big European teams play pre-season friendlies around the world. At least 2 English premier league teams were in Sacramento last summer. It's too early to know where friendlies will be this summer but might be worth looking out for games local to you as I think this would provide an opportunity to see a game which is a bit different than the norm. Dates wise most of this type of game will take place in the last three weeks of July.
posted by biffa at 12:11 AM on March 22, 2016

Best answer: You can buy tickets to see Argentina (probably featuring Messi) play in Santa Clara in June: here's a random ticket seller, you should check Ticketmaster/stubhub/etc as well.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 3:00 AM on March 22, 2016 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Tickets for the MLS All-Star Game against Arsenal at Avaya Stadium, July 28th are on sale.

We recently were able to watch a game from a luxury box there, and that would certainly be something special, depending on your budget.

You could also try to get tickets for SJ v Orlando, so he can see Kaka, or SJ v LA Galaxy at Stanford Stadium... where he would (probably) get to see Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Robbie Keane, and all those other big names those jerks in LA have.
posted by Kafkaesque at 1:10 PM on March 22, 2016