Today's stop is Nizhny Novgorod, 265 miles east of Moscow.
This really is turning into a Russian geography lesson. Nizhny Novgorod is on the Volga River. Further down river the Volga passes through other host cities, Kazan, Samara and Volgograd. It's the longest river in Europe, starting just north of Moscow and winding through central Russia for over 2,000 miles before emptying into the Caspian Sea in the south.
The construction of the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium for the World Cup started in 2015. In that same year FC Olimpiyets Nizhny Novgorod became the city's football team after the dissolution of FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod. FC Olimpiyets started in the third division and have since been promoted to the Russian National Football League, the second division of Russian football.
The city is famous for having Russia's first tram and it's 16th century Kremlin, built to protect the city's residents from invasions. It is also the birthplace of the famous Russian playwright, Maxim Gorky, and the city was actually called Gorky between 1932 and 1990.
Four group matches will be played at the stadium, including Argentina-Croatia and England-Panama, a round of 16 match and a quarterfinal.
As the World Cup gets ever so much closer, the "I hate football and will be doing something else for a month" season is already in full swing. Fair enough, but tomorrow I will attempt to offer the viewpoint from a "I love football and wish I had nothing else to do for a month" kind of person.
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