Argentina-Uruguay soccer match to kick off in two hours in Tel Aviv

More than two hours before the Argentina-Uruguay match kicks off, with thousands of supporters of both teams having already arrived at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield stadium, some desperate soccer fans are still looking for tickets.

Within three minutes’ walking distance around the stadium, four different people approach this reporter, offering handsome sums to buy their way into the stadium to watch Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi and his Argentine squad take on their regional rivals.

For some of the 30,000 who bought tickets in time, tonight’s friendly is a dream come true.

“As soon as we heard about this game, our entire family ran to get tickets,” recalls Gustavo Alguea, 30, who moved from Santa Fe, Argentina — Messi’s hometown — to Tel Aviv as a child.

“What can be better than to see Messi play in the Holy Land?” he says. “And especially against Uruguay — this is the classico,” he adds, referring to traditional soccer rivalry between the two neighboring Latin American countries.

Argentina will win 2-1, Algue predicts.

Jonathan Mitteman, who moved from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Israel a decade ago, hopes that his native country will win, but agrees that Messi’s crew has the better chance of it. Adam, his 6-year-old son, also hopes that Uruguay and its superstar Luis Suarez will score an upset victory, but admits that it appears unlikely.

“Even a tie would be good,” his dad adds.

— Raphael Ahren