MIAMI — It is hard to fathom just how much Sunday’s World Cup final means to Argentine soccer fans, but you get a pretty good idea after five minutes on the phone with Patricio Colazo, a 41-year-old handyman who runs a small construction company in Pembroke Pines.
He was born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, hometown of soccer icon Lionel Messi. Earlier this week, when Argentina advanced to the Cup final against France, Colazo booked a pair of $2,700 plane tickets from Miami to Qatar for himself and his girlfriend and another for his brother from Buenos Aires.
He doesn’t have tickets for the highly anticipated match; but planned to board that Friday Turkish Airways flight anyway and make the 7,656-mile, 17-hour journey in hopes of somehow getting into the stadium.
