FIVE young Griffith men have embarked on an incredible adventure, flying out of Sydney on Monday to follow the green and gold all over the South American nation.
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While most can only imagine heading to the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil to see Dutch players like Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben, or Spaniards like Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Xabi Alonso grace the turf against our noble Socceroos, the local men will be living the dream.
Luke Papandrea, Nic Schirripa, Andrew Quarisa, Daniel Quarisa and Dean Dinicola have their tickets to every Australian match, as they travel around with the much-famed "Aussie Fanatics" group.
Luke admits that Australia's chances are slim in what has been labelled the "group of death", but he said he's really keen to see some quality players in their prime.
"It will be a miracle if we get through, but we're going for the experience," he said.
"Rio in Brazil, it's the ultimate World Cup experience, it's the Mecca of the World Cup."
The boys all agreed that it's the most passionate country for football in the world.
Nic said he was mostly looking forward to watching the Socceroos clash against Spain on the 23rd of June.
"They're the team with the most marquee players," he said.
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"Chile is probably our best chance of winning. They (Australia) are about six or eight bucks to win so there's a lot of hype."
Luke, Nic, Andrew and Daniel all ply their own football trade for Hanwood FC, while Dean runs around against them for cross-town rivals, Griffith City.
"Five of us are going. They're going to be missing a few but they should be right," said Luke.
"They will probably actually win a few more games."
Game one of the World Cup starts on the 12th of June. The boys will be able to watch the match on the big screen in South America's largest city, Sao Paulo.
They will be trekking around Brazil with 1000 other football-mad Aussies on the 'Fanatics' tour.
