There's a pretty wide range of travel miles teams will be logging through their first three games of the tournament. The table above is based on round-trip travel between a team's base camp and its first two games, as well as a trip out to the stadium for its third and final match of the group stage.
While no team has it easy, the chart makes clear that some teams have it much tougher than others. To get a better idea of how the teams will be traveling, take a look at the host nation of Russia's travel itinerary for the group stage.
Russia's base camp is in Moscow, which will also be the location of the team's first match of the tournament. Then, they'll take a roundtrip to Saint Petersburg to face Egypt, before finishing the group stage in Samara.
At 1,320 estimated total miles, it's not the lightest travel schedule in the tournament, but it's pretty close, especially when compared to Russia's Group A opponent Egypt, which will have to travel a whopping 5,288 miles through the first three matches of the World Cup.
Egypt's schedule is by far the most grueling of any team in the tournament. They were placed in the southernmost base camp and have to pull round trips to the northernmost and easternmost stadiums for their first two matches.
It is easy to see this and wonder if the host country was playing a bit of gamesmanship with a key opponent.
While Egypt's travel schedule would be considered a haul by any traveler, it's especially gutting when compared to Colombia, the team with the lightest travel at the World Cup.
Colombia will log just 761 miles through their first three matches of the World Cup, one of just two teams that won't clear 1,000 miles in the group stage.
As you can see, Colombia's stadium choices appear exponentially more balanced than Egypt's, with one game in the same city as its base camp and two others just a (relatively) short trip away. It does help that the team's home base, Saransk, is one of the most centralized in the country.
If you're looking for a sleeper pick to make a run in the World Cup, Colombia will at least be well-rested through the group stage of the tournament. And if Egypt comes out a bit flat-footed in its match against Russia, there's a chance their brutal travel schedule has something to do with it.
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