MGWCC #754 - “Urban Planning”

[StunGun]

I’m having a brain-f@rt with this one.
Anyone up for a gentle nudge?

[minimuggle]

Beamed up which was a nice boost after Friday's WSJ puzzle. This one was a tough grid and at first nothing jumped out at me and then suddenly it did. Great puzzle construction. happy Monday everyone.

[littlepigeon]

Would love a nudge if anyone catches this 11th-hour post... I've got at least the first step but have remained stuck for some time ever since figuring that part out.

[Joe Ross]

[HunterX]

Wait… So we were supposed to look up the World Cup “Group” that each of the teams from the countries indicated by each of the cities was in?

Okay. Now I understand why I didn’t make it to step 2. Oh well. I’ll be flying back through Doha, Qatar during the last weekend of the month. Maybe it will inspire me to figure out the World Cup meta puzzle for that weekend.

[MikeM000]

Totally missed this, and 75A even led me to look up the WC table to make sure all 7 countries were in there and saw the Groups and everything. I'm with Joon on my lack of interest in it this year...I'll watch the USA matches but not likely much else and haven't paid any attention to when it actually starts or ends or anything.

Was led astray by things like TAX right by LAREDO and NED crossing with EDAM, and USG (whatever that is) being in the grid...Mixing my international competitions but was looking for ECU, SUI, POR, etc. or things close to those in the grid.

Also was led astray by thinking a week 2 shouldn't be this complex....

[lbray53]

I almost had the answer written in my notes very early EXCEPT that for some reason I did not consider Laredo Texas to be a "world" city. I opted for Laredo Spain after Googling Laredo European. That kept me from the answer for a LONG time. Looking back after solving the puzzle I decided to learn more about Laredo Spain. I has about 10,000 people, so it is even LESS of a "world" city.