Eric Barsness traveled from his home St. Paul to Doha, Qatar, via London to watch five matches at the FIFA World Cup this month. The 51-year-old has now attended six World Cups across the globe, and it’s an experience he cherishes each trip.

“Every World Cup is the greatest thing that I see and can experience as a soccer fan,” Barsness told the Pioneer Press this week.

Barsness watched his beloved U.S. men’s national team fall to the Netherlands in the elimination round of 16 on Dec. 3, and he witnessed arguably the best game of the tournament so far: Argentina’s dramatic penalty-kick win over the Netherlands in a quarterfinal on Dec. 9. The final pits Argentina versus France at 9 a.m. CT Sunday on FOX.

Barsness wasn’t reveling in the overall experience when the U.S. played that European heavyweight in Al Rayyan; he was just a diehard fan riding the ups and downs of every kick.

“The U.S. game was really emotional and crushing,” Barsness said of a 3-1 defeat that had the Americans inject hope when they cut the deficit to 2-1 in the 76th minute. “It’s kind of hard for me anyway to really enjoy the soccer, per se, because I’m so emotionally invested in their success. It’s, in that situation, painful, but there was moments where we scored, were one down and I was so excited.”

Barsness shared the trip with his father Bob, 78, three friends from Minnesota and two more from California. They wore red, white and blue from head to toe, even if the red, at times, came in the form of a Liverpool shirt (Barsness representing his favorite English Premier League side).

Eric Barsness fell in love with the sport when playing it at the youth level, still plays in leagues and pick-up games, and is a Minnesota United season-ticket holder. The UnitedHeathCare employee has been attending World Cups since the sport’s pinnacle event came to the U.S. in 1994 and then went to France in 1998, South Korea-Japan in 2002, Germany in 2006 and Brazil in 2014.

Qatar was his sixth World Cup and unlike any other. First, it was the first World Cup in the Middle East and first in a Muslim nation. Qatar has a poor human-rights record, deems LGBT people illegal, and migrant workers died by the thousands in building infrastructure, including stadiums, for the tournament.

Barsness said he “absolutely” felt a moral conflict going into the trip but settled on the fact that he felt Qatar hosting the tournament can help draw attention to that environment. “It’s that saying, ‘Sunlight is the best disinfectant,’ ” he said. “So now, I’m more aware of this. I think the world is more aware of what’s happening, and hopefully that will shine a light on it and maybe help make things better.”

Barsness said there are culture-shock elements in attending any foreign World Cup. The size of the country, roughly the same as Connecticut, made travel between games quicker and easier than he experienced in previous tournaments. In their eight-day stay, they saw multiple other games: Switzerland-Serbia, England-Senegal and Portugal-Switzerland from late in the group stage to early knockout rounds.

On his first trip to the Middle East, he was struck by the lack of the country’s residents engaging in the tournament, believing expensive broadcast rights kept it from being widely shown. He also didn’t come across many Qatari fans.

“There was none of the sidewalk, bar, restaurant, cafe, overflow of people watching on the street, going about their daily business, peeking in to see what’s going on with a game,” Barsness said. “It was either fan centers or in these Western hotel bars and restaurants that people were watching.”

Barsness was discouraged by the abundance of empty seats in VIP sections in stadiums for some games but said Doha is a modern city with a lot of English speakers and credited an “endless number” of people working to help fans get to where they need to go as well as uniformed police.

Qatar restricted the alcoholic beverages to certain bars and restaurants within hotels. Barsness said alcohol was readily available in those spots, though expensive.

Barsness’ group, through a connection, was able to book a hotel and not stay in one of the tent cities set up for some travelers. They were able to book rooms at the same hotel as the FOX broadcast crew, which included former U.S.-players-turned-TV-commentators Alexi Lalas, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey.

Barsness didn’t chat with any of those former USMNT members but said there were plenty of other memories.

“There’s always stories to be had,” he said. “They’re always great experiences. So this one, there is no disappointment at all in going.”