Brazil faces Morocco at MetLife Stadium, where a sold-out crowd is expected to pack the stands for this Group C opener. The highly anticipated 2026 World Cup Group C opening clash between Brazil and Morocco is set to take place at MetLife Stadium -officially designated as New York New Jersey Stadium for the tournament- in East Rutherford, New Jersey. As two of the top-ten ranked national teams (Brazil 6th and Morocco 7th) in the world prepare to take the pitch, soccer fans are eager to see if the tournament will continue its streak of breaking domestic live-attendance records. A total capacity crowd of 82,500 fans is expected to pack the stands for the blockbuster match. According to FIFA and ticketing distribution channels, tickets for this specific Group C match completely sold out within hours of general public release. MetLife Stadium sits in the top three for 2026 World Cup capacity MetLife Stadium is no stranger to staging monumental soccer matches, having previously hosted major international friendlies and the historic Copa América Centenario Final in 2016. New York New Jersey Stadium, the venue of the @FIFAWorldCup 2026 final, will play host to its first game of the tournament today 🏟️ pic.twitter.com/YdUd2fRanN— FIFA (@FIFAcom) June 13, 2026 With its configuration for soccer officially capped right at 82,500 seats, MetLife Stadium ranks as the third-largest venue of the 2026 World Cup, trailing only two other North American coliseums: Dallas Stadium (AT&T Stadium): 94,000 capacityEstadio Azteca (Mexico City): 83,000 capacityNew York New Jersey Stadium (MetLife Stadium): 82,500 capacity Furthermore, the venue holds massive prestige for this cycle; FIFA has officially selected the New York New Jersey Stadium to host the 2026 World Cup Final on Sunday, July 19.
Footy Addicts helps amateur players find a game at short notice – and tackles the problem of lonelinessCries of “Boss! Boss! Boss!” emerge from the pitch during a hard-fought game of football in a London park. There aren’t a lot of names used in this game, because most players only met just before kick-off. They were brought together by an app that’s injecting life into grassroots football.Footy Addicts was invented to solve an infuriating problem for amateur players – the late dropout, which can lead to unbalanced teams and ruined games. The app brings together strangers who are desperate to play football, and who can step in after a cancellation to make up the numbers at short notice. Continue reading...
Christopher: I have always been an admirer of Kaoru Mitoma and have desired for Tottenham to sign him long before Mr De Zerbi came along. In my opinion, Japanese players are hugely underrated and the traditionally 'bigger' clubs not coming in for them (like Maeda Daizen at Celtic) is strange.
Former Liverpool midfielder Ray Houghton says it will be a "strange start" for Andoni Iraola as the new Reds boss, with so many of his players away at the World Cup, but there will still be pressure on him to "hit the ground running". "Arne Slot winning the league then finishing fifth and that not being enough has put huge pressure on whoever takes over, because it pressurises you coming in as a new manager to get things right straight away," Houghton told BBC Radio Merseyside.
In this extract from their forthcoming book on South America and the World Cup, Mark Biram and Tim Vickery describe a Seleçao’s strange buildup to the classic tournamentIn January 1969, João Saldanha was appointed as Brazil’s coach. Saldanha was barely a coach – he had had a brief spell in charge of Botafogo more than a decade earlier. He was an immensely popular football journalist, who with typewriter or microphone had the fluent gift of communication, talking about the game in language that was both fresh and straightforward, easy to understand. And he was so much more. He was a charismatic powerhouse, who claimed to have popped up at many key moments in history, usually in the service of international communism. Because, yes, at the right-wing height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, a communist was appointed to coach the national football team.João Havelange, the president of the Brazilian sports confederation, knew what he was doing. At a stroke, he had cut away all the intrigue and politicking which was surrounding the side. Saldanha’s opening move was to announce his starting lineup and his reserves. No argument, no discussion, no balancing off one region against the other. Just one man picking the team. And it worked. Brazil sailed through qualification for the 1970 World Cup. Continue reading...
FC Barcelona’s pursuit of Julian Alvarez took a bizarre turn earlier today when Atletico Madrid decided to take to social media and attempt to mock their rivals.In a series of strange posts on their...
The World Cup is coming to Canada this summer, with six matches hosted in Toronto and another seven in Vancouver. Like all Canadian cities, summer is when these two metropolises come alive (Torontonians and Vancouverites are even known to smile at strangers when their vitamin D is no longer so deficient), and even without a […]
