Start in Mexico
Final of the 2026 World Cup in New Jersey
February 5, 2024, 4:22 a.m
The 2026 World Cup will be a gigantic tournament with 104 games. Now the world association is announcing details of the game plan. The locations for the final and opening game in more than two years have also now been determined.
The 2026 soccer world champion will be crowned in the Big Apple. As the world association FIFA announced during a major live show, the final of the final tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada will be played on July 19th at the MetLife Stadium of the New York Football Club in New Jersey. The opening game takes place in Mexico City’s venerable Aztec Stadium.
The final of the 100th Copa America between Argentina and Chile (2:4 iE) took place in the NFL stadium of the Giants and Jets in East Rutherford in 2016. During football league operations, the arena offers space for 82,500 spectators. Most of the 104 games in the World Cup finals will be played at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, near the Texas metropolis of Dallas (9).
With the opening game, the Aztec Stadium in Mexico’s capital will become the first arena in World Cup history to host games in three finals. Both the 1986 World Cup with the famous “Hand of God” by Argentina legend Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals against England and the 1970 finals with the German “game of the century” in the semi-finals against Italy took place there.
Mammoth tournament with 104 games
The USA will play their opening game on July 12th in Los Angeles, and further American games will take place in Seattle. Canada starts in Toronto. Overall, with eleven stadiums, the USA has the most arenas for the mammoth World Cup, which will be held for the first time with 48 teams. There are three venues in Mexico, plus Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. While Mexico is hosting the Men’s World Cup for the third time and the USA for the second time, the games will be a first for Canada.
A total of 104 games are scheduled to kick off at the tournament, 40 more than at the previous World Championships since 1998. Due to the high number of games, the tournament is also longer than the previous events with a total of 39 days.