The United States, along with Canada and Mexico, will be responsible for hosting this year’s 2026 FIFA World Cup. This will be the first three-nation World Cup and will mark the first time the United States has hosted the World Cup since 1994.
The people of the Tri-State area are looking forward to having the World Cup hosted at MetLife Stadium (which will be referred to as the “New York/New Jersey Stadium” for this World Cup due to FIFA sponsorship rules), as the New Jersey/New York area will be hosting eight matches, including the final, as access to the games from other neighboring states will be easy.
These will be the following matches that MetLife will host:
June 13 — Brazil vs. Morocco, 6 p.m. (Group C)
June 16 — France vs. Senegal, 3 p.m. (Group I)
June 22 — Norway vs. Senegal, 8 p.m. (Group I)
June 25 — Ecuador vs. Germany, 4 p.m. (Group E)
June 27 — Panama vs. England, 5 p.m. (Group L)
June 30 — Round of 32, 5 p.m.
July 5 — Round of 16, 4 p.m.
July 19 — Final, 3 p.m.
Hosting the final is the crown jewel of the region’s eight-match slate. This makes the New Jersey/New York area the focal point of attention this upcoming summer.
For this tournament, FIFA will be installing a natural grass pitch, compared to the artificial turf that MetLife usually has. This process includes twenty truckloads of Tahoma 31 bermudagrass on roughly two feet of sand with a vacuum ventilation system and a temporary irrigation network. 1,740 corner seats were also removed to accommodate the 115-by-74-yard pitch. The grass was specially grown at the Carolina Green Turf Farm in North Carolina for about 10 months before being trucked to New Jersey.
This is crucial since there has been a big issue with players getting injured from playing on the MetLife turf, so a change in the grass is a big step and shows the initiative that is being taken to be the best host. As David Graham, FIFA’s senior pitch manager said, “It’s only Justice that the best players on the planet hopefully get the best grass on the planet, and we’re trying to achieve that.”
