What happens when a relatively overlooked Caribbean island—more recognized for its catamaran tours and snorkeling than for its goal-scoring prowess—qualifies for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in history? And then goes on to score their first-ever goal (against Germany), and tally the team’s first-ever tournament point (a 0-0 draw against Ecuador, kudos to goalkeeper Eloy Room’s record-breaking 15 saves)?

You get international Blue Wave mania.

“There is a real sense of pride across Curaçao right now,” says Gilbert Martina, president of the Curaçao Football Federation. “You can feel that energy across the island. Families are gathering to watch the matches, conversations are happening in cafés and restaurants, and there is a feeling that the world is paying attention to Curaçao in a new way.”

Indeed, as Curaçao prepares to face the Ivory Coast in Philadelphia later today, all eyes are on the small Caribbean nation. With just 158,00 residents, the island off the coast of South America is best known for its pastel colonial architecture, extensive coral reefs, and stretches of golden sands. Now, their international reputation has grown to include the title of World Cup darling.

Curaçao is the smallest country by population and land mass to have ever appeared in the FIFA World Cup.

Unsplash

Nicknamed the Blue Wave, Curaçao’s national unit represents the smallest country by population and land mass to have ever appeared in the world’s largest sporting event. At 171 square miles, it’s roughly the equivalent of New Orleans, Louisiana—albeit lesser known.

In reaching their first World Cup (which expanded from 32 to 48 participating nations this year), Curaçao has been able to showcase its colorful culture, touristic offerings and sporting potential to a largely virgin audience.

Martina, who is also the author of Healthy Minds, Healthy Nation, is a longtime advocate and cultural ambassador for his homeland and believes the island’s resilient spirit currently on display is a result of a fractured past overcome with collective determination.

The nation didn’t always geopolitically exist in the way it does today. Founded in 1954, it was long a part of the Netherlands Antilles—a singular Dutch territory that consisted of six unified islands. In 2010, the antiquated system was formally dissolved, giving way to modern Curaçao as its own autonomous country; yet it remains, along with Aruba and Sint Maarten, within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In less than two decades since then, they’ve exerted their national willpower, against all logic, through football.

After hours of anticipation and beer-drenched chanting in the streets, every minute of the game seems to fly. I watch Algerian fans in the seats below me turn their backs to the game and wave their arms like conductors, guiding their countrymen in chants of support for their team. I watch a grown man, wrapped in an Argentina flag just a few seats away, cry as he sees Messi score what will be the first of three goals for the evening, marking his first-ever hat trick in 20 years of World Cup performances. I see, too, a pair of Kansas City locals, who arrive to the game wearing albiceleste Argentina jerseys, only to walk themselves to the gift shop and swap into green Algeria gear after the first quarter, endearing themselves to the horde of scarf-waving Algerians seated around them. I see children on their parents’ shoulders, chanting the names of their heroes on the field; I watch fervent fans tie their flags to the stadiums’ balconies, then take them down when the game wraps. I see smiles and grimaces, and hear shouts of both ecstasy and gut-punching disappointment. The final score is 3-1, Argentina, and they remind everyone of it, pounding the walls of the stadium and stairwells as they leave: Olé, olé, olé, cada dia te quiero mas!

Over 60,000 spectators fill the stands for the Argentina vs. Algeria game.

Megan Spurrell

As we leave, our 90 minutes in heaven coming to a close, I once again try to turn my head and scan the crowds around me. I don’t know how to put a price on this feeling, this contact high that comes from being surrounded by joyous fans who are fully present for every minute on the clock. But I do know that even the inconveniences of attending an event as large as this one—like shuffling ever so slowly out of a packed stadium of 64,000 people—somehow just adds to the fun. And I know that riding the electric trolley through Kansas City may never be as fun as it was today, when Algerians and Argentinians volleyed their chants across the car. What you pay for, when you attend the World Cup, is the experience of feeling truly part of something, even if only for a couple days—or 90 minutes—in a city you weren’t expecting to find yourself in. And then, the next morning, you watch the mess of blue and green untangle itself, dispersing via highways and airports, an undoing of the fabric we’ve woven ourselves into in just 48 hours, and it feels good to have been a part of it.

Indy’s current momentum may feel recent, but the frictionless experience visitors encounter today stems from a nearly five decades-long campaign to make the city a leading sports destination. In 1979 the city became the home of America’s first sports commission when a coalition of local government officials and business leaders established the Indiana Sports Corp, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing big sports to the city. Over the past 47 years, it’s brought a Super Bowl, the NBA and WNBA All-Star Games, and the Olympic Trials, to name just a few of the more than 500 events hosted by the commission.

Infrastructure was key to this mission. Before the city landed the Baltimore Colts in 1984, it invested in the construction of the Hoosier Dome to help lure in the franchise. Just across the river, the NCAA has called Indy home since 1999, after the city built a new headquarters in White River State Park to entice the organization to relocate from Kansas. It was a big net cast to catch a big fish, if you will. “Build it, and they will come,” explains Michael Kaltenmark, vice president of marketing at the IMS. “Several decades later, and it’s still paying dividends. The men’s basketball championships are estimated to have brought a $400 million impact to the region, 70,000 visitors. Other cities would kill to have that.”

If there’s one event that captures the city’s identity, it’s the 110-year-old Indianapolis 500—a testament to the fact that doing things bigger and better has long been part of Indy’s DNA. “Over 350,000 people from 40 different countries and every US state come to Indianapolis just for this day,” says Kaltenmark. “Every year we still sing ‘Back Home in Indiana,’ and at some point I always cry.”

The happy medium between complete reinvention and tradition is where Indianapolis sports thrives. Regarding the city’s recent hot streak with sports, Pacer Sports and Entertainment president Mel Raines reflects on the results with grounded optimism. “I don’t ever want to take it for granted,” she shares, “so I don’t want to say I’m surprised, because I think it’s a lot of intentional hard work to get to where we are today and where we want to go, but I know that everybody’s in it together.” Having held the role for 17 years, Raines credits the “folks that have been doing this for 30, 40, 50 years” with guiding her through what she still considers a relatively early chapter in her Indianapolis sports career when she returned to Indianapolis in 2009 to help oversee operations for Super Bowl XLVI, the city’s first.

Lucas Oil Stadium hosted the men’s basketball championship this year, setting the stage for the matches between Michigan, Arizona, UConn, and Illinois.

Getty

Ask anyone around the world what the hottest ticket in town is this summer, and there’s a solid chance they’ll mention the FIFA World Cup. Millions of fans are expected to travel to Canada, the US, and Mexico over the next month to watch their favorite national teams—48 of them, to be exact—compete for futbol glory. It’s the biggest World Cup tournament to date, unfolding across three countries for the first time, and the excitement will reach a crescendo on Sunday, July 19, when the final two teams face off in the championship match at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside of Manhattan.

Tickets for any match in any city will cost you a pretty penny at this point in the tournament, but seats for the final will set you back a staggering amount—likely about five figures for Category 1 tickets, according to the New York Times, and that doesn’t even account for travel or lodging. If your wallet began shaking in your pocket at the thought, I get it. But all hope is not lost: Today, Verizon announced that it will be offering a sweepstakes where fans can win all-expenses-paid trips to New York to attend the FIFA World Cup final, plus a VIP experience with David Beckham before the big game. Holy. Soccer. Heaven.

Here’s the skinny: The telecommunications company is launching a brand-new loyalty program called Verizon Shine (get it?), through which customers can start each week on a high note by entering to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences on Monday mornings all year long. The program is kicking off on Monday, June 22, and the first experience to drop will be the “FIFA World Cup 2026 Final & VIP Event with David Beckham.” The four winners will each score two tickets to the finals on July 19 (good luck choosing who to be your plus-one!), plus transportation to New York, accommodations in the city, and the chance to hang out with soccer legend David Beckham. All you have to do to throw your hat in the ring is enroll at verizon.com/loyalty, then enter to win via the Verizon app. (The Verizon Shine program is available starting June 16 for all mobile and 5G home customers, and July 1 for Fios home internet customers.)

Of course, any soccer fan will be eager to win the World Cup tickets, but the other Verizon Shine experiences on the docket are also incredibly covetable. Sports lovers will go crazy for the all-expenses-paid trip to experience the first-ever NFL game in Australia (enter on July 13), a trip to France for a 2026 NFL Paris game (enter on August 3), and even a trip to Finland to watch the NHL Global Series (coming later in the year). If you’re the kind of fan who just wants both teams to have fun, you might be even more amped to hear that you can win a VIP experience at the Outside Lands music festival, a dance tutorial with KATSEYE in Paris, or an all-expenses-paid holiday weekend in NYC complete with dance lessons from the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.

Money can buy a lot of things, but it can’t always buy access—and that’s where these experiences come in. Soccer fans, may the odds be ever in your favor!

Local to New York or New Jersey and still looking to snag tickets?

Cooke, like a lot of now-Liverpudlians, originally grew up on the Wirral. “Being queer in the countryside, that can be a bit… well…” started Cooke, nodding knowingly.

I encouraged her to elaborate, though I knew exactly what she’d meant. It’s a common pattern in both of our countries: Queer kids from small, rural areas long to escape to the city, where there’s a greater promise of community.

Cooke sees another possibility: “We, as queer people, shouldn’t concede the countryside.”

Cooke is a long-haired femme with the privilege of someone who could pass as straight—she knows she doesn’t have the same experience of being perceived and judged as some of her fellow hikers. “When you look more physically queer, or physically trans, and you want to go on a walk, but you might be walking alone, or with a small group, and you might think, What are people’s reactions gonna be?” she says, noting that bathrooms along trails might not be single-stall or gender neutral. “It can be a really intimidating thing.” This is where being in a group offers value greater than connection: It becomes fortification to get out into these spaces and enjoy them.

“Why have we told ourselves that we’re not allowed in these spaces?” asks Cooke. “Mushrooms don’t have any gender, and we’ve got gay dad penguins raising eggs together. Queer people are natural, beautiful, and as varied as nature.”

What my fellow hikers loved most about the group was equally myriad. Some rejoiced in the opportunity to share their pronouns while knowing they’d be respected. Others felt relieved that they wouldn’t be dealing with the clique-iness of other hiking groups they’d tried, while a few enjoyed the flexibility to both socialize and keep to themselves when they wanted to. One co-organizer, Matt Hunt, said this freedom to be introverted is appreciated: “When everyone was eating lunch, I just went and fed the ducks.”

“To be fair,” Cooke joked, “you’d probably have done that back when it was just six of us, too.”

I brought my toy poodle mix, Gus, along for emotional support, but it turns out I needn’t have been so nervous about showing up solo. Call it a small world, but almost immediately I ended up running into a couple of my fellow roller derby players from the intro-level training group I’d been attending for the past year. They had both been on a few Merseyside Queer Hikes before and thoroughly enjoyed them. We fell into an easy side-by-side formation as our group began winding our way toward the coast. I made fast new friends with a few hikers who laughed when they saw Gus sniffing at a full-sized standard poodle on the trail: “It’s like Pokemon levels,” one of them joked.

As we wound our way along the coastline at a gentle, rolling incline, the route allowed us to see all the way out to Wales, given it was such a clear day (“a queer day?” I heard somebody joke). A long walk is more conducive to low-pressure socializing with strangers than, say, an event at a bar, where you’re all sitting at tables, awkwardly facing each other, or anxiously thinking of your own answers to contrived icebreakers. On a walk, conversations ebb and flow like tides. There were at least a couple hikers who kept their headphones on, simply enjoying the safety and comfort that comes from being buffeted along the route by fellow friendly gays. I enjoyed that feeling as well: not having to worry about whether I was walking for hours in the wrong direction, because a couple of confident leaders up front were paving the way. And this isn’t just a fun social outing. It can also function as an important resource for mental and physical health. One woman told me she had been recommended to the Queer Merseyside Hikers group by her therapist.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is finally here. With games taking place across 16 different cities in the US, Mexico, and Canada, some of the world’s greatest soccer players are going to be at our doorstep. Well, sort of—if you’re in New York, the games are famously over in New Jersey, a $100+ train-and-shuttle ride away. And as much as many of us want to be in the thick of cheering stadium crowds, tickets have infamously been going for sky-high prices.

It’s hard to care, though, knowing that the greatest scenes of all will be unfolding all over the five boroughs—in Colombian mom-and-pop restaurants in Jackson Heights, Moroccan cafes in Astoria, and German beer halls on the Lower East Side. This city is made up of people from all over the world, and when any national team is playing, you will know. When Senegal vs. France is on? It’s Harlem for Senegal, or Cobble Hill for Les Bleues. Ecuador vs. Germany? That’s a matter of which part of Queens or Brooklyn you want to beeline to.

If you are new to cheering for a national team, there are a few best practices to bandwagoning: Follow the dress code by wearing the right colors, scream like hell when the team scores, and consider being the one to shout “drinks on me!” when they win. Chances are, it’ll still be cheaper than an official ticket?

Of course there are many, many sports bars throughout this city to choose from, and outdoor watch parties too. Below, our favorite places to watch New York City’s World Cup games, based on the country you’re cheering for, with some general tips on Fan Fest, which are FIFAs official World Cup watch parties. One more word to the wise: On days when hundreds of thousands of fans will be streaming through Penn Station en route to Jersey, it’s actually a perk if a watch party is over in Brooklyn, Queens, or a corner of Manhattan that won’t force you to pass through that chaos.

Read on for the best country-specific bars to watch every New York/New Jersey World Cup match, even if you don’t have a ticket. (Keep an eye on this link, as we’ll update further throughout the Cup.)

You can find our entire guide to the 2026 FIFA World Cup here.

Where to watch World Cup matches in New York City, depending on which country is playing

Sunday, June 13 @ 6 p.m.: Brazil vs. Morocco

Brazil: The Brazilian diaspora, once-upon-a-time centered in midtown’s Little Brazil, now has a wide footprint in the city. Favela Grill in Astoria, known for its home-cooked dishes, is hosting a watch party and taking reservations for tables. Beija Flor in Long Island City, a Brazilian restaurant that often hosts live events, is playing the opening Mexico match on their big screens and likely to do the same for Brazil. Beco, a small botequim in Williamsburg, has already kicked things off, hosting watch parties for pre-Cup friendlies; they’re taking reservations for tables, and will have a standing section on the sidewalk outside. Or just make your way through the bars on 46th Street between 4th and 5th Ave, a.k.a. Little Brazil, and see what you find.

Brazilian fans always show up at Beco in Williamsburg, even spilling onto the sidewalk outside.

@becobar

Morocco: Astoria’s Steinway Street (from Astoria Boulevard down to about 30th Street in particular) is always the place to go for great Moroccan restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and hookah lounges. Hookah spot Rotana Lounge on Steinway will be screening most World Cup games, but my suggestion is to walk this two-block section of Queens, grabbing a spot wherever you can find one—there will be plenty.

The Penthouse World Cup Package at The Mark—one of the most iconic hotels on the Upper East Side—is definitely the most over-the-top offering on this list. The four-night FIFA-centric experience, which takes place from July 16–21, gives six guests the chance to escape from the FIFA madness in the largest hotel penthouse suite in the US, which spans the entirety of The Mark’s top two floors. (The package also comes with two additional standard rooms, should you travel with staff.)

With plenty of screens for soccer viewing, a legendary terrace overlooking Central Park, martini and caviar service from on-site Caviar Kaspia, a 24-hour butler, a private gym and cold plunge overlooking Manhattan, a private chauffeur and luxury vehicle, and an on-call massage therapist, I don’t need to tell you that your stay here would be extraordinary. But what makes this package truly exceptional is the fact that it comes with premium pitchside tickets to the World Cup Final, complete with round-trip helicopter transfers, lounge access and hospitality, and a dedicated entrance to the stadium. Oh, and when you get back, you can head out to celebrate on The Mark’s private 70-foot sailboat. The only downside? The entire package will set you back a cool million dollars.

The world’s most influential travelers share their must-packs.

In New York City, being a Knicks fan supersedes the energy of devout nuns and the on-court alien in the opposing Spurs’ artillery. To be a Knicks fan is to be deeply afflicted by an addiction to the team’s arduous trek of golden eras, heartbreak, hope, and now, a return to the penultimate stage for the first time since 1999, toting a bid for their first championship since 1973. Live from San Antonio, Jordyn Woods is still coming down from the same emotional ride that gave us a Game 1 win on Wednesday night.

Woods, who is engaged to Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (KAT), wants to say the Knicks always surprise her—but they don’t. She’s seen how this team has dedicated their entire lives to this moment, and how hard they’ve all worked to get here. To see their resilience play out in real time is just the cherry on top. “They always find a way,” she laughs in admiration.

Woods herself is nothing less than a multi-hyphenate: entrepreneur and social mogul, of course, but also an extremely passionate traveler—just a slice of her bubbly character that she backs up with undeniable veracity. Traveling is her favorite thing to do with Towns, and they’re never in one place for too long. “We were friends first, and because of that, we just have fun together. When we travel, we don’t stay in the room—we’re never in the room. It will be the nicest room, and we will never be in there. We’re big museum people, art people…we love the history of things and really diving into a culture!”

Like a true Libra, Woods is finding herself maturing into an expert packer, touting a type A aptitude for finding the sweet spot between planning and being spontaneous. As for what she’s packing for Game 3 in New York City on Monday, Woods jokes, “I think I need to pack a comfy outfit so I can sleep in The Garden… I guess it’s like our new home now.” As for what she’s hoping for the Knicks on this historic run? “One game at a time,” she says with confident assurance. “One game at a time.”

The trip

What trip are you unpacking for us?

I’m unpacking my trip to San Antonio for Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals, and so far, it’s been a great time seeing the guys continue to push forward, fight, and never lose hope, especially in Game 1. I was excited—slash—nervous to see the Spurs fans here. We have super loyal fans, the best fans in the world, but San Antonio is also up there. I was feeling anxious to see the energy of the crowds, but everyone was super respectful. It’s crazy; we’re all witnessing such a historical ride. In every city we’ve gone to, there’s been at least 100 Knicks fans. They’re always there—any city. They find a way.

No one at these games is too good to get up and cheer, stand, and scream to support the Knicks. New York City is unlike any other place, any other arena I’ve ever seen, or any other fan base. We are all so hyped for this series to continue in New York. Knicks fans are one of a kind.

Is the trip for work or vacation?

A little bit of both. It’s technically a work trip for my fiancé, but I tagged along to support him and be part of such an exciting moment in his career.