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2026 World Cup in North America: Step 1 - the host cities


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  • 3 weeks later...
5 minutes ago, mdmost said:

The rollout details on this really sucked. Took a while to even find this information other than the tiny text they had on the announcement show.

 

Yeah the information on the match dates was really limited. The Boston globe has information up now for here:

group stage games: June 13, June 16, June 19, June 23, June 26

Round of 32 - June 29

Round of 16 - July 9

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Here is a match by match schedule. Fixed the formatting as best I could. US Matches in Blue, Canada in Red, Mexico in Green.

Group stage
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM
Match 1     June 11    Mexico City        Estadio Azteca

Match 2     June 11    Guadalajara        Estadio Akron
Match 3     June 12    Toronto            BMO Field
Match 4     June 12    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 5     June 13    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 6     June 13    Vancouver          BC Place
Match 7     June 13    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 8     June 13    San Francisco      Levi's Stadium
Match 9     June 14    Philadelphia       Lincoln Financial Field
Match 10    June 14    Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 11    June 14    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 12    June 14    Monterrey          Estadio BBVA
Match 13    June 15    Miami              Hard Rock Stadium
Match 14    June 15    Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Match 15    June 15    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 16    June 15    Seattle            Lumen Field
Match 17    June 16    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 18    June 16    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 19    June 16    Kansas City        Arrowhead Stadium
Match 20    June 16    San Francisco      Levi's Stadium
Match 21    June 17    Toronto            BMO Field
Match 22    June 17    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 23    June 17    Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 24    June 17    Mexico City        Estadio Azteca
Match 25    June 18    Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Match 26    June 18    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 27    June 18    Vancouver          BC Place
Match 28    June 18    Guadalajara        Estadio Akron
Match 29    June 19    Philadelphia       Lincoln Financial Field
Match 30    June 19    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 31    June 19    San Francisco      Levi's Stadium
Match 32    June 19    Seattle            Lumen Field
Match 33    June 20    Toronto            BMO Field
Match 34    June 20    Kansas City        Arrowhead Stadium
Match 35    June 20    Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 36    June 20    Monterrey          Estadio BBVA
Match 37    June 21    Miami              Hard Rock Stadium
Match 38    June 21    Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Match 39    June 21    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 40    June 21    Vancouver          BC Place
Match 41    June 22    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 42    June 22    Philadelphia       Lincoln Financial Field
Match 43    June 22    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 44    June 22    San Francisco      Levi's Stadium
Match 45    June 23    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 46    June 23    Toronto            BMO Field
Match 47    June 23    Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 48    June 23    Guadalajara        Estadio Akron
Match 49    June 24    Miami              Hard Rock Stadium
Match 50    June 24    Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Match 51    June 24    Vancouver          BC Place
Match 52    June 24    Seattle            Lumen Field
Match 53    June 24    Mexico City        Estadio Azteca
Match 54    June 24    Monterrey          Estadio BBVA
Match 55    June 25    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 56    June 25    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 57    June 25    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 58    June 25    Kansas City        Arrowhead Stadium
Match 59    June 25    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 60    June 25    San Francisco      Levi's Stadium
Match 61    June 26    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 62    June 26    Toronto            BMO Field
Match 63    June 26    Seattle            Lumen Field
Match 64    June 26    Vancouver          BC Place
Match 65    June 26    Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 66    June 26    Guadalajara        Estadio Akron
Match 67    June 27    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 68    June 27    Philadelphia       Lincoln Financial Field
Match 69    June 27    Kansas City        Arrowhead Stadium
Match 70    June 27    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 71    June 27    Miami              Hard Rock Stadium
Match 72    June 27    Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Round of 32
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM

Match 73    June 28    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 74    June 29    Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 75    June 29    Monterrey          Estadio BBVA
Match 76    June 29    Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 77    June 30    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 78    June 30    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 79    June 30    Mexico City        Estadio Azteca
Match 80    July 1     Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Match 81    July 1     San Francisco      Levi's Stadium
Match 82    July 1     Seattle            Lumen Field
Match 83    July 2     Toronto            BMO Field
Match 84    July 2     Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 85    July 2     Vancouver          BC Place
Match 86    July 3     Miami              Hard Rock Stadium
Match 87    July 3     Kansas City        Arrowhead Stadium
Match 88    July 3     Dallas             AT&T Stadium

Round of 16
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM

Match 89    July 4     Philadelphia       Lincoln Financial Field
Match 90    July 4     Houston            NRG Stadium
Match 91    July 5     East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium
Match 92    July 5     Mexico City        Estadio Azteca
Match 93    July 6     Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 94    July 6     Seattle            Lumen Field
Match 95    July 7     Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Match 96    July 7     Vancouver          BC Place

Quarterfinals
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM

Match 97    July 9     Boston             Gillette Stadium
Match 98    July 10    Los Angeles        SoFi Stadium
Match 99    July 11    Miami              Hard Rock Stadium
Match 100   July 11    Kansas City        Arrowhead Stadium

Semifinals
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM

Match 101   July 14    Dallas             AT&T Stadium
Match 102   July 15    Atlanta            Mercedes-Benz Stadium

Bronze Medal Match
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM
Match 103   July 18    Miami              Hard Rock Stadium

Final
MATCH       DATE       CITY               STADIUM
Match 104   July 19    East Rutherford    MetLife Stadium

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12 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Do we have any idea on game times? I always go to Kansas City for work for two weeks in June, so I'm hoping I can catch a game at Arrowhead if it's at night.

That won't be determined until the teams are drawn, because they want to put the games on when the fans can watch.

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10 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

That won't be determined until the teams are drawn, because they want to put the games on when the fans can watch.

That makes sense. But will there be any night games at any site? When it's primetime in the US, most of the rest of the world is asleep. What time were the games the last time the US hosted?

Edited by HornOnTheBayou
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12 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

Actually they stuck with groups of 4 - twelve of them. That limits teams to 3 group games instead of 5.

i found a full schedule of every game. But I need to figure out the best way to format it for here, I’ll post it soon. 

i stand corrected

this means 8 of 12 3rd-place teams will make the round of 32 so we are playing 72 games to eliminate 16 teams

 

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2 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

i stand corrected

this means 8 of 12 3rd-place teams will make the round of 32 so we are playing 72 games to eliminate 16 teams

 

Yeah I don't love this. It is going to set up some wacky elimination matchups. Winner of A vs 3rd place in B. Draw is going to be more important for the round of 32 than for making it out of qualifying. I think there are going to be a few of the 8 3rd place teams that move forward by clutching onto 2 draws. 

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39 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

That makes sense. But will there be any night games at any site? When it's primetime in the US, most of the rest of the world is asleep. What time were the games the last time the US hosted?

Yeah, 1994 had night games. But it produced some serious klunkers for the home fans:

Sweden-Russia was played at 7:30 Eastern - 1:30 AM Sweden/3:30 AM Moscow (not to mention the rest of the massive country)

Greece-Nigeria was a 7:30 PM Eastern game - 2:30 in Greece, 1:30 in Nigeria

That's just two I pulled up really quick.

 

But FIFA has changed a lot in the years that followed and they are doing what they can to make the games watchable for home fans. They put games on to be more conducive for the biggest audiences. First off there are currently 4 games a day planned for most days and outside of the last group stage day, they don't want to overlap games. I would guess something like (Central times):

10 AM game 
1 PM game
4 PM game
7 PM game 

The Americas align pretty easily, so no work there. They probably will focus on the morning games and night games for Asian teams while focusing on mid-day games for Africa and Europe.

 

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Yeah, for WC's prior to Qatar, I'm pretty sure the kickoff times were also predetermined based on the draw, not just dates and sites. FIFA got that right: waiting until after the draw and setting KO times to better accommodate a team's home TV audience.

Edited by LonghornSean
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4 hours ago, Juicy said:

Yeah I don't love this. It is going to set up some wacky elimination matchups. Winner of A vs 3rd place in B. Draw is going to be more important for the round of 32 than for making it out of qualifying. I think there are going to be a few of the 8 3rd place teams that move forward by clutching onto 2 draws. 

The expansion of the tournament to 48 teams was so dumb. Too many groups, too thin of a field, 3rd place teams advancing through (and waiting for other results after their games). All so there can be so many more games.

The 32 team format was perfect. The stakes of needing to be top 2 in your group, the finality of your 3 games. Cutting the field in half after the group stage. Even qualifying had stakes, think about the good teams that missed out on even small missteps.

The real tournament stakes won’t start until the knockout round and even then, probably not until the round of 16 matches. 

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Completely agree that third place advancement (particularly when 75% of third place teams advance) destroys the group stage.  

The glory days of the World Cup were 1958 (Pele; 16 teams) - 1998 (Zidane; 1st 32 team World Cup).  

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On 2/5/2024 at 9:57 AM, HornOnTheBayou said:

Do we have any idea on game times? I always go to Kansas City for work for two weeks in June, so I'm hoping I can catch a game at Arrowhead if it's at night.

In July of 2026?  Good, because I have something at 11am.  

And yes, I just have a binder of schedule stuff just on me. /michaelianblack

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More pointing out the flaws of the 48 team tournament:

So after the group stage we eliminate 16 teams, taking us to 32 - the number of teams in the now abandon format. We know that this format is still top heavy. You get upsets in it, but usually early on (Saudi Arabia beating Argentina for example was an opening game for each). Once the top teams have gone through, they will have played into better form - I would be SHOCKED to see any 3's advance in the KO round.

 

I mean we're talking teams that don't even make it out of the groups getting picked off in the round of 32. Sounds like a pretty boring round if you ask me.

 

Even more annoying is that the KO round won't be fully locked down until the group stage ends with the way that they determine the matchups (which 8 3rd place teams advance). So a lot of teams and fans will be waiting until the last days to know where their next games are going to be.

 

 

 

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Stadiums have setup their own pages for information - you  can look for each of them. But there is a whole page for FIFA here:

https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/register-interest

 

This was from here: https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/2026-world-cup-how-to-buy-tickets-to-usmnt-group-stage-matches-final-at-metlife-stadium-more-games/

which didn't have a lot of information, more of just guessing when tickets will be available and some historical information from Qatar.

Edited by Captain Ron
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On 2/5/2024 at 10:56 AM, Hagbard Celine said:

this means 8 of 12 3rd-place teams will make the round of 32 so we are playing 72 games to eliminate 16 teams

It has a bit of that classic Copa America vibe to it. 

Normally they play 18 games to eliminate 4 teams
 

The World Cup in 2026 will just be 4X that scale. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 2/9/2024 at 7:29 PM, beer said:

Going to have little stools in the corners where players sit facing the wall and think about what they have done

Little white boards with dry erase markers....

-I will not flop on the field

-I will not flop on the field

-I will not flop on the field

...

Man who writes it the most times in 10 minutes takes 1 minute off his next Cyn-Bin blue.  

Edited by Trey3216
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