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WHAT TIME IS THE 2026 WORLD CUP FINAL?<\/p>\n
The 2026 FIFA World Cup final between Spain and Argentina will kick off at 5am (AEST) on Monday July 21.<\/p>\n
For those in the USA, the game will begin at 3pm (ET) on Sunday July 20.<\/p>\n
The match will be played in front of over 80,000 fans at New York New Jersey Stadium (aka MetLife Stadium). The venue is located at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump will be among the crowd as the largest World Cup in history reaches its climax.<\/p>\n
Trump has hailed the World Cup, also played in Mexico and Canada, as \u201cthe most successful sporting event perhaps in the history of the world\u201d as he held a reception in New York with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino.<\/p>\n
France STUNNED by supreme Spain | 02:20<\/p>\n
WHO WILL PERFORM THE HALF-TIME SHOW ENTERTAINMENT?<\/p>\n
The 2026 FIFA World Cup final half-time show will feature an array of big-name artists, including Madonna, Shakira and Justin Bieber, as well as South Korean boy band BTS.<\/p>\n
The performance will be curated by Coldplay lead vocalist Chris Martin.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time ever, football, music and social impact will come together as the greatest show on Earth reaches its pinnacle,\u201d the official FIFA website read.<\/p>\n
WHO WILL WIN?<\/p>\n
Argentina, led by the legendary Lionel Messi, is bidding to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups.<\/p>\n
Argentina has been in six World Cup finals. It won the 1978, 1986 and 2022 World Cups, but lost the 1930, 1990 and 2014 finals.<\/p>\n
Spain is trying to win a second title after its maiden victory in 2010 \u2013 its only World Cup Final appearance.<\/p>\n
Spain captain Rodri said he was bracing for a \u201cphysical\u201d battle with Argentina and would aim to ignore any possible \u201cprovocations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rodri, the 2024 Ballon D\u2019Or winner, said he expected the final to be unlike any other game the European champions had faced.<\/p>\n
Wild scenes in Argentina for SF win | 01:13<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Sunday\u2019s match will be quite different,\u201d the Manchester City star told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be a more physical one, and we must be prepared. But I believe that if we are known for something in this national team, it is that we know how to play different games based on the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we can adapt to having to defend, counter-attacking, to attacking. We are a very complete team, and that is why we are here.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked if he expected Argentina to resort to \u201cprovocative\u201d tactics, Rodri replied: \u201cWell, that\u2019s a part of football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni urged fans to make the most of seeing Messi lead out his team in another World Cup final at the age of 39.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has made history. He is a legend,\u201d Scaloni said of the former Barcelona player, who helped Argentina to win the World Cup in Qatar in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest event in world sport reaches its climax on Monday morning (AEST) when Spain and Argentina do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-808133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}