For traveling World Cup fans looking to get a taste of Texas, it doesn’t get more authentic than the Fort Worth Stockyards.
“I love it here,” said Clauvio Varela, an Argentina fan. “It really brings you back down to the country life of what cowboys are all about.”
The twice daily cattle drive can only be described as something from the big screens for those traveling internationally.
“Impressive. We don’t have such type of cows in Austria. The longhorns,” said Daniel Scharbel, an Austria fan visiting Texas for the first time. “The information you get from movies.”
In between games, it’s Cowtown that becomes a melting pot of fans from all corners of the world, like Case and his daughter.
“It’s very Texas,” said Case. “I feel very Texan here.”
Case is from Japan and lives in Chicago. It’s his first time in Texas.
“It’s very nice. Huge. Buc-ee’s I love,” Case said.
Fans like Case have been a highlight of the World Cup for Lindsey Perales.
“Being able to come here and interact with them as customers, and they have so many questions, and they’re all just like in shock of everything, so I find it very entertaining,” Perales said.
Perales works at Will Leather Goods, just steps away from the cattle drive. On this day, she was working on designing a custom leather tag.
“[My boss] likes to make them for the kids and parents, people from out of town. So it’s something just to kind of give them,” said Perales. “A little keepsake so you can kind of remember us forever.”
She’s giving fans a Texas welcome they won’t forget for years to come.
“People here generally in the U.S. and especially here in Texas are really nice, and we really love being here and having the World Cup, and U.S. are a great host country,” said Scharbel.