Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
A fan holds a Mexican flag at the FIFA Fan Festival in East Downtown to kick off the 2026 World Cup on June 11, 2026.
Between Houston’s inaugural World Cup match on Sunday and the FIFA Fan Festival in East Downtown, tens of thousands of soccer fans have come to Space City to experience what’s being billed as the biggest sporting event in history.
Now nearly a week into the international tournament, Houston Public Media has heard from many fans across the city about their experiences and why they say Houston is the place to be for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Here are three fans whose stories — or the intensity of their fandom — stuck out.
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Houston for the summer
Sitting in the shade of an umbrella at the FIFA Fan Festival on the sunny first day of the World Cup, Perla Macias got into town just a day before.
“I was like, ‘There’s no way it’s being hosted in Houston, and then I’m not there for the hype,'” she told Houston Public Media. “So, I got here last night.”
Born and raised in Houston, the World Cup was something of a homecoming for Macias. She now lives and works in Puerto Rico teaching kindergarten. But as a teacher, she has the summer off — and she doesn’t plan to return home until the World Cup ends on July 19.
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
Perla Macias watched the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 11 at the fan festival in East Downtown.
She doesn’t have tickets to any of the matches — “Don’t remind me,” she said — but that’s only a temporary setback. She planned to be at the FIFA Fan Festival as often as possible, if not every day. In the meantime, she was working on manifesting a ticket.
“I know it’s going to appear to me,” she said. “It always happens.”
She was at fan fest to watch Mexico’s opening match against South Africa, which Mexico won 2-0. Being surrounded by Mexico fans was the best way to experience the World Cup, she said, but she’s also pulling for Germany, Spain and Portugal — just not Argentina, the defending champion.
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She called soccer something rooted in her since she was a kid. Her family and friends would get together to watch Mexico matches, someone would grill carne asada, and it would turn into a big party. Years later, she hoped Houston could turn into a World Cup party, too.
“It’s such an exciting time, so many countries getting together, so many people from around the world getting together and supporting their own team and having the hype,” she said. “Obviously, right now — not to get political — but our country is kind of like, ‘Should we be hosting it?'”
At that moment, the Tejano classic ‘Amor Prohibido’ by Selena played throughout fan fest.
“But right now, I feel like everybody feels good, everybody feels happy, and it’s something fun,” Macias said. “Like, they just played Selena, so of course.”
A soccer love story
Back in 1994 when the World Cup came to the United States for the first time, Houston hosted a whopping zero matches. But six matches took place at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, and Anayo Ordu’s parents attended one of the matches.
“And legend has it,” she told Houston Public Media, “the ball went to the stands, and my mom caught it.”
Ordu sat at the top of the wooden stairs of Rice University’s Ion District wearing a U.S. soccer jersey. She’s lived in Houston for several years now but begins graduate school at Rice in the fall. She attended the university’s watch party at the Ion for the first U.S. match of the Word Cup, which the U.S. won 4-1 against Paraguay.
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
Anayo Ordu watched the opening U.S. soccer match of the 2026 World Cup at the Ion on June 12, 2026.
“Maybe if I’m lucky, I can pick up a ticket and find my way into NRG [Stadium] and catch the ball,” she said, in hopes of carrying on the family lore.
She said she watches Ticketmaster and StubHub every day to see if any tickets go on sale at a reasonable price. In the meantime, she has been collecting World Cup memorabilia. Thus far, she had a World Cup-themed water bottle, trucker hat, beanie and tumbler.
“I’m excited to make some memories with friends,” she said, “and have some stories to tell in a few years to maybe my kids in the future.”
The most famous fan in Curaçao
It’s hard to miss Brenton Balentien. He’s the one at any Curaçao soccer event with the blue face.
Brenton Balentien follows the Curaçao soccer team in blue facepaint, as seen here on June 14, 2026.
Appropriately, Balentien calls himself “Captain Blue Face,” painting his bald head and thick beard blue for the team’s primary color. He’s become a staple of the fan culture of the small Caribbean nation—mentioned in The New York Times, the Associated Press, The Times of London, and broadcast multiple times during Curaçao’s match against Germany on Sunday, which he attended at NRG Stadium.
“It’s been a great experience,” he told Houston Public Media of the city. “It’s a good vibe. We have been treated very nicely, so yeah, pure enjoyment.”
The match did not exactly turn out in Curaçao’s favor as the team lost 7-1 against the ninth-ranked Germany. Yet even qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, let alone scoring a goal early in the match, was enough of a victory for the small island country of 157,000.
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“A lot of things [went through my mind], man,” Balentien said of Sunday’s match. “First of all, joy, of course. The good energy, and it’s a dream come true for us.”
He plans to keep following the team as it plays its next match against Ecuador on June 20 in Kansas City; and its final group stage match against Ivory Coast on June 25 in Philadelphia. Asked what he most looks forward to, his answer was simple: another goal.
“[Spain is] a world-class team,” he said. “But hey, the smallest island — the smallest team came to conquer the hearts, and it gave us some good goosebumps.”