{"id":352580,"date":"2026-06-27T11:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352580\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:44:10","slug":"video-world-cup-visitors-find-life-is-larger-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352580\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: World Cup visitors find life is larger in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Aimara Aquino\u2019s 15th birthday, her father promised they would travel to the World Cup<\/a> together, taking their first flights outside Argentina.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now nearly two years later, Aquino stood beneath the wooden archway of the Fort Worth<\/a> Stockyards and soaked in the heart of cowboy country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a lot of movies about Texas,\u201d Aquino said. \u201cWe were scared about the people. We didn’t know how they were going to treat us. But they are so kind and they help us a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Aquino and her father are among an estimated 3.8 million visitors expected in the Dallas-Fort Worth region for the FIFA World Cup, according to Visit Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: The Dallas Morning News’ World Cup 2026 Guide<\/a><\/p>\n

For many, this is a first visit to Texas, their impressions shaped before they arrived by Western films and country music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet even amid the crowds, for Roberto Aquino, Dallas is a place that moves at a relaxed pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn Argentina, in Buenos Aires, we go fast all of the time,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of things are happening. But here, everything has a time. The people are more quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brothers Hiroki Abe and Kazuki Abe traveled from Japan to cheer on Samurai Blue and watch the Stockyards daily cattle drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people here have a lot of energy,\u201d Hiroki\u00a0Abe said. \u201cThey\u2019re so energetic. In Japan, they\u2019re too quiet. Sometimes I feel we should be noisy.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the brothers, Texas lived up to its larger-than-life reputation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people are bigger than us,\u201d Hiroki Abe said, raising his hand above his head. \u201cTheir height is tall,\u201d he added, stretching his hands outside his frame. \u201cAnd their waist is wide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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World Cup weather: Evening match between Jordan vs Argentina to grant respite from extreme heat<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen such a big guy in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthias Weiss and Julie Kabus from Cologne, Germany, described their expectations of Texas in a string of words: \u201cCowboys, horses, cows, lots of food and humid weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kabus pointed her hands toward the sky.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd ba-bang. Pistols.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair attended Thursday\u2019s World Cup match between Sweden and Japan at Dallas Stadium in Arlington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe show business of the Americans is great,\u201d Kabus said. \u201cIt\u2019s huge, it\u2019s famous, it\u2019s loud, it\u2019s spectacular, it\u2019s fun, it\u2019s colored.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still on their travel list? Southfork Ranch, the iconic Texas home from the television series \u201cDallas,\u201d which became a cultural phenomenon in Germany after its debut in June 1981.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Igor Bobek of Gothenburg, Sweden, had heard of Southern hospitality before. He expected Texans to be friendly. But he wasn\u2019t prepared for the scale of everything.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCompared to Sweden, at least, everything is over the top,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom your cars to your portion sizes, the stadium, everything is so huge here to what I\u2019m used to. It\u2019s very different, but I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One custom Bobek is still adjusting to is tipping at restaurants. He said he\u2019s adapted during his visit but hopes American servers are eventually paid fair wages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two days into his trip, Bobek reflected on what he might take home from Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a little more social like you guys here,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re very approachable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Aimara Aquino\u2019s 15th birthday, her father promised they would travel to the World Cup together, taking their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,89512,88643,89217,122417,87906,2459],"class_list":["post-352580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-texas","tag-tp-fort-worth","tag-tp-tarrant-county","tag-tp-texas-travel","tag-tp-world-cup","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}