{"id":360308,"date":"2026-07-03T20:32:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T20:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/360308\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T20:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T20:32:37","slug":"canada-vs-morocco-fourth-of-july-ceremony-planned-at-world-cup-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/360308\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada vs. Morocco: Fourth of July ceremony planned at World Cup match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A special Fourth of July ceremony will take place before Houston\u2019s round of 16 matchup Saturday between Canada and Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>The ceremony will start about 25 minutes before the scheduled noon kickoff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHouston Stadium\u2019s pre-match celebrations will commemorate Independence Day in a red, white and blue extravaganza that will leave spectators revelling in the occasion as the FIFA World Cup 2026 Host City takes to the world stage on this historic day for the United States,\u201d reads a FIFA press release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHighlights will include the unfurling of a large pitch banner\u00a0\u2014 inspired by the energy of a firework\u00a0\u2014 followed by a rousing national-anthem performance by US Navy Band Chief Musician Maia Rodriguez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Houston\u2019s matchup is one of two holiday games along with Paraguay vs. France in Philadelphia. That match will also have a prematch ceremony that features Idina Menzel and The Roots plus a halftime show from DJ Jazzy Jeff.<\/p>\n<p>FIFA also said there will be other Fourth of July activations, including pyrotechnics and custom scoreboard displays.<\/p>\n<p>Player warmups will start 65 minutes before kick due to the prematch ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s match is the last of seven World Cup matches in Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A special Fourth of July ceremony will take place before Houston\u2019s round of 16 matchup Saturday between Canada&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-360308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360308","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=360308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}