{"id":373236,"date":"2026-07-14T23:16:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373236\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T23:16:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T23:16:28","slug":"world-cup-fans-describe-dallas-in-one-word-ahead-of-semifinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/373236\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup fans describe Dallas in one word ahead of semifinal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask World Cup<\/a> fans to describe Dallas<\/a> in one word, and you\u2019ll get very different answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEmpty.\u201d<\/p>\n

As thousands of supporters packed Dallas Stadium Tuesday for the World Cup semifinal<\/a> between Spain and France, visitors praised the tournament\u2019s organization, the food and the hospitality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: World Cup tested North Texas\u2019 security plans. Officials say they held up<\/a><\/p>\n

They said they thought they would find more fans celebrating throughout the city. Even so, they praised the tournament\u2019s organization after arriving the night before the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe organization has been sensational,\u201d said Alex del Rio, 31, who is from Sevilla, Spain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That contrast stood out even more for Tino Lorenzo, 61, of Cantabria, Spain.<\/p>\n

Related: Dallas volunteers at FIFA World Cup share passion for helping, parts of match fans never see<\/a><\/p>\n

After spending nearly three weeks in the United States to follow Spain through the knockout stage, Lorenzo said Dallas felt \u201cquiet\u201d and lacked the pedestrian hustle and bustle compared with cities back home and other cities that are hosting games.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou only see cars and cars,\u201d Lorenzo said. \u201cIn Spain, people are out on the streets. You see much more life.\u201d
Still, he said the food exceeded expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve eaten more Mexican food than American food,\u201d Lorenzo said. \u201cIt\u2019s been excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Dallas bar among most-visited destinations during World Cup, Lyft says<\/a><\/p>\n

For Elena Sagues, 27, and Jose Romero, 30, two Spaniards who now live in Iowa City, the semifinal was worth booking a last-minute flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know when Spain is going to be back in a World Cup semifinal,\u201d Sagues said. \u201cIt\u2019s a once in a lifetime opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple arrived early and were surprised to see fans gathering outside the stadium hours before kickoff, many dressed in jerseys, waving flags and singing.<\/p>\n

Not everyone viewed Dallas through Spanish eyes.<\/p>\n

Ishmael Thomas, 20, of Paris, came to Arlington hoping to watch France advance to another World Cup final. He said he enjoyed seeing soccer become the center of attention in a city better known for other sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that it\u2019s in Dallas, it makes everybody want to play this sport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Lee, Heather and Josh Harbaugh of Arlington, the words that best described Dallas were \u201chot,\u201d \u201cwelcoming\u201d and \u201chospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family said the tournament created something bigger than soccer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see everybody come together,\u201d they said. \u201cTo be one world together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask World Cup fans to describe Dallas in one word, and you\u2019ll get very different answers. \u201cHot.\u201d \u201cWelcoming.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,87907,87998,87906],"class_list":["post-373236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-arlington","tag-tp-dallas","tag-tp-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373236","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=373236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}