FIFA has announced which countries and matches will be played in Texas during the 2026 World Cup. AT&T Stadium will host a total of nine matches.<\/p>\n
Arlington will host a total of nine matches: five in the group stage, two in the round of 32, one in the round of 16 and one semi-final.<\/p>\n
Among group stage matches will be Netherlands vs. Japan; England vs. Croatia; Argentina vs. Austria; Japan vs. Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, or Albania; and Jordan vs. Argentina.<\/p>\n
Billy Bob’s Texas hosted a party Friday for the group draw.<\/p>\n
“To have nine games in North Texas is huge for our region,” Mayor Mattie Parker said at the party. “We want Fort Worth to show off real Fort Worth spirit. I think that’s why we picked Billy Bob’s, the world’s largest honkytonk. It’s a big deal for Fort Worth, but it’s really a big deal for the United States.”<\/p>\n
The counsul generals of Canada and Mexico in Texas attended the party. Mexican Consul General Luis Rodriguez Bucio said the World Cup can give the countries a chance to use sports as a tool to work together on foreign policy.<\/p>\n
“Now more than ever, we must continue building bridges and strengthening our cooperation and friendships,” he said.<\/p>\n
Fort Worth City Councilman Carlos Flores said ten million people visit the Stockyards every year, and he expects that number to surge with visitors for World Cup matches. He said the city has already spent time working with police and state and federal agencies on security.<\/p>\n
“We want to have all those preparations for you all so you can have a safe and exciting time watching FIFA games,” he said.<\/p>\n
At the party, Parker showed a scarf reading, “Howdy,” with a soccer ball wearing a cowboy hat representing the”O”.<\/p>\n
“We thought we needed to lean into the spirit of Fort Worth we’re known for, so howdy, y’all, to everybody to comes from all over the world who will be here for the ’26 World Cup,” she said. “Remember that: We want them to experience Fort Worth in its true fashion.”<\/p>\n
Dirk Nowitzki joined the party by video.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there in person with you in person at Billy Bob’s Texas as I’ve heard it’s going to be quite the party,” he said. “I’ll be watching this draw very closely as I’ve got to know where Germany ends up.”<\/p>\n
Germany will open group stage play in Houston against Curacao. Houston will host a total of seven matches including five in group stage, one in the round of 32 and one in the round of 16. The group stage matches in Houston will be Germany vs. Curacao; Portugal vs. the winner of a playoff; Portugal vs. Uzbekistan; Cabo Verde vs. Saudi Arabia; and Netherlands vs. Ukraine, Sweden, Poland, or Albania.<\/p>\n
A complete list of match-ups is available at https:\/\/digitalhub.fifa.com\/m\/1be9ce37eb98fcc5\/original\/FWC26-Match-Schedule_English.pdf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIFA has announced which countries and matches will be played in Texas during the 2026 World Cup. AT&T…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-78556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78556","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=78556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}