8 Things You May Have Missed On TV

As mentioned, the actual travel situation from New York City to East Rutherford, NJ, the site of the game, was surrounded by warnings, not to mention a $98 round trip ticket price from Penn Station. But the process, in practice, wound up being extremely simple, with hundreds of FIFA and NJ Transit employees and volunteers guiding the way and egging on the chants of the tens of thousands of fans who made their way through, and trains that were less crowded than a weekend out to Long Island. The accreditation, however, was another story; given the fact that United States president Donald Trump had announced he would be not just attending the game, but handing out the trophy to the winner afterward, security was particularly tight and many media members who had covered the entire tournament needed to be re-credentialed again for the final, which led to a mess outside the stadium. Most attendees with tickets wound up dealing with a little bit more security than usual, though that is to be expected for a match of this magnitude, but didn’t have too much trouble getting in; the logistics for other aspects were rough, to say the least. 

High-profile names were on the bill to perform, but there were also a litany of celebrities in the stadium just to catch a once-in-a-lifetime event. Sofia Vergara was one, hanging out pre-match on the media concourse, while others wound up seeing their faces up on the big screen: Will Ferrell, Common and Javier Bardem were just a few whose faces flashed up on the big board during the first half, most of which the crowd ignored completely, being too immersed in the match itself. One couple that did get a mild rise out of the crowd was A$AP Rocky and Rihanna, who were shown towards the end of a cagey first half, perhaps as the crowd was getting restless prior to halftime; after the half, the only celebrities that were shown on the screen were Beyoncé and Jay-Z, though by then the game was getting intense and fans, again, were largely focused on the pitch, and it seemed the cameramen got the message.

Coldplay’s Chris Martin curated the halftime show, and helped set proceedings up by appearing on the big screen 20 minutes before the match began with a speech in Spanish, imploring fans to dance and sing along with the performers after the first 45 minutes. But there was another element for those in the seats — each cup holder held a differently colored flag, each of which was accompanied by a note that read, “Please raise and wave this flag when you see the cues on the big screens during the halftime show finale.” The flip side read, “Thank you for being a vital part of the first-ever FIFA World Cup 2026 The Final Halftime Show. With love, Chris Martin, Coldplay.”

FIFA’s hydration breaks — wherein referees have stopped each game at this World Cup halfway through each half, in order to allow players to drink some water and coaches to provide further instruction — have been controversial, with many fans saying that they take away from the spirit of a game that traditionally is made up of two 45-minute halves, with a clock that famously never stops. But setting aside the sporting merit, or lack thereof, the DJ in the stadium on Sunday used that three minutes to put together a dance party for fans, many of whom wound up on the big screen dancing along. This game’s selection for the first half was Las Ketchup’s “The Ketchup Song (Aserejé),” a Spanish dance song that interpolates “Rapper’s Delight,” while the second half featured “Live Is Life” by Opus, an Austrian band that was big in Europe in the 80s.

Much has been made of the fact that Argentinian fans have traveled particularly well during this tournament, and that trend held up in a big way at Sunday’s final. It turned out that it wasn’t just the transit on the way to and from the stadium: the crowd itself was probably about 2/3s Argentina supporters, which was first borne out during Tom Cruise’s pump-up speech prior to the game, when he welcomed both teams and the roar for Argentina was palpable. That played out even more as the game went on, with Argentinian fans growing more and more anxious and the Spanish fans — especially after taking the lead in extra time — finding their voice as the tide of the game turned, ultimately chanting “olé!” every time their team touched the ball in the final moments. A very sullen Argentinian woman sitting nearby seemed to sum up the mood in getting more and more quietly agitated as the game went on, as if she were suffering a grave injustice, an apt metaphor for how the game turned out. Following Enzo Fernandez’s red card as normal time expired, she could hardly look any further.

FIFA took some flak for deciding to have a halftime concert for the first time ever, not least because it, once again, would interrupt the traditional flow of a match, which dictates 15 minutes of halftime. The final verdict for the break was some 29 minutes — and watching it all come together in the stadium was a blur. Five minutes after the first half ended, suddenly a huge multicolored map of the world covered the pitch, and Gustavo Dudamel and his orchestra came onto the field while Madonna opened proceedings below the stadium, on a dune buggy driven by Brazilian legends Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Madonna gave way to Dudamel, who conducted “7 Nation Army,” which then bled directly into BTS’ “Dynamite,” with the Korean K-Pop superstars emerging from the bottom of the field, before cutting to the right side, where Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt introduced Justin Bieber on solo acoustic guitar. Bieber then slowly walked off the bottom of the pitch while attention swung to Shakira and Burna Boy, before Coldplay finished things off with a performance that also featured Muppets as the field turned into a kaleidoscopic ode to the word Love. Random? Sure. Confusing? Definitely. Entertaining? Yes. It was a little hard to follow in the stadium itself, but Bieber in particular came out well, and it all added up to a whirlwind of action that almost caused whiplash as dancers gave way to performers who gave way to more singers and a mishmash of color and energy. For a first effort, it was maybe a little maximalist — but this is the World Cup, after all. Would you expect anything different?

As the game hurtled into extra time tied nil-nil, the fans were fully on edge — and the stadium DJ did all he could to help push the atmosphere into its highest gear. With the second half of extra time in the offing — the last 15 minutes before what would have led to penalty kicks to decide to world title — the DJ started playing Europe’s iconic song “The Final Countdown,” an apt song for the moment as the vise began to tighten on both teams.

Spain’s ultimate triumph was met with jubilation by those in the crowd, and even Argentinian fans didn’t leave their seats until long after the trophy presentation arrived. (A full-time scuffle between players couldn’t mar the proceedings too much.) Among the full-throated chants of “España!” were songs by Bad Bunny (“Nuevayol”) and the iconic “Y Viva España,” one of the most celebrated tracks in the Spanish-speaking world, which seemingly the entire stadium sang along to. Plus, goalscorer and man of the match Ferran Torres got a photo shoot with Shakira after the final whistle, while Messi cried on the field after receiving his runners-up medal. Not a bad way to cap off a generational moment for the Spanish team.