After a day of wildfire smoke that choked the air and thunderstorms that flooded parts of New York City, Sunday, July 19th dawned bright, clear and beautiful, the perfect setting for an event on which all eyes around the globe would be centered: the 2026 World Cup Final.
And with Spain and Argentina contesting the first all-Spanish-language final since the inaugural 1930 event (in which Uruguay bested Argentina), one word filled the air more than any other as fans began to mass around NYC’s Penn Station to take the trains or buses to New York, New Jersey stadium for the game: Vamos!
On the way to the stadium for the biggest — and most expensive — game of this month-long World Cup, Argentinian fans were singing loudly and joyously, with a sea of Lionel Messi jerseys far out-numbering those in Spain’s traditional red, with those supporters of La Roja nearly as unanimous as their counterparts in wearing the name and number of their 19-year-old superstar Lamine Yamal, a successor to Messi at the famed club Barcelona. But after a relatively simple transit situation (a relief after repeated warnings that things could get packed and hectic) that gave way to a media credential nightmare that left many media members stranded outside for hours in the early afternoon, Billboard made it into the stadium in time to catch the closing ceremonies, headlined by Post Malone, who closed up his brief set by bringing out Swae Lee for their smash hit single “Sunflower,” before the stadium settled into a pre-match tension that lasted until kickoff.
This, however, was not an ordinary World Cup Final: the 2026 edition was to be the first ever with a halftime performance akin in some ways to the Super Bowl, with superstars like Madonna, BTS, Shakira, Burna Boy, Coldplay, Justin Bieber, and more performing in a tight-knit 11-minute set at the half. Here, Billboard brings you through TK moments you may not have seen on TV during the high-profile event.
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