Fans from around the world crowd MetLife Stadium for World Cup opener
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EAST RUTHERFORD — For Annamaría Morales, the World Cup was both a dream and a mission. She had driven all the way from Sonoma County in northern California to East Rutherford for the opening match between Brazil and Morocco on June 13 at MetLife Stadium.
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But she had many, many more miles to go.
Morales was going to take her hot-pink minivan with soccer-ball cargo cover back on the road to tailgate at as many World Cup matches as she could, circling back to New Jersey for the July 19 World Cup final. She was a bit disappointed to find that not only was there no tailgating at the Meadowlands stadium, temporarily renamed New York New Jersey to erase all non-FIFA advertisers, but there was almost no parking.
Morales and Jeff Cotten, who lives in San Diego, had received their tickets to the opening match as a Christmas present from his family.
Cotten, who became a Morocco fan after the team defeated Spain on penalty kicks to advance to a 2022 World Cup quarterfinal, wore a red No. 2 Ali Hakimi jersey. Morales wore Brazil's yellow No. 10, but with a twist. Though it was a men's jersey with five stars above the crest to recognize the country's past World Cup titles, Morales had it customized with Marta's number on the back.
Marta, a striker with the Orlando Pride in the National Women's Soccer League, has scored 17 World Cup goals, the Brazilian record – for women and men. Neymar Jr. wears No. 10 for the Brazilian men's national team, but he did not play against Morocco due to a strained calf.
"It's important to me to support women's soccer no matter what game I'm watching," Morales said, who played in college and aspires to coach a women's team in Mexico. "The whole point is to create education about Marta and women's soccer."
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Ibraheem Al Marawi bought the opening-match tickets as his father, Basam's 60th birthday present. They drove down from Pawtucket, Rhode Island on Friday, June 12.
Born in Syria, Basam Al Mawari took his son to Paterson on Friday night for Mediterranean food and to smoke some hookah, a taste of home. They'd planned to head into New York City after the match to try to get in on the New York Knicks' Game Five celebration, and possibly attend the Puerto Rican Day parade on Sunday.
Though father and son were wearing Brazil jerseys, Ibraheem Al Mawari also identifies as Cape Verdean. He's planning a trip to Miami to watch the Blue Sharks – a first-time qualifier thanks to FIFA's expanded 2026 field – play Uruguay on June 21, but admitted he hasn't bought the match tickets yet.
"Soccer is the only sport he'll ever watch," the younger Al Marawi said of his father. "But he thought it was BS when I said I'd buy the tickets, that they're too expensive."
Maadoune Khalied got his tickets at the last minute. The 35-year-old from Casablanca won them in a lottery held for employees of Royal Air Maroc. Khalied traveled to Kennedy Airport in New York City in a group of five coworkers. Though all claimed to have flown for free, some had to pay for their own seats.
Khalied and Mohamed El Khanoussi were even getting paid for part of their trip. They were able to work at JFK for four days.
El Khanoussi hopes Morocco will be back at MetLife Stadium for the final. He expects it to be against Lionel Messi and Argentina. However, his "biggest dream" is to see Morocco play Brazil, which has won five World Cups to three for Argentina.
"It's a big dream for me to see our team here in New Jersey," said El Khanoussi in a mix of French, English, and Arabic. "Yesterday, no ticket, no nothing. But I am the winner. We are lucky."
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: What fans said at Brazil Morocco World Cup opener at MetLife Stadium