Mundial 2026

I wouldn't say that watching soccer (futbol) is very common in the US and it's not something I've done much of. I'm not actually sure why that is, but I personally grew up watching OU Sooner (American) Football with my dad and in recent years, Oklahoma City Thunder basketball. My first memories of anyone I know really cheering for a soccer team was my older brother, who quickly became a Real Madrid fan after spending a semester in Alcalá de Henares. 

When I moved to Barcelona, I figured going out to watch games would be fun because that's something that people do here and I had little understanding of the passion and the culture that surrounds futbol. Last season, Kevin and I went out to watch a few of the bigger FC Barcelona games and experienced the excitement and passion for the game in some packed bars (there's ALWAYS a line out the door at the Irish Pub beneath our apartment on game days). After Barcelona became La Liga campeones in 2025, their celebration parade passed Arc de Triomf (right by our place), and when I went to the celebrations, I caught just a glimpse of how much pride people here had for their team. It was really cool and it made me want to be a part of it!

La Liga celebrations in 2025

Since then, I've watched a few of the bigger Barcelona matches with Kevin and our friend, Daniel (our Spanish friend from Valladolid and a Real Madrid fan through and through), and even got to attend a Barcelona Women's Match at Camp Nou with friends. When it was time for the World Cup, I initially wasn't paying much attention to games. Here in Barcelona, there is far more Catalan pride than there is Spanish pride, so there wasn't too much obvious excitement around the matches. In fact, there is so much Barcelona pride that my friend's husband was called out for wearing a Spain jersey to watch a game at their local bar, because he should have been wearing a Barcelona jersey!!!! "Cataluña first, Spain second," the regulars told him. And this is not an uncommon sentiment. 

Because the US was hosting, I started to see how much fun family and friends at home were having while attending watch parties and games, and a text from my cousin Monika one night prompted me to join in on the fun. The first game I watched the Spain vs. Austria. I had finished an evening work-out and stopped a street corner bar on my way home to watch the end of the game. After that, Kevin and I watched the next 3 games (Portugal, Belgium for the quarter finals, and France for the semifinals) at Daniel's place. It was exciting to see Spain advance to the final!

Sunday, July 19th was the day of the Spain vs. Argentina World Cup Final! Barcelona finally created a fan zone with a big screen for viewing, so we made plans with friends to meet at Parc Forum to watch together and grabbed some empanadas to eat there. Google said getting to Parc Forum from our apartment would be an 1 hour and 8 minute walk, a 38 minute bus ride, or a 22 minute bike ride. We had no idea how many people to anticipate, but we figured it would be quite crowded, so we decided to take bikes, expecting to have to park them somewhat far away. 

We parked as close as we could and still had about a 20+ minute walk. When we came up to the front entrance, we saw a MASSIVE line and crowd. People were pushing through the taped off queue and cutting the line. There was plenty of security, but they weren't really enforcing much of anything. Reception in the area was horrrrrible so it was really difficult to share location or send messages to friends, but we ended up just following the location of our friend Matteo to try to find him in line. 

We walked along the line to try to find him and the line looked ENDLESS! It snaked down along Playa de Llevant and Playa de Nova Mar Bella. With people cutting at the front, the back of the line was barely moving at all. We located Matteo and our other friend Eduard somewhere in the middle of the unmoving line and had a moral dilemna of either joining the end of the line or cutting at the front. It was pretty clear that if we joined the end of the line, we would be waiting forever and likely not be able to enter. If we cut, we would feel really guilty. It was a lose-lose but ultimately the decision was made to cut the line instead of trying to find somewhere else to watch the game (which seemed like an impossible task seeing as though we were getting dangerously close to kick-off). 

Inside Parc Forum

We all walked toward the front and joined the front pretty effortlessly. A car came through the street, and we were ushered by the police onto the sidewalk and were basically pushed inside. After we entered the gates, there was a very brief security check (they barely checked my bag at all!) and we could relax and find a spot.

We settled in a spot with a decent view and our friend Amanda was able to join us as the game was starting! The ambiance was really fun and it was really cool to see how many people came out to support Spain. The bad cellular reception problems continued and apparently caused delays with video streaming as well. There were many blips in the streaming, both audio and visual, some so bad that the audio started sounding like techno music. For the most part, people made the most of it and at some point, the crowd started dancing like it was club music lol. At other points, people were less happy about it, but overall, the spirits and energy were high. There was a group of drummers gathered to the left of us, and they played some beats and kept the energy high throughout the game!

By the time halftime rolled around, we were all tired of standing. The game had been pretty uneventful and the score was 0-0 at the half. It was the first year FIFA organized a musical halftime show, and the crowd was definitely uninterested until Shakira. When she started performing, people in the crowd started to chant "Shakira! Shakira!" and the tired crowd was energized once again. 

The second half was almost just as uneventful until one of Argentina's players got a red card. Not too soon after, Spain's Ferran Torres scored a goal! The crowd errupted, the drums started beating, and everyone was jumping up and down! I was tired and fading fast, and I was also just excited this meant the game wouldn't go too far into overtime. The game concluded with Spain being Argentina 0-1 and we celebrated all the way home! 

We took some celebratory pics with friends and started to walk until we could find bikes to ride back. Along the way, all the passing cars were honking on the streets, the crowds were chanting "campeones, campeones, ole, ole, ole!", and people were waving their Spain flags. We biked passed intersections where people were waving Spanish flags that cars drove through, people were waving Spanish flags out the windows of their cards, and the honking was nonstop! People were playing music and dancing and celebrating on the streets. The energy in the city was electric and it was fun to see people celebrating on every corner. It was a super fun and very memorable night, and luckily, we couldn't hear a bit of the celebrations from our bedroom after we got home that evening, because the celebrations continued all night! Viva España!!!