MetLife Stadium

Norway eliminated Brazil 2-1 at MetLife Stadium on 5 July, Erling Haaland scoring both goals to send Norway through to a quarter-final against England in Miami on 11 July. Minutes later, Neymar announced his immediate retirement from international football on the same pitch, closing a Brazil career that had begun at MetLife Stadium in 2010.

MetLife Stadium is an 82,500-seat NFL facility in East Rutherford, New Jersey, opened in 2010 as the shared home of the New York Giants and New York Jets. The largest stadium in North America by capacity, it was selected by FIFA as the centrepiece venue for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosting eight matches including the Final on 19 July 2026. Beyond football, it is a major concerts venue (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen) and hosts both NFL franchises across their full schedules.

The grass conversion was in its critical final phase in May. A mobile stitching machine arrived the week of 12 May to install a Tahoma 31 bermudagrass hybrid surface, with approximately 20 truckloads of turf shipped from Carolina Green Turf Farm in North Carolina after the original New Jersey supplier's crop was lost to winter. The surface had to be playable by 13 June for the tournament's first match at the venue, Brazil vs Morocco. The installation replaced the artificial turf used by the NFL tenants and had to meet FIFA's match-day requirements for a full 90-minute international.

The stadium's logistical model remains the most complex of any World Cup venue. No general parking and no tailgating forces approximately 80,000 fans per game entirely onto public transport . Penn Station in New York closes to regular passengers for four hours before each match, with only World Cup ticket holders admitted during the closure window; one closure fell during weekday evening rush hour (Norway v Senegal, 22 June, Monday, 4pm-8pm), affecting 650,000 daily commuters. The cheapest Final ticket is $4,185 official; a single resale listing reached $230,000 on FIFA's own marketplace.