The World Cup Is Here: Inside LA’s Opening Week — and What’s Still to Come
It finally happened. After years of build-up, the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 11, and a week in, Los Angeles is squarely in the middle of the biggest sporting event the city has ever co-hosted. The tournament opened in Mexico City, but the United States played its first match right here — at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood — and the energy hasn’t dipped since. If you spent the past week wondering why every bar patio felt three times as loud, this is why.
The USA Opened Its Campaign in LA
On Friday, June 12, the U.S. Men’s National Team played its opening group-stage match against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium — branded “Los Angeles Stadium” for the tournament — in front of a sold-out crowd. For a region that has spent two years watching construction barriers, transit signage, and ticket lotteries pile up, the kickoff was the moment all of it became real. Whatever you think of the result, watching the home team open a World Cup 20 minutes from the coast is not a thing that happens twice in a lifetime.
SoFi didn’t stop there. On Monday, June 15, Iran faced New Zealand at the stadium, the second of LA’s eight scheduled matches. The crowds spilling out of the Metro K Line and into Inglewood’s restaurants afterward made it clear: this tournament belongs to the whole region, not just the ticket holders.
SoFi’s Full Slate: Eight Matches Through July 10
Los Angeles is hosting eight World Cup matches in total — five group-stage games running through June 25, two Round of 32 fixtures on June 28 and July 2, and a marquee Quarter-Final on July 10. That last one is the prize: a quarter-final at SoFi means one of the eight best teams left in the world will be playing in our backyard in the first week of July. The next match on the calendar is Switzerland vs. Italy on Thursday, June 18 — a heavyweight European group-stage clash and an early-test of whether you can still get into a bar by kickoff.
“The World Cup comes around once every four years. Having it open in your own city — that’s a once-in-a-generation summer, and it’s happening right now.”
You Don’t Need a Ticket — The Westside Fan Zones Are Free
Match tickets are scarce and expensive, but the best news of opening week is that you don’t need one to be part of it. The official FIFA Fan Festival has set up at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park, with massive screens, international food, and live programming. Closer to home, the Westside has its own free options:
The Venice Beach Official Fan Zone is the standout — live match screenings right on the sand, DJ sets, and food vendors, with family-friendly daytime sessions and 18-and-over activations at night. We wrote a full breakdown in our Venice Beach Fan Zone guide. Up the hill, the Getty Center is screening select matches on its lawns on certain dates through the Final — a genuinely surreal way to watch a group-stage game, with the Westside skyline behind the pitch. And in Santa Monica, the Pier activations and street festivals we covered in our complete West LA watch guide are running straight through July.
Where to Actually Watch on the Westside
If a fan zone isn’t your speed, every bar from Montana Avenue to Abbot Kinney is showing matches. For the bigger games, target a place with outdoor space and enough screens that you’re not craning your neck — our Santa Monica bar guide has the current lineup. For the early European kickoffs, a coffee-shop-into-bar strategy works best. And whatever you do on a match day near SoFi or the Pier: take the train. Parking near every venue has gotten predictably brutal, and watching the back half of the first half from a parking structure line is nobody’s idea of a World Cup summer.
