Watching the World’s Biggest Game: ‘I Can’t Believe We Get to Be Here’

It was the biggest soccer kickoff of his life, and Alex Antunes was about to miss it. With two minutes left before the start of the World Cup final, Mr. Antunes came running across the huge parking lot of MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, his friend Hugo Rodriguez a few steps behind him.

They paused at the stadium gate to laugh and catch their breath and wipe the sweat off their foreheads with the sleeves of their T-shirts, which were blue and white, for Argentina. Then they started running again. With one minute left, they joined a group of four friends, who stood just inside the shady cool of the stadium.

“Come on!” Mr. Antunes, 25, gasped to the group as he stepped onto an escalator. “This is the biggest thing ever!”

He was right.

The world’s biggest game arrived Sunday afternoon at the biggest stadium serving the nation’s biggest city, where some of the biggest stars of soccer, American music and politics joined fans from around the world to put an especially international spin on the World Cup final, that most international of sporting events.

“It’s exciting!” said Marina Liu, 15, who had traveled with her family from Hong Kong to root for Spain. “I can’t believe we get to be here.”

There were moments when the game took on the tenor of a home match for Argentina, their blue-and-white jerseys predominating. Moments before the game, Tom Cruise stood on a podium with an impassioned look on his face and gave a speech about … something. Few people in the stadium could hear him, because Argentina fans began chanting a song that drowned him out.

The American and Spanish national anthems played with little fanfare. But when the Argentine anthem began, fans who had been getting beers and hot dogs rushed to fill the gaps in the stands to sing.

“I feel nervous,” said Francisco Aguilar, 42, a resident of Barcelona, Spain, who nevertheless wore a puffy black wig in honor of Diego Maradona, the deceased Argentine superstar and Mr. Aguilar’s favorite player ever. “Getting past Spain will be tough. But we have Messi. And we have the spirit of Maradona!”

Many fans also wore the colors of vanquished teams. The green of Mexico, England’s red-and-white, and the black, red and gold of Germany were all well represented.

Even in this cosmopolitan setting, Abdul Rida took the event’s worldliness to another level. A native of Kuwait City, he grew up vacationing in Spain, and roots for Barcelona. He estimated he spent $50,000 on flights and game tickets to attend 20 World Cup games across three countries.

His impressions of MetLife, New York City and the United States as World Cup hosts?

Eh. He’s seen better.

“In Mexico the whole country is celebrating every game, no matter who’s playing,” said Mr. Rida, 49, who wore a red hooded cape, a yellow neck gaiter, red wraparound mirrored sunglasses and a fluffy yellow hat, which he described as popular among farmers in Morocco. “Here in the U.S., when the game is over, it’s over. People don’t seem as excited.”

Some, like Josue Zaragoza, found that the global, and well-heeled, crowd in the stadium had weakened the game’s intensity. Fewer superfans from Spain and Argentina meant less chanting as their teams attacked, he said, and less cheering when they took their shots.

“This fan experience sucks,” said Mr. Zaragoza, 47, a fan from Miami who stood in line for pretzels with his son Tasio, 12. Both wore Spanish jerseys with Spanish flags tied around their necks. “All these people from so many other countries means there’s less noise and a lot less passion.”

At this World Cup in particular, there were many potential barriers to expressions of genuine excitement. The games were dispersed across 16 stadiums in Mexico, Canada and the United States. In New York the games were held at MetLife, a forlorn stadium, built in a swamp, that is both hard to get to and famously unlovely.

Prices were steep, starting at $4,210. By Friday, the cheapest seats in the house were selling for more than $12,000. Between controversies about NJ Transit charging $98 for train tickets to the stadium (normal cost: $12.90), early complaints from players about MetLife’s rock-hard playing field, President Trump’s extraordinary intervention in reversing a red card against an American player, and a Super Bowl-inspired halftime show that delayed play for more than 25 minutes, the first World Cup to be held in the United States in 32 years gave soccer traditionalists plenty of reasons to grumble.

But many fans seemed to appreciate the event’s distinctively American additions.

The moment play stopped for the first-quarter hydration (and advertising) break, thousands of people left their seats and swarmed the stadium’s corridors in search of restrooms, snacks and beer. Minutes later, the stands remained mostly full, as fans stood and swayed throughout the halftime show to the music of Madonna, Justin Bieber and Shakira.

Sergio Sola did his best to help with the excitement.

Away from the field, he roamed the stadium’s hallways with a snare drum slung over his shoulder. With his left hand, he took a swig of beer. With his right, he beat the drum.

“Come on, let’s go!” Mr. Sola, 49, and a fan of Spain from Zaragoza, shouted between sips. “What a wonderful day!”