MIAMI GARDENS — Maybe you saw it.
Maybe you felt it.
South Florida grew up just a bit more on this night.
Miami has long been a global destination, but it wasn’t until Monday night, June 15, 2026, that it joined an elite list of cities that had the eyes of the entire sporting world upon it.
The FIFA World Cup came to town.
Uruguay staged a late rally for a 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia on a day of results in Group H that nobody could have seen coming.
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Call this unpredictability a lucky break for Miami. Or maybe it’s justice. This World Cup arrives 39 years after Joe Robbie built this stadium for, yes, his Miami Dolphins, but also with this very tournament in mind. And it’s 32 years after the World Cup was supposed to be staged in this facility, but FIFA fled to Orlando after the Marlins refused to vacate the stadium for a month to make way for soccer.
Between all that and the ungodly price for tickets, the heat (and humidity) was on the Saudis and Uruguayans to produce the goods. Produce they did before what appeared to be a near-sellout crowd of nearly 65,000, the majority of whom were blue-clad fans supporting Uruguay.
That didn’t spoil the party for fans waving green Saudi flags near the west goal, and never mind that their team rarely threatened in the second half.
Best of all, everybody appeared to get along, a sharp contrast to the ugly scenes at the Copa America in this facility a year ago. Security officials took extra steps to avoid a repeat during the seven World Cup matches Hard Rock will host this summer.
In the end, everybody could leave reasonably content. The underdog Saudis had led for much of the way following a 41st-minute strike by Abdulelah Al-Amri. That’s thanks to goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais, who stood tall despite facing 15 second-half shots while his teammates didn’t manage any. Ten minutes from time came that 15th shot, a rebound that Maxi Araujo finally buried in the net, assuring that today, the Group H standings show everybody in a tie for first place. Individually, Al-Owais may have deserved better even if collectively, a draw seemed about right.
That’s outstanding news for Hard Rock Stadium, whose next match features Uruguay against the team everybody is talking about, Cape Verde. Earlier in the day, the Blue Sharks, as they’re known, shocked the world by holding tournament co-favorite Spain to a scoreless draw.
For the past week, South Florida has been drawn to the story of Curacao, the smallest country to ever qualify for the World Cup and training at FAU. Cape Verde is No. 3 on that smallest list with a population of just less than half a million.
Cape Verde, goalkeeper Vozinha up next for Uruguay
Cape Verde soon will arrive in Miami with a rock star of a 40-year-old goalkeeper, Vozinha, who woke up Monday with 45,000 Instagram followers and went to bed that night with nearly 3 million.
Just don’t ask Marcelo Bielsa, Uruguay’s 70-year-old coach who has seen it all, what he foresees next for this group of four teams.
“I cannot think of any type of assessment that would allow us to foresee what is coming next,” he said.
These are the plot lines blessing Hard Rock Stadium and its World Cup assignments — and to think, the Saudi-Uruguay matchup may well have drawn more worldwide eyeballs upon this facility than anything ever contested here — including six Super Bowls. That’s the far-reaching power that is the World Cup.
Someone asked Bielsa if the result was a case of earning one point or losing two, given that Uruguay is ranked 18th in the world by FIFA and the Saudis are 61st.
“It has lost two points,” Bielsa said.
Georgios Donis, who has coached the Saudis for less than two months, saw things differently, naturally.
“Definitely when you’re faced with a certain opponent, getting one point is a very good event,” he said.
Over the next few weeks, this facility will face higher-profile matches. A round-of-32 match is coming. A quarterfinal. And the consolation match. That’s in addition to Colombia vs. Portugal on June 27.
Monday night was a start. Just the one South Florida, all these years later, finally deserved.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: World Cup: South Florida a winner in Saudi Arabia-Uruguay draw | Habib
Reporting by Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
