Five things the cameras didn’t see in the World Cup final

After Spain won the final match 1-0, the Spanish team quickly hugged each other on the field and celebrated. But what was not shown on many radio programs is that the matter quickly turned into a physical confrontation between the Argentine and Spanish players.

The fight quickly ended, with the Spanish team continuing to celebrate and the Argentine players largely sitting or lying on the grass while waiting for the trophy to be handed over.

2. The rivalry began before the match

For many World Cup attendees, the game began with long, winding lines near Penn Station, where fans lined up around the block to catch the $100 train to New Jersey’s stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Fortunately, the rows, which were filled with fans wearing blue and white jerseys for Argentina and red for Spain (plus a few jerseys from Mexico, the United States and Canada, as well as some attendees wearing rainbow clown wigs with dog noses), moved quickly, but once they were at Penn Station, and on the train, the cheering began.

The Argentine fans took the metaphorical microphone for most of the commute, singing, chanting and jumping up and down on the train to Secaucus, continuing the chants that echoed throughout the train station as the crowd transferred to another train to reach the stadium.

Once inside the stadium (at least in my experience), it was the Spanish fans who took over the halls, as a sea of ​​red began cheering and chanting before the match, so much so that it could be heard as soon as you reached the stadium car park.

While President Donald Trump was not easy to spot at the game, his presence was felt. His helicopter can be heard flying over the stadium before the match. Hours before the ceremony, the media line stretched several times through the parking lot, as reporters waited hours to get into the stadium. Part of this was likely heightened interest in the final itself, but members of the Secret Service were also present and asking questions once the press moved through the metal detectors.

As Trump took to the field to present awards to the players, a powerful chorus of “boos” erupted throughout the stadium. However, the chorus was rather short-lived, as Trump still had a long way to go to get to the stage. Once there, there didn’t appear to be any altercations with the players and no booing from the crowd again, but it appears he was kicked out of the Spanish team picture by the FIFA president.

The final featured a pre-show and a halftime performance, both of which required crews to appear to the side of the court and quickly run across it, unrolling tarps to protect the turf (the pre-show included a graphic of the New York City skyline, while the half-time show featured a rainbow ball with the word “Love” written in various languages) and then turning on the lawn sprinklers immediately afterwards.

Rolling out the decoys took about a minute, and for the halftime performance, the performers and crew had to adhere to a tight schedule so as not to interfere with the game. This translates to the players exiting the field at approximately 3:55 PM ET, the rainbow fabric was rolled out minutes later as the crew ran down the stage (for the puppets) to the center of the field, and the performance began at approximately 4:01 PM. The show, which featured Madonna, BTS, Shakira and Justin Bieber, concluded at approximately 4:13 p.m.

The halftime show was largely played on camera, with Madonna kicking off the show in a pre-recorded clip that saw the pop singer hurtle through the stadium tunnels with Brazilian footballers Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, in a clip that was only shown on stadium screens. Madonna appeared briefly on the field at the end.

While the camera was trained on other performers, musicians from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela were on the field, dancing and swaying to the music the entire time. While Shakira and Burna Boy performed the official song of the FIFA World Cup, “Dai Dai,” alongside Ugandan ghetto kids and dancers dressed in a sea of ​​yellow costumes, a group of schoolchildren wearing rainbow T-shirts snaked across the stadium in preparation for the final, which included fireworks for those in attendance on the field.

The loudest cheers in the stadium were for Shakira and Bieber’s appearance. However, the crowd, which was made up of a large number of international fans, seemed more interested in the match than the performances.

Once they finished singing, the performers still had a long trek out of the stadium, as Robbie Williams, who performed in the pre-show, led Nicole Scherzinger and Laura Pausini off the field, all holding hands.

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