Shades of orange covered the otherwise green hill next to Choctaw Stadium on Sunday morning, hours before the Netherlands and Japan kicked off the Arlington portion of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Thousands of Netherlands fans, both die-hard and new, swarmed the streets and surrounded the famous Dutch Orange Bus.
Interspersed in the mass of orange were Japan’s blue jerseys, Mexico’s green jerseys and the United States’ red-striped white jerseys. Kansas City resident Jason Farmer was born in Japan. As he stood near the crowd, he took photos with other fans of his team, while joking and laughing with Netherlands supporters.
Though Japan and the Netherlands faced each other in a 2-2 draw later that afternoon, the festivities with fans of any team, which included a massive march through the Entertainment District, represented much more than a match. It represented unity through sports.
“When they go home, everybody’s going to go back to the same old thing, but for this one month, it’s magic,” Farmer said.
Fans from across the world arrived in Arlington as the city kicked off its first of nine World Cup matches.
Daisuke Iwahashi traveled all the way from Shanghai, China, to attend his first World Cup and support Japan. He landed in San Francisco, took another flight to DFW and finally boarded the Trinity Railway Express to CentrePort Station where he caught an Uber.
Sitting outside as lines wrapped around the stadium, Iwahashi said he was glad he could finally watch his team take the field.
“I’m just so happy,” Iwahashi said.
Japan fans carry their flag before the World Cup’s Netherlands vs. Japan game June 14 at Dallas Stadium in Arlington. (Christine Vo | Fort Worth Report) Finding the time to get away for the World Cup wasn’t easy, he said. For the past six months, he’d been contemplating making the trip. Eventually, he just jumped into it.
“Every day is so busy, I didn’t have an opportunity, but I quit my job already, so I can come to the U.S.,” Iwahashi said.
For others watching the match, it wasn’t their first rodeo.
Marcel Rietveld and Gertjav V. Swiefen walked alongside the Dutch Orange Bus as it passed Globe Life Field. The two have followed their national team for the past five World Cups.
They noticed the number of Americans wearing the famed orange jerseys, or some variation of the color. Swiefen said he had met some ahead of the match who told him they knew about the march, but knew nothing about soccer.
“This is more of a thing than the match, I think,” Swiefen said.
The two were also awed at the size of the three stadiums in the entertainment district. The march started near Choctaw Stadium, before passing Globe Life Field and ending at Dallas Stadium, which was renamed from AT&T Stadium for the tournament.
“In Holland, we have three stadiums in this country this size,” Swiefen said while looking up at Globe Life Field. “Here in 1 square foot, you have three stadiums. It’s incredible.”
Later in the afternoon, before the game, some fans were treated to some hometown hospitality.
Nathan Sanders stood outside the stadium on East Randol Mill Road with a sign and a wagon. The Abilene resident offered sweet tea and pins from his hometown to passersby.
Sanders believes there has been a lot of negativity around the United States recently. He wanted to greet those coming to Texas and wish them a happy time abroad.
“I just really felt compelled, like a week or so ago, to just come out here and be like a welcoming presence, to show people that there are a lot of good people in this country that they aren’t seeing on the news that are super happy that they’re here and want them to have an amazing time in my home state,” he said as fans grabbed ice and tea from his wagon.
After his gallons of tea had been emptied of their last drop, Sanders walked to the stadium to experience his first World Cup in person. Before he left, he said he just wanted to leave an impact.
“If I can just greet people in a positive way, that would be the greatest for me,” Sanders said.
Chris Moss is a reporter for the Arlington Report. Contact him at chris.moss@arlingtonreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
