Kickoff is 3pm in East Rutherford, New Jersey, this Sunday, July 19. That’s 4pm in Buenos Aires and 9pm in Madrid, when Spain and Argentina meet in the World Cup 2026 final at MetLife Stadium, in front of roughly 80,000 fans.
Inside the stadium, the final comes at a price. At the first World Cup match played there in June, a hot dog cost $8.50, a pepperoni pizza slice ran $12, a New York cheesesteak was $15, and a chicken tenders combo with fries and a soda climbed to $19, according to prices tracked by Yahoo Sports. A domestic beer runs $16, and canned cocktails go for as much as $19.
Thousands of miles south, in Buenos Aires, nobody is paying stadium prices to watch the same match. At Pizzería Nani, in the Villa Devoto neighborhood, more than twenty screens run inside a room decked out in football memorabilia, framed jerseys and trophies included, with tables staying full past midnight and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. A few blocks over, at Roma del Abasto, a bar open since 1927 in the neighborhood of the same name, regulars watch over a fugazzeta, the thick onion-and-mozzarella pizza that’s a local institution, alongside a glass of vermouth served with all the local ceremony. At 878, a cocktail bar once ranked among the world’s 50 best by Drink International, every Argentina goal gets a round on the house.
In Madrid, where kickoff falls well into the evening, tapas bars are clearing table space for the same reason.
The score will be the same everywhere. The bill won’t: about $19 for a cocktail at MetLife, a free round in Buenos Aires the moment Argentina scores.