A taste of the 2026 World Cup came to Cleveland Browns Stadium on Saturday June 6, 2026. Teams from Brazil and Egypt played a "friendly" match in front of a huge crowd as part of the Road to 26 series.These are two of international soccer's top men's national teams. The Brazilian national team is the most decorated in the history of the FIFA World Cup, with five tournament championships and two runner-up finishes. It is the only team to have participated in every World Cup and leads all nations with a record 76 wins in 114 matches played.
The Egyptian national team is Africa's oldest and one of the most successful on the continent. Egypt has won the Africa Cup of Nations a record seven times. The team has made three appearances in the FIFA World Cup.
As I drove to the Stadium I was in the midst of cars with license plates from Quebec, Ontario, Florida, Virginia, Illinois, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Arizona and more. Many were flying flags of either Brazil or Egypt. Once inside there was even more diversity. I met people from Lebanon, Haiti, Germany, Bangladesh, Argentina, Palestine, Syria, Ethiopia, Colombia and more besides, of course, Egypt and Brazil! Many of the jerseys bore the name of Neymar (Brazil) or Mo Salah (Egypt) but there were others as well such as these Argentina fans sporting Messi's jersey next to a Mo Salah jersey.
Note: As always, we reduced the resolution of the photos for speedy web loading so if you want high-resolution copies, let us know.
My friends from King Tut - Egyptian Street Food had a very busy food truck all evening as people ate the kofta, koshari, shawarma, falafel and other authentic Egyptian street foods.
King Tut - Egyptian Street Food
The national anthems of the United States, Brazil and Egypt were played and the match began.
While the match was fun, the best part for me was seeing all the fans with their signs and jerseys and flags. Here are a bunch of photos of fans at the match.
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Fan from Bangladesh
Fans from Haiti
Fans from Colombia
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