Extreme heat and bad weather at World Cup for clubs are a harbinger for the scenes on the ‘real’ World Cup in 2026

The match between Bayern Munich and Flamengo has yet to start and the sweat pearls are already on his kons at Marcelo Kulyk. The Brazilian has been living in southern Florida for eight years, but he has not yet been able to get used to the clammy heat. “I come from Curitiba, in the south of Brazil, it is sometimes warm, but not nearly stuffy.”

More spectators in the Hard Rock Stadium of Miami sigh under the temperature of 32 degrees Celsius, which feels a few degrees warmer due to the humidity. Despite the folding chairs, the vast majority of visitors remain the entire competition. But in the break, during a switch, injury treatment or drinking break, many people quickly sit down to puff out. And when the sun breaks through the cloud cover for fifteen minutes, the hand fans start to flutter.

The German Bayern and Brazilian Flamengo meet this Sunday afternoon at the World Cup for clubs in the US. The debut edition of this totally renewed club tournament kicked off in mid -June, while the first heat wave of the summer season just presented itself. Especially the eastern half of the country has been sighing for almost two weeks under temperatures to 37 degrees. It is even the heat in more northern playing cities such as Philadelphia and New Jersey, where such extreme heat is less common. Three games were also stopped or kicked off later due to heavy thunderstorms.

The heat and accompanying bad weather can be a harbinger of the scenes that the football world will see next year. The US is then – with neighboring countries Mexico and Canada – host of the ‘real’ World Cup football, for country teams. This takes place in exactly the same period of the North American summer. “What you are currently seeing is very typical. It is anything but unusual,” said Ben Schott van de Nationale Weather Service (NWS) Friday in return for sports news site The Athletic.

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For the spectators it is abandoning, but also for the football players themselves. Especially since some games start at the heat of the day. Then the European TV viewer can still follow them live despite the time difference without staying up well into the night. For example, during a competition in Cincinnati, Borussia Dortmund held in the changing rooms, instead of having them grilled on the couch in the afternoon sun (the game started at 3 o’clock local time).

And Atlético Madrid kicked off in mid-June at 12 o’clock in the afternoon against Paris Saint-Germain in Los Angeles, where it was almost 30 degrees at the time with a humidity of 86 percent. Atlético player Marcos Llorente is used to dry heat, but not to this subtropical variant. “My toes were the fair. Even my toenails hurt,” he complained after the 4-0 lost game in return for AP news agency. “I could slow down nor sprint away.”

In the almost full stadium in Miami, the atmosphere is absolutely no less due to the heat. The red-black shirts of the Flamengo fans are firmly in the majority and make noisy heard. But there are, as if it is an ordinary country World Cup, also spectators who have a white shirt Die Mannschaft have attracted or the green-yellow of Brazil.

For quite a few Brazilian fans, club love seems to prevail over national loyalty. For example, there are several Brazilians in the audience who passionately cheer for Bayern. Flamengo, from metropolis São Paulo, has quite a few rivals in the national competition. Marcelo Kulyk and his friend Fabricio Perreira are fan of the club Athletico Paranaense and they hope that Flamengo loses a lot. Perreira has set money on a 6-1 defeat (it will be 4-2 for the Germans).

Miami football capital

In the rest of the US, men’s football can certainly still be in popularity for many other sports, but not in South Florida. The sport is not called here soccerbut Fútbol or futle. Latin American clubs that are lucky to be able to play in one of Florida’s two playing cities (in addition to Miami also Orlando) therefore unmistakably have a home advantage. The population in the southern point of the state is Latino in the majority, including hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and Argentines.

Miami is increasingly considering the football capital of the country. And for a not unimportant part, that is due to Lionel Messi, who plays the final years of his career at Inter Miami. Another superstar, David Beckham, is closely involved in the construction of a new stadium for that club as a co-owner. Inter Miami was eliminated this weekend in the eighth finals.

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At the Club-WK Nieuwe style there was already criticism for the heat wave. The tournament would rob overloaded players of their summer break and organizer FIFA would mainly want to break the financial dominance of European top clubs. But for many spectators it is a unique opportunity to see their favorite club play in real life. For example, the Nicaraguanse-American couple David and Yanesky Arías put themselves in Bayern shirts. “I became a fan of the club ten years ago, then [Arjen] Robben was still playing there, “says David.” Now I can see them in my own backyard. “

25-year-old Santan Tsimilsina, son of Nepalese migrants, has even been a fan of the Bavarian top club since he was eight. “My father worked in Germany in the 1990s and he lit me.” He flew to Miami on his own from Tennessee to be able to cheer his club in the stadium for the first time. It will be too expensive to also go to the quarter and possibly semi-final. “But if they finally reach the final, I will definitely fly to New Jersey.”

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