Every Country That Played the World Cup in Miami Gardens, and What Each One Left Behind
Seven matches, nine nations, one field on NW 199th Street. From Cabo Verde’s first World Cup ever to a 10-goal Bronze Final, here is the whole run, match by match, now that it is over.
By David Abayomi, Community Manager
Published July 20, 2026
9 min read
For 33 days, the biggest event on the planet set up on a field in Miami Gardens. Hard Rock Stadium, renamed Miami Stadium for the tournament, hosted seven World Cup matches between June 15 and July 18. Nine national teams came through, some of them carrying the hopes of a few hundred thousand people, some of them carrying the weight of a whole footballing century.
Now that it is done, here is the complete record. Every match, every score, and what each country left on the ground before it moved on. We watched all of it happen from the same streets that spent those weeks behind barricades.
The group stage
Group Stage
June 15
Saudi Arabia 1 – 1 Uruguay
The opener nobody forgets, because it was first
Miami Gardens got its first taste of the World Cup on a Monday, and it ended level. Saudi Arabia held one of South America’s most storied sides to a draw, the kind of result that makes a group interesting and sends both sets of fans out into the city unsure whether to celebrate.
For the neighborhoods around the stadium, this was the first real look at what the next five weeks would feel like: the closures, the crowds, the flags on 27th Avenue.
Group Stage
June 21
Uruguay 2 – 2 Cabo Verde
The night the Blue Sharks announced themselves
Cabo Verde, a nation of just over half a million people playing in the first World Cup in its history, walked into Miami Gardens and took a point off Uruguay. The third-smallest country by population ever to reach a World Cup, and they refused to be a footnote.
You could hear it in the stands. This was the match where the neutral crowd started to adopt the smallest team in the building, and it would not be the last time.
Group Stage
June 24
Brazil 3 – 0 Scotland
The five-time champions came to town
The biggest name in the sport’s history played in Miami Gardens, and Brazil looked the part. A comfortable three-goal win over a game Scotland side that had traveled in numbers. The yellow shirts were everywhere that week, in the restaurants, on the streets, filling the lots by early afternoon.
For a lot of local kids, this was the day they saw a five-time World Cup winner in person, a mile from home.
Group Stage
June 27
Portugal 0 – 0 Colombia
The marquee draw
On paper the glamour tie of the group stage, two heavyweight sides full of stars, and it ended goalless. Not every classic has goals. This was a tense, high-quality stalemate, and it drew the largest and loudest Colombian turnout of the tournament to Miami Gardens.
Colombian fans made the trip up from across South Florida, and the Colombian restaurants an easy drive from the stadium had one of their best nights of the summer.
Four group matches, and the story of the round was the smallest country in the building. Cabo Verde was just getting started.
The knockout rounds
Round of 32
July 3
Argentina 3 – 2 Cabo Verde
The one people will still be talking about in ten years
This is the match Miami Gardens will remember. Cabo Verde, the debutants, took the defending world champions and Lionel Messi to extra time and nearly pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the sport’s history before falling 3-2. At the center of it was Vozinha, their 40-year-old goalkeeper, who by his own account just wanted his mother to see him play, and instead very nearly beat Argentina on a world stage.
The Blue Sharks did not win a single match at this World Cup, and it did not matter. They left as the tournament’s darlings, and they left from here. One fan walked out of the stadium in a replica shirt and told a reporter, with a smile, “Now the whole world knows about Cabo Verde. That is how you pronounce it, not Cape Verde.”
For a city that is itself heavily Caribbean and African in its makeup, watching a tiny island nation nearly topple a giant, on our field, hit differently than it did anywhere else in the country.
Quarterfinal
July 11
England 2 – 1 Norway
England edged through on the biggest day yet
A World Cup quarterfinal is a serious thing to host, and this was the day the closures ran their longest and the crowds ran their thickest. England came from behind the noise to beat Norway 2-1 and move within touching distance of the final.
It would not be the last time England played in Miami Gardens this summer, though nobody in the building that day knew yet how their tournament would actually end.
The city that hosted all of it
Explore the restaurants, shops, and businesses that make up the real Miami Gardens.
Explore the Directory
The Bronze Final: the wildest of them all
Third Place
July 18
England 6 – 4 France
Ten goals, a comeback, and a record broken on our field
The last World Cup match ever played in Miami Gardens was a ten-goal classic. England raced to a 4-0 lead and it looked like a rout. Then France came roaring back to 4-2, and Kylian Mbappé scored twice, the second of them his 22nd career World Cup goal, moving him past Lionel Messi for the most in the tournament’s history. That record was set here, on NW 199th Street.
England held on and won 6-4 to take the bronze medals, with Bukayo Saka completing a hat trick. If you are going to host the final match of a World Cup in your city, this is the one you want: a comeback, a record, and ten goals in front of a full house.
Spain won the tournament the next day up in New Jersey, beating Argentina in the final. But the last unforgettable thing this World Cup produced happened right here.
What Miami Gardens got out of it
Seven matches. Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, Cabo Verde, Brazil, Scotland, Portugal, Colombia, Argentina, England, Norway, and France all set foot on a field in this city. Messi played here. Mbappé broke a record here. Brazil and its five stars came through. And a nation of half a million people made itself impossible to forget, on our ground.
The tournament asked a lot of Miami Gardens. Eighteen-hour road closures, a renamed stadium, a Clean Zone that reshaped daily life for over a month. There is a real conversation to have about who the event was actually for, and we will have it. But the record itself, the football that happened here, belongs to the city now. For 33 days, the world came to NW 199th Street. It will be a long time before anyone here forgets it.
Common questions
How many World Cup matches were played in Miami Gardens?
Seven, all at Hard Rock Stadium, renamed Miami Stadium for the tournament: four group-stage matches on June 15, 21, 24, and 27, a Round of 32 match on July 3, a quarterfinal on July 11, and the third-place Bronze Final on July 18.
What was the score of the Bronze Final in Miami Gardens?
England beat France 6-4 on July 18, 2026. England led 4-0 before France fought back, and Kylian Mbappé scored twice, passing Lionel Messi for the most goals in World Cup history. Bukayo Saka completed a hat trick for England.
Did Cabo Verde win a match at the World Cup?
No, but the debutants drew 2-2 with Uruguay in Miami Gardens and pushed defending champion Argentina to a 3-2 extra-time result in the Round of 32 here before being eliminated. It was the first World Cup appearance in the country’s history, and their run made them one of the stories of the tournament.
Did Messi play in Miami Gardens?
Yes. Lionel Messi and Argentina beat Cabo Verde 3-2 after extra time in the Round of 32 at Hard Rock Stadium on July 3, 2026. Kylian Mbappé later passed Messi’s World Cup goals record during the Bronze Final on the same field.
Who won the 2026 World Cup?
Spain won the 2026 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19. The final was not played in Miami Gardens, but the third-place match was, one day earlier.
Sources and verification
- Match results confirmed against Hard Rock Stadium’s official FIFA World Cup 2026 event listings and tournament reporting.
- Cabo Verde’s tournament run and the Vozinha and fan quotes drawn from NPR and Al Jazeera reporting from Miami Gardens.
- Bronze Final details, including the Mbappé record and the England comeback, confirmed against CNN and tournament wire reporting from July 18, 2026.
- The final result, Spain over Argentina at MetLife Stadium on July 19, confirmed against tournament reporting.
Last updated July 20, 2026. Match records reflect official results at the close of the tournament.
