Isolina de la Vega was hooked on soccer from the first time she saw a match. Where she grew up in Tucumán, a province in northern Argentina, not many girls followed the sport. But de la Vega’s great grandfather was the president of a local soccer club, and her father was a big fan, too. So she was curious.
“One day I say (to) my father, ‘Okay, I want to go and see one match, and if I like, you pay the ticket for me for all time,’” de la Vega said.
He agreed – and she loved it. The way that families and friends come together to enjoy the match is special, she says, and the rivalries between teams are unmatched.
De la Vega moved to Kansas City with her husband, Dario, three and a half years ago and opened Los Hornos Argentinian Flavors in the Northland. She doesn’t see as many matches these days, but she’s still a passionate soccer fan – especially of reigning World Cup champion Argentina.
When Argentinian soccer superstar Lionel Messi visited Kansas City for a match between Inter Miami, his Major League Soccer team, and Sporting KC, she tracked down Inter Miami’s chef and delivered empanadas to give to Messi. Messi gifted her a signed jersey and flag in return.
De la Vega attended the FIFA Final Draw watch party at Power and Light when organizers announced Argentina would play a group-stage match in Kansas City.
“We are super excited and waiting for the World Cup,” she said.
Argentina and six other nations will play matches in Kansas City during the World Cup next year. Curaçao, Algeria, Tunisia, Austria, Ecuador and the Netherlands round out the list. Across Kansas City, residents are thrilled to welcome their teams to their adopted city – and excited to see them play.
Orlando Cachiguango already had a World Cup game on his bucket list, and when FIFA announced the United States would co-host with Mexico and Canada, he knew he had to try to go.
That feeling has only compounded since he found out Ecuador will play a match against Curaçao in Kansas City during the first round of the tournament. Cachiguango was born in Ecuador and lived there until he moved to the Midwest in the early 2000s.
“Even if Ecuador played in another city I was planning to see, you know, it's once in a lifetime, ” he said.
The announcement at the FIFA Final Draw Dec. 5 and 6 was a welcome surprise. Cachiguango immediately started hearing from friends in Ecuador who plan to come to town for the match.
“I feel happy. I feel proud,” he said. “It’s something that every soccer fan would like to have, you know? The chance to be your city, your team, World Cup.”
Cachiguango hasn’t secured his seats to the game yet. But fans can apply for tickets in FIFA’s Random Selection Draw, which runs until Jan. 13. Prices currently range from a minimum of $140 for the match between Algeria and Austria to as high as $1,265 for Kansas City’s quarterfinal match.
Kansas City expects to welcome at least 650,000 visitors during its month of hosting matches. For those with ties to Kansas City and the countries that will play, it’s an opportunity to share their culture with Kansas City, and Kansas City with their home countries.
In Algeria, “they go crazy about soccer,” said Brahim Malem, an Algerian-American who lives in Olathe. “It’s kind of like football here in Kansas… how people follow the Chiefs here, I would say it’s the same, or a little bit more.”
Algeria will play two matches at Arrowhead Stadium during the group stage, and Malem is confident his home country will pick Kansas City as a base camp. He applied to volunteer with the local World Cup organizing committee, KC2026, in hopes of taking part in the festivities.
Patrick Bakker, a Dutch citizen who has lived in Overland Park since 2002, says he’s excited to share game-day traditions with Americans. An “orange legion” of Dutch fans traditionally march to the stadium together, all wearing the iconic color of the national team.
“The whole crowd is following a bus towards a stadium and there’s a loudspeaker on the back, and someone is cheering up the crowd. And we go in the thousands. Yeah, it’s incredible,” Bakker said. “We know how to organize a party.”
Claudia Luna West, who owns Buenos Aires Restaurant in Shawnee, hopes more Kansas Citians will appreciate Argentine culture with the national team coming to play.
“We have so much to share. It’s so rich, the cultural impact from Argentina,” West said. “If someone visits my restaurant they can see it.”
West also wants to capitalize on the opportunity. She plans to sell her empanadas wholesale to bars and restaurants around town for the World Cup, in addition to selling them at her restaurant. And she plans to serve as a tour guide for visiting Argentinians. She’s already heard from one group asking for places to go when they visit.
Curaçao, an island nation in the Caribbean, is the smallest participating country in next year’s World Cup. It qualified for the first time ever this year, in a 0-0 draw against Jamaica.
Sonya Kieffer, a Curaçao resident who grew up in Kansas City, says the country is full of national pride right now. Thousands lined the streets to welcome the national team home after their qualifying win.
“They’re proud to finally be recognized. A lot of people, they don’t even know how to pronounce Curaçao,” Kieffer said. “I don’t know if you caught when they were drawing the names, and (Wayne Gretzky) said it wrong. He said ‘kur-AH-koh’” (it’s actually pronounced CURE-uh-soww).
Kieffer won’t make it home to Kansas City for the June 20 match against Ecuador, but she’s okay with it.
“If I could choose, I'd rather stay here with all the locals to watch the game together,” she said.
Bakker hopes the matches will make more people around the world aware of Kansas City.
“Growing up in the Netherlands, you say, ‘name me five cities in the United States,’ you know, you'll say Miami, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles. And Kansas City would not be on the map,” he said. “I hope that with this event… when they hear that question, that Kansas City might sometimes come up as well.”
