ATLANTA — Fans poured into downtown Atlanta Sunday for the city’s third World Cup match as Spain and Saudia Arabia met at the Atlanta Stadium.
Natxo Faus is from Spain but now lives in Florida, and he’s now living a dream.
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“I’m feeling great,” Faus told Channel 2’s Bryan Mims outside the stadium. “It’s the first time watching Spain live for the first time ever. It’s also the first time watching a World Cup game, so it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
It’s Spain’s second appearance in Atlanta since the World Cup began. On Monday, Cabo Verde – a World Cup debutante – held the powerhouse at bay with a scoreless draw.
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Omar Khan is a fan of Saudi Arabia and traveled from New York City to attend the match, his first World Cup experience.
“To say I’m excited would be an understatement, it’s been a lifelong dream of mind,” he said. “To go watch the boys go out there and perform in a statement game, it’s like no feeling I could ever explain.”
The streets around the stadium are a great crosscurrent of cultures, with fans showing off bright national colors and drinking in the camaraderie that soccer fosters.
“Everybody forgets about everything,” said Nick Jaramillo, a fan of Spain who lives in Orlando. “The atmosphere everybody has, the enjoyment everybody has, just how this game brings everybody together is phenomenal, and I think that’s just a great thing.”
The World Cup match is about more than goal kicks and blocks and tackles. Memories are being made, bucket lists are getting checked, and dreams are coming true. Seventeen-year-old Sophia Gonzales came with her dad, Martin Gonzales, for Father’s Day to attend their first World Cup game ever.
“It’s very special because I know he’s always wanted to come to a match, so to be able to celebrate this day and to take part in this day with him and to surprise him with so many surprises I have in store for him after the game, it’s just very special,” she said.
Fahd Alabban, a 14-year-old Saudi fan from Washington, D.C., summed up the mood.
“It’s wonderful, it is,” he said. “Look at the atmosphere, it’s, like, great.”
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