Five Things the Cameras Didn’t See At the World Cup Final

Spain and Argentina faced off in the FIFA World Cup Final at New York-New Jersey Stadium Sunday, with Spain coming out on top by scoring a goal in extra time. The final, which drew 80,000 people, celebrities and President Donald Trump, also featured the first FIFA final halftime show, with headliners Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and BTS.

The Hollywood Reporter was on scene to witness it all, as well as a few more things that weren’t seen on camera.

After Spain clinched the final 1-0, the Spanish team rushed to hug each other on field and celebrate. But what was not shown on many broadcasts was that this quickly turned into a physical confrontation between Argentinian and Spanish players.

A post-game altercation between Argentina and Spain after the #worldcup final. pic.twitter.com/ntZLgWinDU

The fight was quickly broken up, as the Spanish team continued celebrating and Argentinian players largely sat or laid on the grass while waiting for the trophy presentation. 

For many World Cup attendees, the match began with long snaking lines near Penn Station as fans lined up round the block to catch the $100 train to New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The lines, which were filled with blue and white jersey-clad fans for Argentina and red for Spain (as well as a few with Mexico, the U.S. and Canada jerseys, as well as some attendees in rainbow clown wigs with dog noses), thankfully moved quickly, but once in Penn Station, and on the train, the chanting began. 

Argentinian fans essentially took the metaphorical mic for most of the commute, singing, chanting and jumping up and down on the train to Secaucus and continuing with cheers that echoed throughout the train station as the crowd transferred to one more train to get to the stadium.

Once inside (at least in my experience), it was the Spanish fans who were taking over the halls, as a sea of red began moshing and chanting pre-match, to the degree that it could be heard as soon as you arrived in the parking lot of the stadium.

Not to be outdone, Spain fans were singing throughout the stadium concourse pre-match. pic.twitter.com/8UrhXY7yiz

While President Donald Trump was not easily spotted at the match, his presence was felt. His helicopter could be heard flying above the stadium prematch. Hours before the ceremony, the line for the media wound several times through the parking lot, with members of the press waiting hours to get into the stadium. Part of this was likely increased interest for the final itself, but members of the Secret Service were also present and asking questions once press moved through the metal detectors. 

As Trump took the field to present trophies to the players, a strong chorus of “boos” rang out through the stadium. The chorus however was fairly short-lived, as Trump still had a long walk to get across the pitch to the stage. Once there, there did not appear to be any altercations with the players and the crowd’s boos did not resurface, but he did seem to be nudged out of the photo of the Spain team by the FIFA president.

The final featured a pre-show performance and a halftime performance, which both required a crew that appeared to the side of the field and quickly ran across, unfurling tarps to protect the grass (the pre-show featured a graphic of the New York City skyline, while the halftime featured a rainbow globe with “Love” written in different languages) and then turning on sprinklers for the grass immediately after. 

The rolling out of the traps itself took about a minute, and for the halftime performance, the performers and crew had to adhere to a tight timeline so as not to interfere with the match. This translated into players coming off the pitch at about 3:55 p.m ET, the rainbow tarp rolling out minutes later as a crew ran a stage (for the Muppets) to center field, and a performance starting at about 4:01 p.m. The performance, which featured Madonna, BTS, Shakira and Justin Bieber, was concluded by about 4:13 p.m. 

Unfurling the NYC-themed tarp for the World Cup Final pre-show. pic.twitter.com/JTegODGUdB

The halftime show was largely played to camera, with Madonna kicking off the show in a pre-recorded segment that saw the pop singer throttling through the tunnels of the stadium with Brazilian soccer players Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, in a segment that was shown only the stadium’s screens. Madonna made a brief appearance on the pitch at the end.

As the camera panned to other performers, musicians from the New York Philharmonic and Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra were on field dancing and bobbing to the music throughout. And while Shakira and Burna Boy performed the official song of the FIFA World Cup “Dai Dai,” alongside Uganda’s Ghetto Kids and dancers in a sea of yellow costumes, a group of rainbow-shirted schoolchildren snuck across the field to ready for the finale, which did include fireworks for the stadium attendees.

The loudest cheers in the stadium came for Shakira and for the appearance of Bieber. However, the crowd, which was made up of a large number of international fans, seemed much more interested in the match at hand than the performances.

Once they finished singing, performers still had a long journey to get off the field, with Robbie Williams, who performed in the pre-show, leading Nicole Scherzinger and Laura Pausini off the pitch, with all holding hands.