FIFA World Cup 2026 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles opens the United States’ World Cup on June 12 and runs all the way to a quarterfinal — eight matches at SoFi Stadium, including two USMNT group games that will be the biggest sporting events the city has hosted since the 1984 Olympics. The soccer is the easy part. The catch, because it’s LA, is getting to the stadium.

A note on the name. FIFA badges the venue “Los Angeles Stadium” for the tournament, stripping the SoFi branding. Everyone else still knows it as SoFi, in Inglewood, about three miles from LAX and ten from downtown.

The eight matches

All times Pacific.

• June 12 — USA vs. Paraguay. The USMNT’s home opener and the loudest night of the group stage here. If you want the American-crowd experience, this is it.
• June 15 — Iran vs. New Zealand.
• June 18 — Switzerland vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• June 21 — Belgium vs. Iran. The strongest neutral group draw — a deep Belgian side against an organized Iran.
• June 25 — USA vs. Türkiye. The second USA night, against a genuine opponent rather than a tune-up.
• June 28 — Round of 32.
• July 2 — Round of 32.
• July 10 — Quarterfinal. The deepest stakes SoFi gets — one of four quarterfinals in the tournament. Matchup confirmed only as the bracket fills.

Best for: USA supporters (two group games) and quarterfinal hunters willing to plan the LA logistics instead of fighting them.

Where to stay

LA is sprawling, and nothing is genuinely close to Inglewood except the functional-but-joyless LAX-corridor hotels. So pick your base by the trip you want and accept a commute:

• Santa Monica / Venice — beach and pier energy, on the Metro E Line.
• West Hollywood / Beverly Hills — nightlife and dining, roughly 20–30 minutes to SoFi by rideshare off-peak.
• Culver City — the most transit-convenient lifestyle base; spots like The Shay at Ivy Station sit right on the Metro E Line.
• Downtown — central to everything but the stadium.

Inglewood-adjacent inventory is thin and books out fast. The quarterfinal weekend of July 10 is the peak-demand window across the region — book before everything else if that’s your match. Rates swing hard by date, so pull up live prices for your actual dates rather than trusting an average.

Getting to SoFi — the part that decides your day

Don’t plan on driving. The 405 is a parking lot from roughly 3 to 8 PM, and without a parking pass pre-booked through JustPark you’ll be turned away at the FIFA security perimeter.

The good news is that LA Metro is running a World Cup Match Day Direct service: free, nonstop shuttles to the stadium for all eight matches, from transit hubs across the region — Santa Monica, Union Station, Culver City, Long Beach, North Hollywood, even Orange County. The standard play from most of the city is the Metro C or K Line to the LAX/Metro Transit Center, then the free shuttle (about a 15-minute ride) to the stadium, running from roughly three hours before kickoff. SoFi itself sits about 1.5 miles from the nearest rail stop (the K Line’s Downtown Inglewood station), which is exactly why the shuttle network exists. Go early, leave buffer, and let the shuttle do the work your car can’t.

The stadium and the weather

SoFi is open-air under a translucent canopy — climate-managed without being fully enclosed — with the dual-sided “Infinity Screen” hanging over the pitch. LA summer is warm and dry, so weather is rarely a factor inside or out.

Between matches

The official Fan Festival runs throughout the tournament with free screenings and events; check the LA host-committee site for the location and watch-party slate. Beyond that it’s Los Angeles — beaches, Griffith Park, downtown, and a food scene that rewards wandering. The one discipline: respect the traffic math. If you’re in Santa Monica or downtown and the match is at SoFi, think in hours, not minutes.

So — which match?

The July 10 quarterfinal is the deepest stakes on the SoFi calendar and the highest-ceiling ticket. The June 12 USA opener is the confirmed atmospheric pick — the American crowd, the campaign’s first night — and June 25 vs. Türkiye is the second USA night if you want a stronger opponent. Pick the match, book lodging around the quarterfinal-weekend spike if that’s your target, and build match day around the shuttle rather than the freeway.

Planning a Los Angeles World Cup trip? See the full match schedule and live hotel prices near SoFi on our Los Angeles World Cup page.