Houston.

What's at NRG Stadium this tournament

Seven matches at NRG Park, all noon ET kickoffs except one. FIFA calls the venue "Houston Stadium" for the tournament; the locals still call it NRG.

Five noon kickoffs in June and July in Houston is, frankly, the most aggressive schedule any host city drew. The 18:00 kickoff on June 26 is a meaningful concession; the rest are not.

Getting to NRG Stadium

What's different for WC 2026

METRO held the fare. METRORail Red Line to Stadium Park/Astrodome Station is still $1.25 flat, $3 all-day pass, no World Cup surcharge¹. This is the single biggest piece of good news in Houston matchday logistics. NJ Transit gouged supporters to MetLife for $150 round-trip per match; METRO did not follow suit.

What changed for the tournament: trains run every 6 minutes at peak during match windows, and METRO has staged standby buses downtown to absorb post-match overflow¹. Gates at NRG open three hours before kickoff. Bag policy is FIFA-controlled — clear bags only, 12"×6"×12" max, or a one-gallon clear freezer bag, or a clutch up to 4.5"×6.5". No backpacks. No on-site bag check².

Tickets live in the FWC2026 Mobile Tickets app. As long as your tickets are in the app, you're good. The failure modes: you bought on the primary market and can't get into the FIFA account you created at purchase, or a reseller sent the transfer to an email you don't control. Either way, you find out at the gate. Verify you can open the app and see your tickets the night before, not the morning of.²

The normal pattern

Red Line runs from the Downtown Transit Center south along Main Street to Stadium Park/Astrodome. Journey time is roughly 20 minutes. Park-and-ride feeders from the suburbs hand off at Fannin South Station via Route 211 from the West Loop Transit Center (free parking there), one stop north of NRG¹. On a Texans Sunday this corridor moves fine.

Parking, if you must drive: JustPark only, $98.99 to $174.99 per match depending on lot, ticket-holders only, and the email on the parking purchase has to exactly match the email on your FIFA ticket. No walk-up. Lots open four hours before kickoff².

What riders are actually saying

The platform, not the journey, is the pinch point. Stadium Park/Astrodome is a narrow island platform, and 70,000-plus people exit NRG at the same final whistle. After the Germany-Curaçao match the queue stretched well back into the concourse for an hour³. The play, if you're not in the very first wave out the gate, is to walk three or four blocks north toward Fannin Street before requesting a rideshare — surge collapses as soon as you're out of the immediate stadium polygon. Or just queue for the train. Either beats fighting for a car at the curb.

The June 14 Germany match gave us a useful partial data point on capacity under stress: the roof was closed for heavy rain, transit was held, and METRO absorbed the load without falling over³. Encouraging. Not yet a guarantee for a Round of 16 on a holiday weekend.

Tailgating

There is no published ban, but the FIFA lots are under FIFA security protocols, and the normal Texans-game and Houston Rodeo tailgate culture does not transfer. Treat tailgating as not happening unless you see the lot operator confirm it on the morning of².

The heat — say this plainly

On June 11, the opening day of the EaDo Fan Festival, more than 110 people were treated for heatstroke at the outdoor venue. Four were hospitalized. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo went on the record that she had raised heat-safety concerns with the host committee beforehand and was not heard⁴. Cooling stations went in afterward.

Houston in June and July regularly hits 95°F with a heat index over 105°F. The stadium is climate-controlled at roughly 70°F. Everything outside the stadium is a heatstroke risk. This is the most hazardous outdoor matchday environment of any 2026 US host city.

What that means in practice:

• Get into the air conditioning of the stadium or the Fan Festival before 11am if you can. Outside is for the morning and after sundown — the middle of the day is not a thing you tough out.
• One liter of water per hour, starting before the heat hits you. The KNVB has been telling Oranje supporters this for the June 20 Fanwalk; the advice applies to everyone⁵.
• The Green Corridor (more on that below) is not a noon option. Take the train.
• If you're walking from EaDo to NRG along the Green Corridor at midday in late June, that is roughly a 75-minute exposure in 105°F-plus heat index. People are getting hospitalized doing this. Don't.

The official documentation undersells this. The local emergency-room physicians do not.

The Green Corridor

The 14-mile active-transit route linking EaDo, downtown, the Museum District, and NRG via rail, walking, and bike paths is a legitimate piece of legacy infrastructure. It works in the morning and after sunset. For a noon kickoff in late June or early July, with outdoor sections of partial shade in 95°F heat and 105°F-plus heat index, it is not a transit option. It is a heatstroke vector. The host committee will not say this; one of us has to.

Where each visiting nation's supporters gather

The Houston diaspora map is not obvious if you're coming in cold. EaDo is the World Cup neighborhood, but the actual community rooms are usually somewhere else: Hillcroft for Lusophone and Arab; Westheimer/Fondren/Bissonnet for West African; The Heights for German; the Energy Corridor for Dutch. Getting people to the right room is more useful than pointing everyone at the Fan Festival.

Germany · vs Curaçao · 14 JuneDie Mannschaft

The institutional heart of German Houston is the Houston Saengerbund (1703 Heights Blvd, The Heights), founded 1883. The German Consulate's officially recommended watch venue for June 14, and they programmed the match⁶. For knockout-round screenings, call ahead — they're a club, not a sports bar, and the schedule is announced as it firms up.

The dedicated football room is The Phoenix on Westheimer (1915 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77098, Montrose). Houston's longest-running soccer pub since 2006, FC Bayern Munich Fan Club of Texas home base, 24 LED TVs plus five projectors, menus in German, Spanish, French, and Portuguese⁷. For the rest of the German fixtures, this is where the FCBTX regulars are.

If you're south of the loop near Clear Lake or the NASA corridor, King's BierHaus (828 W FM 646, League City) is the genuine biergarten with tournament-long $5 draft specials and full match programming sponsored by Hofbräu, Paulaner, Radeberger, and Ayinger⁷.

For the June 14 afterparty, FCBTX programmed Pitch 25 (2120 Walker St, EaDo) with Bun B on the decks from 3pm to 6pm. Pitch 25 is not a German-diaspora venue — it's the city's main football bar, programmed by the Bayern community for one afternoon⁶. Worth understanding the distinction.

Two notes for anyone working from older guides: Rudi Lechner's (2503 S Gessner) closed permanently in June 2025 after roughly fifty years; any aggregator still listing it is wrong⁷. And BVB Lone Stars Houston keeps surfacing in old supporter directories — no confirmed current social page or venue, so I can't send you there in good faith.

Curaçao · vs Germany · 14 JuneThe traveling support

The story of Curaçao at this tournament is the traveling support, not a local community. Houston's permanent Curaçaoan diaspora is very small. What showed up at NRG on June 14 was a charter operation: Corendon ran an A350 (432 seats) on the Curaçao-Houston route, and total Curaçaoan attendance at the match landed somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000⁸.

For pre-match gathering, The Flat (Montrose) was the confirmed spot — the owner grew up in Suriname, the Dutch Caribbean link is real, and the bar drew the Curaçaoan crowd⁸. It's a bar with screens, not a Curaçaoan restaurant.

The cultural side trip a lot of supporters made was Minute Maid Park downtown to watch Astros closer Kenley Jansen, who is Curaçaoan. Pilgrimage, not watch venue⁸.

The official supporter platform is Blue Wave (the FFK's program, ~250K followers @thebluewaveffk). When Livano Comenencia put Curaçao up 1-0 in the 21st minute — Curaçao's first-ever World Cup goal — the noise from that section, vastly outnumbered, was one of the loudest moments of the tournament so far. Ban pa bai Blue Wave.

Portugal · vs DR Congo 17 June; vs Uzbekistan 23 JuneOs adeptos

After the 1-1 draw with DR Congo on June 17, Portugal must win or draw on June 23 to stay alive on a tiebreaker against Colombia. The mood around the InterContinental Houston (the team hotel) has shifted from celebratory to nervous; hundreds of adeptos still showed up for arrival, but the conversation is now about the table⁹.

The Lusophone corridor in Houston runs along the southwest stretch of Hillcroft Avenue, between SW Freeway and Bissonnet, into Gulfton and Westwood. Portuguese-speaking churches, groceries, churrascarias — Portuguese is documented as one of the more common non-Spanish, non-English languages along this stretch⁹.

For watching the June 23 match:

• Pitch 25 (2120 Walker St, EaDo) is the primary Houston football bar — 25,000 sq ft, 100-plus taps, indoor pitch. Every match. The Katy location handles suburban overflow⁹.
• The Phoenix on Westheimer (Montrose) has Portuguese-language menus and Portugal-specific food specials every match⁹.
• Oporto Fooding House & Wine (125 W Gray, Ste 500, Midtown) is the closest thing to a Portuguese-diaspora restaurant in Houston — Portuguese cuisine, 4.6 stars. TVs unverified; call ahead about screens⁹.
• Avenida Brazil Churrascaria (12350 SW Fwy, Stafford) is a Brazilian-born chef's full churrascaria, founded 2008. Lusophone community kitchen, no confirmed WC screens. Pre-match stop, not a watch venue: picanha, then head to Pitch 25 or The Phoenix⁹.
• Social Beer Garden HTX (Midtown) has Eventbrite-listed watch parties for Group K matches confirmed. Call ahead about June 23 capacity⁹.

The Madeiran contingent is the real one to know about. Madeira-specific outlets confirmed that organized Madeiran groups flew in for the June 17 match for what they call Ronaldo's last World Cup; they'll be back on the 23rd⁹. The June 23 crowd will skew "see Ronaldo" as much as pure adeptos. The Observador summed up the June 17 draw as Portugal "serving as food at the Congolese party" — the June 23 match has higher stakes and a different emotional register.

DR Congo · vs Portugal · 17 JuneLes Léopards

This is the emotional center of Houston's tournament so far.

The community watch party for the June 17 match was at GSH Event Center (9550 West Bellfort Ave, SW Houston). Demand vastly exceeded capacity. Security was turning people away at the door. President Félix Tshisekedi and First Lady Denise Nyakeru attended the match at NRG and then addressed the diaspora at the GSH watch party afterward, with a speech that called for national unity amid the ongoing M23 conflict alongside the football celebration¹⁰. This is not a normal sports-bar setup — it's an event hall the DRC embassy's mobile sports-and-cultural-tourism program set up specifically for this match.

The DRC squad's path to Houston is part of the story. They completed a 21-day Ebola quarantine in Belgium (the WHO declared a Bundibugyo strain outbreak on May 15) before entering the US¹⁰. Virtually no supporters flew from DRC itself — the logistical and financial barriers are prohibitive. The in-stadium support was almost entirely diaspora: Congolese-Americans from Houston (~10,000 residents), Dallas (~15,000), and other US cities. Ambassador Kapinga Yvette Ngandu had publicly called for up to 20,000 supporters from across the country.

When the squad landed at IAH on June 12, the diaspora greeted them with sky-blue flags, vuvuzelas, and ndombolo dancing. The community organized a three-day cultural expo on June 15 and 16 — traditional art, makayabu, music¹⁰. When Yoane Wissa's header put Congo level at 1-1 just before halftime — DR Congo's first-ever World Cup goal, first World Cup appearance since Zaire 1974 — community members described it as a victory.

The community corridor is southwest Houston: Westheimer, Fondren, Bissonnet, Gessner. The organizations to follow are Diaspora Congolaise de Houston (DCH) and the Congolese Community of Houston Facebook page. DR Congo's next group fixture is in Atlanta (June 27 vs Uzbekistan), but if the Léopards advance, Houston will mobilize again for any knockout fixture they reach.

Netherlands · vs Sweden · 20 JuneOranje

The official TeamNL House / Holland Heineken House is Texas T Tavern (1535 Brittmoore Rd at Timberoak Dr, Energy Corridor, 77043), open daily 11am to 2am for the duration¹². The KNVB's Oranje bus — which made the transatlantic crossing by ship, a 26-day cargo voyage from Zeebrugge to Galveston — is parked here as the visual anchor. Heineken giveaways, a taco truck on-site, free parking. The Energy Corridor (Shell, ConocoPhillips, BP, Citgo) is where Houston's Dutch professional community is concentrated, and the choice of venue is deliberate.

For the broader Dutch community, Holland Club Houston runs the social calendar in west Houston¹².

The centerpiece pre-match event is the Oranje Fanwalk: assembly at Rice Stadium from 8am, live entertainment 8am to 8:45am (Yuki, FeestDJRuud, Yves Berendse, DJ NOA), and the march itself leaves at 8:45am on a 2.5-mile (4km) route to NRG behind the Oranje bus. KNVB-organized, 5,000-plus expected⁵. The KNVB issued an explicit heat advisory for the march: 34–35°C ambient, perceived temperature 44°C, one liter of water per hour starting before the march, cooling vehicles and tents staged along the route. Take this seriously. The Fanwalk falls inside the worst part of Houston's day.

KNVB estimates 15,000 Dutch supporters at NRG today — consistent with the Dallas turnout against Japan (a notable cohort is doing both Texas matches and Kansas City on the 25th)¹². Americans in orange will inflate the count further.

Sweden · vs Netherlands · 20 JuneBlågult

Sweden's pre-match anchor in Houston is Pitch 25, where Supporterklubben booked the entire Beer Garden (~600 cap) on Fri 19 Jun from 17:30 for a Midsommar eve gathering: maypole, DJ, herring and schnapps¹³. Saturday's match falls on Midsommar weekend, and Supporterklubben leaned into the calendar deliberately. This was last night's primary social.

For the match itself today, the Swedish Club of Houston is hosting the official Sweden vs Netherlands watch party at Hugh O'Connor's MarqE (7620 Katy Fwy #350, Marq'E Entertainment Center, Memorial), noon to 3pm. This is the same venue the Swedish Consulate General used for the WC qualification playoff watch party in March 2026 — screens and sound confirmed for the Swedish Club booking¹³.

The Swedish supporter march assembles at TMC Helix Park (Texas Medical Center) from 8am; the march departs at 9:30am on a ~1.5-mile route to NRG. About 2,000 marchers expected¹³. This runs parallel to the Dutch Fanwalk from Rice Stadium (8:45am), and the two converge on the stadium exterior. Two separate marches arriving at NRG within the same hour — a logistics tableau worth knowing about if you're trying to drive to the area between 8:30 and 10am today.

Supporterklubben distributed 3,739 Houston tickets directly; total Swedish attendance will be higher via secondary market. Most of the traveling support drove or bused down from Sweden's base camp in Frisco (Toyota Stadium), about four hours north. FC Dallas defender Herman Johansson, who is on the Swedish squad, organized a meet-and-greet at Toyota Stadium pre-tournament — the road-trip cohort is the through-line¹³. Sweden arrived in Houston on a 5-1 Group F-opener win against Tunisia (Isak and Gyökeres), so the mood is good.

The reopened Swedish Consulate General at 3040 Post Oak Blvd (September 2025) is the institutional connector that helped wire all of this together¹³.

Uzbekistan · vs Portugal · 23 JuneFirst-ever World Cup

Uzbekistan are making their first-ever World Cup appearance. Houston's Central Asian community is small and only recently organized. If no community event gets announced before the 23rd, people will find each other at whatever bar has a screen.

The Uzbek American Society of Houston (UASH) (11718 N Garden St, Bldg H, 77071 — events@uzbekamericansh.org) is a 501(c)(3) founded December 2022¹¹. First contact for community matchday coordination. As of writing, no WC watch event publicly announced — but this is the right channel to check.

For food and a likely informal community gathering, Foreign Grill at Post Market food hall (401 Franklin St, downtown) is Uzbek- and Eastern European-owned, serves plov, khinkali, and khachapuri. Food-hall setting, so dedicated match screens are unlikely; call ahead¹¹. Diaspora restaurant, not a watch venue.

Tarim Central Asian Grill at 11660 Westheimer is permanently closed — strike from any older list¹¹.

For a general-public, screens-confirmed watch option, Social Beer Garden HTX (Midtown) has an Eventbrite-listed Portugal vs Uzbekistan watch party for June 23¹¹. Don't confuse it with a Uzbekistan vs Colombia event at Casa Verde — that's a different match, not Houston.

Gazeta.uz, the major Uzbek-language outlet, has reporters on the ground in Houston; their coverage is the most likely place a community meet-up gets announced late.

Cape Verde · vs Saudi Arabia · 26 JuneTubarões Azuis

Cape Verde's first-ever World Cup appearance — seventh qualifying attempt, finally over the line in October 2025 against Eswatini. Atlanta is already played (0-0 vs Spain); Miami comes next (vs Uruguay, June 21); Houston on the 26th is the group closer¹⁴.

There is no local Cape Verdean community to speak of in Houston. The US Cape Verdean diaspora is overwhelmingly in New England — Brockton MA (~20,000), New Bedford, Providence, Dorchester. June 26 in Houston is a traveling-support story. New Englanders who hit Atlanta and Miami will mobilize for Houston; the EaDo Fan Festival is the default gathering point if you're arriving without a contact¹⁴.

What's tracking: Vozinha. Goalkeeper Josimar "Vozinha" Dias went from ~50,000 to 13-plus million Instagram followers after his performance against Spain. His mother was separately granted a US visa to attend matches. He's a global story now, and a lot of the Cape Verdean-American social activation is moving through that channel¹⁴. Two Houston-based Facebook pages exist ("Cape Verdeans in Houston," "Cape Verdean Beautiful People"); both are small but worth a scan close to the 26th for any pop-up meet announcement. Cape Verdean Creole (Kriolu) is spoken; Portuguese and French are co-official.

Saudi Arabia · vs Cape Verde · 26 Juneالصقور — the Falcons

The Hillcroft corridor in southwest Houston, between the 610 and Bissonnet, is the Arab and South Asian commercial spine of the city — Saudi, Yemeni, Lebanese, Egyptian-owned restaurants, halal grocers, hookah lounges, multiple mosques. It's pan-Arab, not exclusively Saudi, but it's the closest thing to a Gulf-Arab neighborhood anchor in Houston¹⁵.

For food and a community presence:

• Kabsah Restaurant (3330 Hillcroft Ave): Yemeni-Saudi cuisine, fully halal. Gulf-Arab community anchor on Hillcroft. Call ahead about screens for the 26th¹⁵.
• Droubi's Bakery & Deli (7333 Hillcroft St): Lebanese bakery, original Hillcroft Arab community institution since 1979. Pre-match provisions, not a watch venue. Note: the 2721 Hillcroft Droubi's location closed in May 2026¹⁵.
• Arabian Knight Houston (11581 S Wilcrest Dr, Houston, TX 77099): open 11am to 3am, TVs, pan-Arab social environment that ran WC 2022 screenings. Call ahead to confirm June 26 programming. The 3am close makes it the natural post-match spot after the 18:00 kickoff¹⁵.

The institutional anchor is ACC Houston (Arab American Cultural and Community Center, est. 1995). Non-sectarian, pan-Arab; their Instagram (@acc.houston) and Facebook are the right calendars to check for June 26 programming¹⁵.

Saudi Arabia's base camp is in Austin (Q2 Stadium, Four Seasons Austin), about 165 miles and 2.5 hours west, so expect supporter convoys up I-10 on the day. There's no standalone Saudi supporter club chapter in Houston; coordination runs through ACC and the oil-sector professional network informally¹⁵.

The 18:00 kickoff on a Friday accommodates Jumu'ah prayer, which finishes well before noon. The Hillcroft community is free for hours before kickoff. Eight Arab nations are at this World Cup — the largest Arab representation in WC history — so the NRG crowd on the 26th will be visibly pan-Arab: Moroccan, Egyptian, Iraqi supporters all converging alongside the Saudi traveling support.

Pubs and supporter venues (non-team-specific)

For multi-team World Cup atmosphere:

• Pitch 25 Beer Park (2120 Walker St, EaDo): Houston's anchor football bar. Co-founded by Houston Dynamo legend Brian Ching, 25,000 sq ft, 100-plus taps, indoor pitch, walking distance from the Fan Festival. Every match. The second Katy location handles suburban overflow⁷.
• The Phoenix on Westheimer (1915 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX 77098, Montrose): Houston's dedicated soccer pub since 2006. 24 LED TVs, five projectors, menus in four languages. The longest-running European-football room in the city⁷.
• Social Beer Garden HTX (Midtown): Two-floor rooftop, the largest outdoor screen setup in the city, active Eventbrite-listed tournament programming. Outdoor capacity is real — heat caveat applies⁷.
• Little Woodrow's (EaDo location): Outdoor space, full match schedule. The backup if Pitch 25 hits capacity⁷.
• Heights Bier Garten (The Heights): Beer-garden format, rotating draft list. Worth knowing about if you're already in The Heights for the Saengerbund⁷.

Fan Festival

The official FIFA Fan Festival is at 2301 Dallas Street, EaDo. Free, 7,500 simultaneous capacity, open on all 34 match days through July 19, closed on rest days (July 8, 12, 13, 16, 17). Opens 90 minutes before the day's first match¹⁶.

Access: METRORail Green or Purple Line to EaDo/Stadium Station, then a five-minute walk to the Walker Street north entrance¹⁶. The Via Fútbol wayfinding system marks the pedestrian route along Rusk Street from Discovery Green.

The heat caveat applies harder here than anywhere else. The opening-day mass-heatstroke event happened at this Fan Festival. Cooling stations were added in response. If you're heading in for a noon-kickoff match, get there as soon as the gates open and treat outdoor time as a budget you spend deliberately, not a default state. Verify current hours and per-match capacity restrictions at fifa.com/en/.../houston and fwc26houston.com/fanfestival close to the day¹⁶.

Airports & arrival

George Bush Intercontinental (IAH)

Houston's primary international gateway, roughly 25 miles north of NRG. No rail to the airport.

Transit option: Route 500 Downtown Direct ($4.50), nonstop bus from Terminal C to the Downtown Transit Center, every 30 minutes, 5:30am to 8pm. Connect to the Red Line south to NRG at the Downtown Transit Center. Total transit journey: 60–75 minutes¹.

The 8pm cutoff is the real trap. If you land at IAH after 7pm with any chance of customs taking longer than expected, you are rideshare- or taxi-only, at surge pricing. Build a 90-plus-minute buffer on match days regardless. International arrivals are running long throughout the tournament window.

William P. Hobby (HOU)

Roughly 8 miles from NRG, 10 miles from EaDo. Closer to downtown, Midtown, and the Museum District than IAH.

Route 500 Downtown Direct added Hobby service in February 2026: every 15–30 minutes, $4.50¹. If you're flying domestic and your base is the inner loop, Hobby wins on every dimension. For most US arrivals into Houston for the World Cup, this is the airport to target.

The unlucky airport is IAH after 8pm

Build the buffer. Pay for the rideshare. Or come in earlier. Houston is not a city you fix with hustle once you've landed late at IAH on a matchday eve.

Cross-event coincidences for matchday weekends

A few things other guides aren't covering:

June 14 (Germany vs Curaçao — already played) — partial good news

Heavy rain, roof closed, transit held under stress. METRO absorbed the load. The Red Line as a real answer is now a tested claim, not just a press-release one³.

June 20 (today) — double-march matchday

The Oranje Fanwalk from Rice Stadium at 8:45am and the Swedish march from TMC Helix Park at 9:30am both converge on NRG within the same hour. Roughly 7,000 marchers across the two routes. If you're driving anywhere in the Hermann Park / Texas Medical Center / NRG corridor between 8:30am and 10am, expect rolling road closures and reroutes. The Red Line is — again — the right answer. If you're not in either march, give the area a 90-minute buffer.

July 4 — Round of 16 + Freedom Over Texas

Noon kickoff at NRG for the Round of 16. The same afternoon, the city is running Freedom Over Texas at Eleanor Tinsley Park: Keith Urban headlining, 3pm to 10pm, $15 GA¹⁷. Post-match crowds clearing NRG and concert-bound crowds heading downtown overlap on the same surface corridors all afternoon. The Red Line and Allen Parkway will be under simultaneous pressure. This is the highest-traffic overlap of any Houston matchday. Don't drive between NRG and downtown on the afternoon of July 4. Train it.

July 5 — Outlaw Music Festival

The day after the Round of 16. Outlaw Music Festival at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands: Willie Nelson, Wilco, Sheryl Crow. The Woodlands is roughly 40 miles north of NRG on I-45¹⁷. I-45 north on a July 4 holiday weekend plus concert traffic equals compounded northbound delays from Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. If you're driving north out of Houston that weekend, leave very early or very late, not in the middle.

Things to verify on the day

• METRO Red Line frequency, fares, and post-match standby bus staging at ridemetro.org/world-cup.
• Open the FWC2026 Mobile Tickets app and confirm your tickets are visible the night before — if you bought on the primary market, confirm you can log in; if via reseller, confirm the transfer landed in the right email.
• FIFA bag policy — clear bag 12"×6"×12" max, or one-gallon clear freezer, or clutch 4.5"×6.5". No backpacks. Check the FIFA "Know Before You Go" Houston page for any tightening between matches.
• JustPark parking allocation if you reserved (per-match prices vary $98.99 to $174.99).
• Fan Festival hours and capacity at fwc26houston.com/fanfestival.
• Pub capacity at Pitch 25 / The Phoenix / Social Beer Garden — call ahead an hour before kickoff.
• Heat index for your kickoff window. If the National Weather Service is issuing an Excessive Heat Warning, treat outdoor exposure as the limiting factor on every plan.
• TeamNL House (Texas T Tavern) and Swedish Club / Hugh O'Connor's MarqE — confirm programming for any knockout fixtures if Netherlands or Sweden advance.
• Houston Saengerbund knockout programming — confirm by phone, not the website.
• ACC Houston (acchouston.org / @acc.houston) and UASH (events@uzbekamericansh.org) for any late community announcements on June 23 and June 26.
• For July 4: latest Freedom Over Texas road-closure list, and current expected I-45 north travel times for the morning of July 5 (Google Maps live the night before).
• Route 500 Downtown Direct schedule — current as of research at 5:30am to 8pm IAH and every 15–30 minutes HOU, but verify for late-evening match days.