Party - and heat - are on for Belgium-Egypt to begin Seattle World Cup matches
The party, and the heat, are on.
The world’s biggest, most popular sporting event is finally here in the Pacific Northwest.
After four days of the tournament thrilling the world’s soccer fans across the United States, Canada and Mexico — after the U.S. team’s decisive opening victory raised the hopes of American fans from coast to coast — the World Cup begins in Seattle. Belgium and Egypt Monday at noon is the first of four first-round, group-stage matches at Lumen Field.
Except the Seahawks’ and Sounders’ home field is not called Lumen Field during the World Cup. Because Lumen Technologies didn’t pay FIFA in naming rights for the stadium, the global governing body of the World Cup is calling it “Seattle Stadium” for the six matches that will be played here through July 6.
Black patches over “Lumen” leave only “Field” on the walls of the stadium at its corners now.
Tickets for Belgium-Egypt were starting at $505 to get in on secondary ticket websites Sunday evening. Yet a crowd approaching the stadium’s capacity of 66,925 is expected, on a day Seattle is under a heat advisory.
Temperatures are expected to hit a high of 87 degrees during the match. The heat will be higher for the players on the new, real-grass pitch installed 14 inches above the artificial turf the Seahawks and Sounders typically play on in the stadium.
Belgian fans were walking around the outside of the stadium along Occidental Avenue in Seattle Sunday afternoon, carrying covered drums. They were walking into Victory Hall and the Hatback Bat and Grille across 1st Ave South. That was in preparation for the pregame party for fans of “The Red Devils” there Monday morning, then the Belgian fans’ planned march from the party to the stadium and the game at noon.
The base of the grass field is a wooden platform that’s been built over the artificial turf. The 14 inches below the wooden platform to the turf contains the irrigation and draining system for the World Cup grass field. FIFA requires real grass for all World Cup qualifying and final matches.
Belgium-Egypt Monday precedes an increasingly anticipated Friday in Seattle. The U.S. team plays Australia at noon on the Juneteeth national holiday.
The United States is capturing the hopes and imagination of American soccer fans following their team’s best World Cup performance in memory: a 4-1 smashing of Paraguay Friday in Inglewood, California. Nearly 25 million people watched that U.S. World Cup opener on television. That was the most people in history to watch a U.S. men’s national team soccer game on television, and the most-watched group-stage match in a World Cup in U.S. English-language broadcast history.
Fast, young Australia surprised favored Turkey in an impressive 2-0 win in Vancouver, British Columbia, Saturday night.
The winner of U.S-Australia in Seattle Friday will have the inside track to winning Group D. The top two teams in each of 12 groups advance to the round of 32, as do the top eight third-place teams. The top finisher in each group gets a favorable round-of-32 match, likely against a third-place group finisher.
If the U.S. wins its group, it would be positioned to possibly play in Seattle again in the round of 16 on July 6.
Next week in Seattle, Bosnia-Herzegovina, which drew 1-1 against World Cup co-host Canada in Toronto Friday, plays Qatar June 24 at noon in the final game for each in Group B. On Friday, June 26, at 8 p.m. Egypt returns to play Iran in the only one of the four Seattle group-stage matches that is at night.
Seattle will host a round-of-32 elimination game Wednesday, July 1 at 1 p.m., and a round-of-16 knockout match Monday, July 6 at 5 p.m.
The first Seattle game is one of the more intriguing ones of the group stage across the entire, expanded, 48-team tournament.
Belgium-Egypt has stars
Belgium is ranked 10th in the world. It’s one of the most experienced sides in this World Cup, with proven veterans such as Kevin De Bruyne, Thibaut Courtois, Thomas Meunier, Axel Witsel and Romelu Lukaku.
But De Bruyne is 34. Courtois, the Belgian goalkeeper, is also 34. So is Meunier defending at outside back. Witsel in the midfield is 37.
Lukaku is 33. The veteran striker is Belgium’s all-time leading scorer with 89 goals from 124 caps (international matches played). Lukakus has been beset by injuries for much of the last year while with his club team Napoli in Italy’s Serie A.
Most see this as Belgium’s last chance to win a World Cup with this group of stars.
Mo Salah is the worldwide superstar who leads Egypt, ranked 30th in the world. The Egyptians are favored to advance with Belgium out of Group G, considered one of the weaker ones in this World Cup. New Zealand and Iran are the other two teams in the group.
“We are trying to get enough points to get to that next stage,” Egypt coach Hossam Hassan told reporters Sunday. “And this is our ambition. And this is what we expect from ourselves.”
Hassan played for the 1990 Egypt team that had its best World Cup showing that year: two draws and a loss without advancing from group-stage play. Egypt have never won a match in a World Cup.
This story was originally published June 14, 2026 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Party - and heat - are on for Belgium-Egypt to begin Seattle World Cup matches."
