W76 vs W78

The Round of 16 continues at MetLife Stadium (82,500 capacity) in East Rutherford on July 5, 2026, with kickoff at 4:00 PM EDT (UTC-4) as the winners of matches 76 and 78 compete for a quarterfinal place.

The winner of match 76 beat an opponent in Houston. The winner of match 78 won in Dallas, at AT&T Stadium, in a game between two runners-up that went to 80,000 people under the Texas roof. Both teams return to the Eastern time zone for a Round of 16 at the venue that will host the final on July 19. MetLife Stadium is already carrying the weight of what it will become in two weeks. Today, the Round of 16 gives it a preview.

Giants Stadium, which stood on the adjacent site until MetLife replaced it in 2010, hosted Bulgaria’s quarter-final victory over Germany in 1994. Yordan Letchkov’s header and Hristo Stoichkov’s free kick ended the defending champions’ tournament on penalties. The crowd at that match saw a genuine World Cup shock materialise. The soil under MetLife has seen that kind of afternoon before, and the Round of 16 is exactly the round where the tournament’s established narrative gets rewritten most often.

When is this match? A 4:00 PM EDT kickoff means 9:00 PM BST in London, 10:00 PM CEST in Paris, 5:00 AM JST the following morning in Tokyo, 6:00 AM AEST in Sydney, 5:00 PM BRT in Sao Paulo, and 1:30 AM IST in Mumbai. European viewers get a Sunday evening match in the final stages of the working day. Check New York time for local scheduling.

Sixteen nations entered the Round of 16. Eight will leave it. The teams playing here today are on either side of that division, and by 6:00 PM EDT both will know which side they are on. The winner has a quarterfinal. The loser has a flight.

Round of 16 at the venue that hosts the final: 82,500 witnesses to the tournament separating its best eight nations from the rest.

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