The stands at MetLife Stadium were briefly evacuated during a downpour Monday afternoon, about four hours before Norway and Senegal were scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. Roads leading to the stadium had standing water as flood alerts spread across parts of New York City and New Jersey, including Bergen County.
The scene put Norway Vs Senegal into weather territory that had not yet disrupted the tournament. No weather-related delays had been recorded during the first 11 days, even as the National Weather Service warned that showers and possible thunderstorms with high humidity could move through the area that afternoon and night, bringing as much as 2 inches of rain per hour and raising the risk of flash flooding in urban and poorly drained areas.
MetLife Stadium, which opened in 2010 and holds about 80,000 people, sits on steel pilings over swampy New Jersey ground. That detail mattered on a day when travelers heading to the venue were being told to plan ahead and leave extra time. Zohran Mamdani urged people to travel safely, said no destination was worth risking safety, and said anyone facing severe conditions should stay indoors until it was safe to move.
The warning also landed against a backdrop that has already shown how quickly weather can affect soccer in the United States. Six of 63 matches at the World Cup of Clubes in the United States last year were delayed by weather for a total of 8 hours and 29 minutes. A friendly between Saudi Arabia and Puerto Rico in Austin was suspended after 21 minutes on June 5 and resumed about 90 minutes later, while the start of England against Costa Rica in Orlando on June 10 was delayed by one hour.
That made Monday’s question simpler and more immediate: whether the Norway and Senegal match would be delayed, paused or played on time. If the weather worsened enough to force an abandonment after kickoff, the rules call for the match to resume from the minute play stopped, rather than being replayed, and FIFA also keeps the power to cancel, reschedule or relocate matches for force majeure or safety reasons. For spectators still trying to get to East Rutherford, New Jersey, the safest assumption was that the weather was not finished with the stadium yet.
