(The Lion) — The Argentina soccer team arrived Sunday in Kansas City ahead of its first World Cup match.
Video of the team plane, bearing the number of its world-famous captain Lionel Messi and displaying the team’s blue and white colors, showed the team’s arrival at KCI airport.
Three gold stars decked the plane to represent Argentina’s three previous World Cup titles, including its most recent championship in 2022, according to ESPN.
“The team planned to spend Sunday doing light training in the hotel gym while awaiting the arrival of the rest of its players,” the ESPN article also said.
Argentina will play Honduras in a friendly match June 6 at Kyle Field at Texas A&M University. The team will then face Iceland in a final tune-up June 9 at Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University before beginning its World Cup matches. The outcomes of these games do not impact the World Cup tournament standing, only the players’ preparation.
Argentina’s first Cup match will take place June 16 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City against Algeria. Arrowhead will host three other matches during the group stage: Curaçao and Ecuador June 20, Tunisia and the Netherlands June 25, and Algeria and Austria June 27.
The Kansas City region is also hosting four Team Base Camps as the teams arrive. Team Base Camps “provide elite training facilities, accommodations and operational support where teams will train, rest and prepare throughout the tournament,” according to the Kansas City FIFA Fanfestival 2026 Website.
Algeria will practice at the University of Kansas’ Rock Chalk Park. Argentina will practice at the Sporting KC Performance Center. England will train at Swope Soccer Village and the Netherlands will train at the KC Current Training Facility.
The official Instagram account of the national Argentina football team posted a video of the players already training at Sporting KC Tuesday.
“I think we have done what we certainly needed to do, if not more … to make this a wonderful experience,” Mayor Quinton Lucas told KCMO talk radio Friday.
