Staycation: An EcuaTurkAmerican's 2026 World Cup Experience in Spain

World Cup 2026 came and went in a fury, but not before drawing in billions of soccer fans from around the world all rooting for their teams in one of the most sprawling tournaments in all of sports! Among them, a teenaged-boy named Emi, living in Southern Spain, was drawn like no other World Cup he has experienced in his 13 years. It didn’t hurt that he had four teams to cheer on: his dad’s Ecuador, his mom’s Türkiye, his birthplace of the U.S., and his now home country of Spain. Though too young to bet, Emi made a deal with his dad, they both might regret – or cherish – for the rest of their lives. 

Emi’s game-binging started June 14. In the dead of night, promptly at 1:00 AM due to the at least six-hour time difference with Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., where the tournament took place. This was right after Emi and his family watched Bad Bunny perform in the heart of Madrid. It was Ecuador’s group stage debut against Ivory in Philadelphia. Emi’s Ecuadorian grandfather Mario went with his son, Emi’s uncle, Santiago, to the stadium – a memorable experience regardless of outcome, as it was Mario’s first World Cup game in his 80 years of life. Unfortunately, even though Ecuador played great, Ivory Coast ended up scoring the winning goal in the final minutes of the game to end it 1-0. 

The next day Emi and his family drove to Málaga to pick up his Turkish grandparents, who were visiting Spain for the first time. A few hours before, Spain’s national team had its debut against Cape Verde, as Emi snacked on Takis. After a full time, the match ended with a surprising 0-0 thanks to Cape Verde’s amazing goalkeeper known only by his nickname Vozinha. Maybe the tiny island of Cape Verde, in its first World Cup, could become the dark horse everyone roots for? 

Though Emi was on the road visiting different cities with his Turkish family, he caught the England-Croatia group stage match at his Airbnb in wondrous Granada. The game was a spectacle with a final score of 4-2 in favor of England and a superb performance by England’s #10 soccer star Jude Bellingham, who is also a starter in Emi’s beloved Real Madrid. 

Three days later, the family arrived back home to Sanlúcar de Barrameda. All decked out in red Turkish soccer jersey’s with Turkish wunderkind Arda Güler’s name and number emblazoned on the back, the family was ready to cheer on Türkiye’s second game against Paraguay, even at 5 a.m. the next morning! But two minutes into kickoff, disaster struck for Emi, his dad, his Turkish grandfather, and even his mom, sister, and grandmother, who were also rooting on the red. Paraguayan player Matías Galarza scored the opening, closing, and only goal of the game. Despite Türkiye having 39 attempts at goal, 78% ball possession, 638 passes, and 12 corners kicks, compared to Paraguay’s only 155 passes and 0 corners, they could not put the ball in the net. Paraguay’s dirty antics, including dangerous tackles, wasting time, and overall poor sportsmanship, resulted in a red card in the second half, but even with one man down, Türkiye was unable to equalize. Having lost its first game to Australia 2-0, Türkiye was essentially eliminated. 

From that day on, the family that once wore Güler’s jersey with pride and confidence that Türkiye would advance, felt a deep sadness, especially Emi. He went out to draw portraits that afternoon, dedicating his patience and time toward the Turkish national team. Later that night, disaster struck twice and Emi’s unlucky streak continued when Ecuador could not score a goal, despite a strong game, and tied 0-0 with Curaçao. With one game left in their group stage against soccer titans Germany, it seemed Ecuador’s World Cup ambitions had also evaporated. 

The next day, Spain played against Saudi Arabia in their group stage. Spain finally brought out young superstar Lamine Yamal, who scored the opener in the 10th minute. Emi and his sister were thrilled, as their love for this Spanish-Moroccan 18-year-old player with a heart of gold was strong. The young star’s first-ever World Cup goal gave Spain the confidence to finish the game 4-0 and secure advancing to the next round. Uruguay played Cape Verde the next day. Emi and his dad were definitely rooting for the crazy underdog Cape Verdians, who also pulled off another upset, also tying Uruguay 2-2. They were now Emi’s dark horse team. Emi took the tie as a “dub” or win and cashed in his first of several late-night “jump-in-the-pool” adventures with his dad. A deal is a deal and they went in at the glorious time of 2 a.m. 

On June 25, Emi’s dad’s birthday, Ecuador faced the beast that was Germany in their final group stage, which determined if Emi’s country would advance into the Round of 32. The match kicked off at 10 p.m. as the family was wrapping up dinner at Kammala Restaurant in Rota – about 25 minutes from the house. Despite being in a public place, Emi stood up without hesitation for the Ecuadorian national anthem, as he watched the game on his mobile phone. The game started with a bittersweet moment when Tori Penso, who made history becoming the second woman to ever referee a men’s World Cup match, made a bad call two minutes into the game, allowing a German goal after a clear cleats-to-the-face foul by Deutschman. But the injustice didn’t hold because seven minutes later, Nilson Angulo scored an equalizer for Ecuador. Emi and his dad celebrated wildly at the restaurant, knowing Ecuador might have a chance to pull it off. 

They raced at halftime to watch the second half at home, where Gonzalo Plata ended up scoring the winning goal in the 77th minute with the tip of his toe and somehow Ecuador held off a brutal-but-clean German assault for a punishing, nail-biting nearly 20 minutes. Emi and his dad went nuts celebrating – yelling and jumping like crazy. When the final whistle blew, Ecuador successfully entered the Round of 32. Emi and his dad jumped in the pool to celebrate, repeating some combination of “Unbelievable” or “Que Locura” well into 3 a.m. this time. 

A day later, Türkiye played against the U.S. in their last World Cup 2026 game. U.S. already had secured their spot among the 32, so the game was largely inconsequential. Even so, when American player Trusty scored in the third minute, as Brad Pitt celebrated from his box seat in the stadium, Emi worried this game could be a repeated of the one against Paraguay or even a blowout by the U.S. squad. But seven minutes later, another young superstar, diamond boy, Arda Güler, scored his first ever World Cup goal and Türkiye’s first goal in this cup. Emi, his mom, and the family again celebrated like crazy despite another 5 a.m. When the final whistle blew, Türkiye officially left this World Cup with a bang after they beat the U.S. 3-2 with a last-minute winning goal, led by Güler after an epic “nut-megging” of the U.S. Team’s star player “Captain America” himself, Christian Pulisic. 

 

Onto the Round of 32, Emi tried to watch every single game through the remainder of the tournament. Brazil knocked out Japan 2-1, and Paraguay shocked Germany and knocked them out in penalties. For Emi and his family, Paraguay's win was an unsuccessful “hate-watch” match, so they’d have to hold off and hope for Paraguay's elimination in the next round. 

The night before Ecuador’s match against Mexico, the Ecuadorian team filed a complaint against the tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of Mexican fans gathered around the hotel, where the Ecuadorian squad was staying and kept the team awake all night with cars honking, chants, loud drum playing, vuvuzuelas, and fireworks. It showed on the pitch when Ecuador played the Mexican national team and looked nowhere near as energetic as they did against Germany. Emi and his dad’s team suffered a frustrating 2-0 defeat in the Azteca. Apart from the poor sportsmanship outside the hotel, the Mexican fans were also criticized throughout the cup for crass behavior like booing other countries’ national anthems and screaming “Olé” any time Mexico had possession even at the start of the game, when this chant is usually reserved for the end of the game, once a team has secured a victory and is essentially playing keep aware from the losing team. 

A day later Spain beat Austria 3-0, while the U.S. knocked Bosnia 2-0, despite another American star player Folarin Balogun getting a red card.  A legend and Emi’s dark horse were knocked out, when Luka Modric played his last game in Croatia’s loss to Portugal, and Argentina barely pulled off their last-minute, 3-2 win against Cape Verde. On the 4th of July, as the saying goes, “Revenge is a dish best served cold,” when Paraguay was finally eliminated by France in the Round of 16, despite their continued “jogo sujo” or dirty game, brutally fouling the French squad and wasting time nonstop. France’s elegant playing proved too much for the South Americans. 

Two days later, Emi and his dad again hate-watched Mexico’s 3-2 elimination at 3 a.m. against England. To be fair, Mexico held its own and demonstrated good, clean soccer – unlike Paraguay, for example. But it’s Mexico’s fans that made it difficult to wish them well. Maybe the Paraguayan squad with the Mexican fans would have made a good marriage. Later on, Neymar Jr and Brazil played their last game in a stunning 2-1 loss to Norway with a healthy and punishing Erling Haaland back in the mix. Although Emi and his family celebrated Spain’s 1-0 victory against Portugal, they saluted and bid farewell to the great Cristiano Ronaldo. With Trump tainting U.S.’s participation by calling in a favor with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to allow Balogun to play against Belgium despite his red card the previous game, it seemed justice was served when Belgium demolished the U.S. team 4-1 even with Balogun in the starting lineup. On the other hand, Argentina’s squeaker 3-2 win against a surprisingly superb Egyptian team, felt unjust, after a very controversial decision to call back a beautiful goal by Egypt at a critical moment in the game. It reinforced ongoing conspiracies about FIFA favoring Argentina. First, Maradonna’s infamous “Hand of God” helped Argentina advance and win the Cup 40 years earlier in Mexico 1986. Now, it seemed the “Hand of FIFA” might be at play. Emi and his family booed the refs that clearly seemed to favor Argentina. 

In the quarterfinals, France unfortunately beat the underdogs, Morocco, 2-0 to advance to the semis. Spain beat Belgium 2-1. Inspired by Lamine Yamal’s hilarious and viral video-inducing baby brother Keyne and his funny celebration caught on the stadium’s jumbotron, Emi and his dad did their own version of crazy and once again ended up in the pool. England also knocked out Norway 2-1 and Argentina ended Switzerland’s surprising run, 3-1. In the semifinals, Argentina knocked out England 2-1, which was disappointing since it would have been 60 years since England made it to the final. Spain upset France, who looked unstoppable and favored to take the cup, 2-0. Another late-night pool celebration. The stage was now set for the España-ArgenFIFA final. The third-place match between France and England, however, deserves an honorable mention for being one of the most fun and best games of the tournament with an historic 6-4 tally, favoring England. It’s the most goals scored for a third-place match, though Austria-Switzerland in 1954 remains the game with the most goals scored in World Cup history. 

On July 19, the day of the final, Emi insisted on NOT watching the match at home and going into the heart of Sanlúcar, his town, instead, among Spanish fans. He found a group of nice Spanish chicas his age, who were kind enough to integrate him into their group. The whole town went crazy when Enzo Fernández was shown a red card front-flipping Spanish player Pau Cubarsí during a dangerous tackle. In the 106th minute of extra time, Nico Williams masterfully headed a cross back into play, as a charging Ferran Torres took the clean shot and drilled it through Argentina’s defense. The ball hit the back of the net and just as quickly the entire town, including Emi and his new friends, erupted in celebration as the goal in extra time sealed the win and crowned Spain World Cup 2026 champions. With Williams and Torres earning Spain their second star on their jersey, the celebrations filled every square inch of the town for the next several hours, including the streets packed with honking cars and Spanish flags of all sizes waving as far as the eye can see. Amidst all the celebration, Emi ended the night having his first kiss. A world cup for him to remember forever.

Visiting Normandie: U.S. at Its Finest

At a time when our country is at its worst, we had to visit a time and place when it was at its best. A pilgrimage ALL Americans should make. After visiting Disneyland in Paris, we went 180 from the so-called "happiest place on Earth" to the saddest. Certainly for Americans. We visited Omaha Beach - one of the five amphibious landing sites during Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day - June 6, 1944. This is also the site of one of the most gruesome and deadly battles ever fought in one of the most selfless acts of courage ever known. More than 700 U.S. soldiers died on Omaha Beach on this day alone. Thousands of miles away from home, they died in defense of our friends after Nazi Germany invaded France. We also visited the nearby Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, where 9,389 of our finest are buried.

Three things that stood out for me, before I turn it over to Aylin and Emilio for their reflections: 

 1-The French have not forgotten. As we drove closer to these historic areas, we were moved to see the amount of U.S., British, and Canadian flags waving alongside le drapeau tricolore, the French flag, from the homes of ordinary French citizens. More than 80 years later and with most of the French folks who were alive to experience our landing resting in peace, the grateful of our first Allies has crossed at least one generation. 

 2-How powerful this visit would be for us. The combination of heartbreak and pride overtook me in a way I'd never experienced before. Despite several visceral interactions during my military, including saluting the flag while standing watch topside of my first duty station: USS L. Mendel Rivers, a Sturgeon-class, nuclear submarine, the sight of the U.S. flag has never conjured so much emotion. 

 3-The realization that this was why and when we earned our exceptionalism. Every year, France and other European nations honor the ultimate sacrfice made by our bravest. In the history of the world, you would be hard-pressed to find another example of a people sending their children halfway around the world in defense of their friends. It is this bravery, I suppose, that made us - organically - a world leader. We became a country to emulate. A people to respect. A person to treat to a beer or two. Since then, however, we've rested on THEIR laurels to become a nation of entitled assholes. We earned our exceptionalism then. Now, we demand it without cause. 

Aylin's reflections: 

Normandy, France, has been one of the most beautiful and saddest places to visit. My family and I went to Normandy, where D-Day happened, and after we watched "Saving Private Ryan." 

We went to a museum in Normandy, where you could see real tanks, guns, military uniforms, and other things used during D-Day. After the museum, we walked around Omaha Beach, one of the beaches where the U.S. landed on D-Day. Nowadays, people cannot go swimming there out of respect for all of the soldiers, who died on that beach. My family and I saw a tall black marble pyramid with the names of all the soldiers who died, and the names that were in gold meant they had earned the Medal of Honor. I had found a bunker underneath the ground that the Nazis used. I also found ladybugs and put them on a white flower. I told my mom that because ladybugs represent good luck and white flowers are usually used when people die, both the flower and the ladybugs felt like a nice way to honoro all the brave soldiers who died.

The next day, my family and I went to the cemetery where all the D-Day soldiers that sacrificed their lives were buried. The setting of the cemetery was so beautiful and calming, the perfect place for all of the soldiers to be buried. All of the grave stones were perfectly aligned in lines, sections, and rows. The sight of so many grave stones made me feel very sad, thinking about how many families lost their special family members during this war. 

Emilio's reflections: 

After going to Disneyland, we went to a place that put us in the complete opposite mood: Omaha Beach in Normandy. We drove from Paris to the most northern part of France to Omaha Beach to visit museums, ruins, and other D-day memorials. 

On our first day, June 25, my dad's birthday, we went to the Overlord Museum near the beach. The museum had realistic war sounds, cool visuals, and even original relics from the battle, like weapons, tanks, and other memorabilia. They even had realistic mannequin soldiers. Even though it was a sad museum, it was really cool. 

After that, we went to the beach where the most people died on D-Day: Omaha Beach. We drove a few minutes. It was cold, but we had to get used to it, so we brought light jackets. We walked on a path and read a few sad stones that showed maps and people who died, along with roses and other items left behind out of sympathy. We went farther down the path and explored three hidden Nazi bunkers, including the one that "Captain Miller" and his team appeared to hide behind in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," which realistically depicted this battle. At one point, I had to urgently use the bathroom while we were near one of the bunkers, so I regrettably did my business in a hidden corner in one of the bunker's rooms. Then, we went to our Airbnb in Bayeux. 

The next morning, we explored the Normandy American Cemetery, which also appears in "Saving Private Ryan." We first went to the little museum where they showed a few war items and pictures, like the "Hedgehog" (picture shown below). We even saw a short movie on D-day in the theater inside the museum. After that, we went out and saw the graveyards that were lettered A - I. We saw the headstones from a distance, but for the most important ones, like two of the Medal of Honor recipients and one of a Jewish solider, marked by the Star of David instead of a cross, we were able to get closer and take photos. I left a pinecone for each important person as a form of sympathy and paying my respects. 

May they R.I.P. It was very sad to be here, but it was an honor for me to visit as an American who is seeing so many problems in my home country right now. It was beautiful, too, experiencing the clean grass, trees, and mild breeze. Not exactly a fun visit, but very interesting. I loved Normandy.

Emilio's First Post: Angels and Stuff

So my parents took me to two museums during our recent trip to Paris. One was the famous Louvre. The other was the Orsay! So, "It" actually took place in the first gallery at the Musèe d'Orsay.

After walking what felt like forever, due to the pain in my legs from walking all over Disneyland and then Northern France the days leading up to our arrival in Paris, I spotted two paintings, and in my ADHD mind, I knew just what to do... hehe! The first painting showed a happy woman, who looked a lot like Venus, actually. The woman had a cute, loving angel baby, exchanging happy eye contact with his "mom."

This baby... looked a lot like ME. Right? My curly hair came in later.

The baby angel was younger and, of course, uglier than me. I called this painting "Anne's Dream" or "What Anne Ordered."

The second one, now, showed the same woman, except she was frightened to death by the seven babies "assaulting" her, as the painting is called. I called THIS one "Anne's (Nightmare) Life" or "What Anne Actually Received."

It made us ALL - mom, sister, dad, me - laugh, especially my dad (Boss of Traveloquitos), a man who almost never laughs in museums. And that joke is still going strong today because we also made a short video. We have footage! After that, we enjoyed the rest of our visit to Orsay, including some of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh's work. I will post more photos later. The next day we went to the Louvre and visited the rest of Paris. One word: B E A U T I F U L.

Aylin's First Post: Shopping at Christian Dior's

When we visited Paris, I went inside Christian Dior's "OG" store with my mother. On our way inside the store, a person was holding the door open. Inside, the store was mostly white, with some rooms the color cream.

First, we explored the ground floor. There were newer things that Dior released, in the theme of a jungle or Africa. There were purses, handbags, perfumes, and makeup products. The purses were made of a special fabric that was soft and thick, making them durable. The handbags were absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to get one, but they were expensive, so I just continued to explore around.

Next, there were perfumes. I saw the most recent perfumes, including one called Miss Dior, which came in various shades of pink. My mother and I asked a kind woman employee which Dior perfume was the original and when it was released. The original perfume Christian Dior made was around World War II, and he made it for his sister, Catherine Dior, because she was taken away by the Nazis. They took her to a concentration camp, where they tortured her. They didn't feed her, give her a bed, or water. Christian Dior had been looking for his sister for a year. He cried. Later on, she was released, but when she came back to her house, she would not get out of her room because she was traumatized. One day, Christian decided to make a perfume just for her to cheer her up. Realizing other women were upset and depressed after the war, he started making dresses, purses, perfumes, and other items to help make women happy again, which worked. Although he was well-known, he used his ability and talent to help people, making him one of the most well-known designers on Earth.

Finally, my mom and I went to check out the makeup room. That is where the perfumes were, as well. There were lip glosses, lipsticks, highlighters, bronzers, eyeliners, eyeshadows, and blushes. I had looked at the lip glosses, Dior Lip Addict, where the lip glosses were clear, but lightly colored. I had tried on one, recommended based on my skin and hair color by the kind woman from earlier, which was a dark red-brownish or mahogany-red, wine-ish color. I liked that one, so I asked how much it cost, and she said it was 44 euros, making it one of the cheapest products in the store. I decided to buy it.

One of the employees grabbed a new, packaged lip gloss, and also gave me a perfume sample. Then, they put both of the products inside a small paper bag, with the design of the store's original front door with the number 30 next to it. It made my purchase and the sample look pretty in the bag that was very beautiful and unique. This indeed was one of my favorites part of going to France, after going to Disneyland Paris.