The World Cup ends on Sunday 19 July with Spain against Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, kickoff mid-afternoon Eastern. Spain beat France two-nil and Argentina came from behind to beat England 2-1 to reach the final of the first tournament played with 48 teams.
The security operation peaks with it. Organisers are telling ticket-holders that screening lines for the final will be the longest of the whole tournament, with advice to add at least half an hour to the usual arrival buffer, and enhanced rail running from midday out of Manhattan. Beyond the stadium, official fan zones, 50,000 on Central Park's Great Lawn, plus sites at Rockefeller Center, Hudson Yards and out in Westchester, spread the crowd, and the security task, across the metro area.
The lesson from a tournament's worth of match days holds for the final: the friction is crowd density, movement and public order around the perimeter and the fan zones, not the spectacular. For anyone moving a principal near the stadium or the Manhattan sites on Sunday, the problem is access, road and rail load, and closures. Plan the route around the crowd, not through it, and build in the extra time the screening now demands.
It also closes a long season of set-piece work. Teams that manned this tournament will be rolling off; anyone planning autumn events should note how much of the load, cost and labour these operations soaked up.
