MetLife Stadium in New Jersey joins the list of World Cup final host stadiums alongside Maracanã, Wembley, Azteca, Santiago Bernabéu, and other famous venues, as it hosts, on Sunday evening, the anticipated summit between the Spanish national football team and Argentina, the two poles of the closing ceremony. The stadium does not have many memories with football due to its recent age, having opened in 2010, and because it is not a home ground for any team in the MLS, with its role in football limited to friendlies, continental and international tournaments only. Moreover, it is a permanent venue for American football and the NFL, the most popular league in the United States in terms of attendance and television viewership. MetLife was built on land adjacent to Giants Stadium, which was home to the New York Giants in the NFL starting in 1976 before being demolished in 2010 coinciding with MetLife's opening, making the latter the new home for two New York NFL teams: the New York Giants and New York Jets, although it is located in New Jersey, eight kilometers from New York. The stadium is a permanent venue for American football, hosting between 15 and 20 NFL games annually, in addition to NCAA college football games. Perhaps the most notable event in this sport was hosting Super Bowl 2014, the annual game that determines the NFL champion. Alongside American football, MetLife is regularly chosen to host prominent annual events in other sports, including WWE wrestling events, NHL hockey games, and it is also a venue for massive concerts by global artists, having hosted shows by Bon Jovi, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Shakira, Metallica, and others. In football, although it hosts only a few games annually in this sport, MetLife has been accustomed to major occasions, having hosted CONCACAF Gold Cup matches in 2011 and 2015, Copa América in 2016 and 2024, the first expanded FIFA Club World Cup last summer including semifinals and the final, as well as a series of friendly matches between international teams. Argentina captain Lionel Messi has mixed memories on this pitch: he scored a hat-trick against Brazil in a friendly that ended 4-3 in 2012, but lost the 2016 Copa América final to Chile after missing Argentina's first penalty; meanwhile, MetLife was his gateway to the 2024 Copa América final after scoring Argentina's second goal against Canada in the semifinal en route to winning the title. The stadium was built at a cost of $1.6 billion by several companies, engineers, and designers, notably American engineer David Rockwell and Canadian designer Bruce Mao. It was initially named Meadowlands before being named MetLife, after one of the world's largest insurance providers. The outer perimeter of the stadium structure features interwoven aluminum and glass expansion joints totaling 50 kilometers in length, interspersed with color-changing lights inspired by the Allianz Arena in Munich; the light colors change depending on the host, especially since the stadium is home to the Giants and Jets in the NFL. The stadium roof features a solar ring containing 47 solar panels generating 350 kilowatts, contributing to lighting the ring with additional colors and supplying electricity to the stadium. Despite its modernity and high cost, the stadium has faced much criticism in various aspects: it sparked controversy in 2014 when hosting the Super Bowl regarding access and entry/exit difficulties, while the ongoing World Cup finals saw criticism of the pitch, with notable critics including Didier Deschamps, Adrien Rabiot, and Vinícius Júnior.