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Portugal head coach Roberto Martínez described it as "a shame" that Toronto won't be hosting additional matches at the 2026 World Cup, as the city featuring the tournament's smallest venue received its final glowing reviews after Portugal edged Croatia 2–1 in an exciting round of 32 encounter on Thursday.
BMO Field, which typically holds 28,000 supporters for MLS club Toronto FC, was expanded to a capacity of 45,036 for the World Cup, with organizers erecting two large temporary stands along the north and south ends of the ground, areas that previously accommodated fewer fans.
While those temporary stands may have looked underwhelming on television, they provided excellent viewing angles and kept fans close to the sidelines, a contrast to the larger NFL-style venues used at other host cities. Additionally, the only soccer-specific World Cup stadium outside of Mexico featured multiple fan march routes and convenient access from central Toronto, making match days an easy trip.
For Portugal, it translated into a home-like atmosphere in the round of 32. Supporters lined the streets for several miles from the team's hotel east of the stadium and a nearby park to the north, with turnouts surpassing the already impressive crowds seen during matches involving Canada, Ghana, Iraq, and Germany fans across the six games.
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With more than 240,500 Portuguese residents in Toronto, the city is home to one of the largest Portuguese communities in the world, making Thursday's fixture—which before kickoff carried the possibility of being Cristiano Ronaldo's last World Cup appearance—a massive occasion, particularly against Croatia, with close to 100,000 people of Croatian heritage living in the province of Ontario.
"I think it's a shame that there are no more games here in Toronto, because we really enjoyed that," Martínez reflected. "Wonderfully supported game with two sets of fans committed to the teams. I thought it was an incredible, incredible spectacle for football.
"The quality of the grass was fantastic, and everything around the beautiful facilities here. Even the dressing room reminds me a lot of the old-fashioned Premier League rooms, a wonderful feeling. Congratulations to everybody."
Portuguese Fans Flood the Streets
𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗢. ❤️🔥 #VaiDarPortugal | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/xtFYyxfO2G
Toronto's Little Portugal district celebrated well into the early hours of Friday morning with spontaneous fireworks following the VAR-influenced victory over Croatia, a match that saw Ronaldo convert from the penalty spot while Gonçalo Ramos struck an impressive goal that proved to be the winner.
Since the squad's arrival in North America's fourth-largest city, Portuguese supporters had gathered outside the team hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of Ronaldo and his teammates, all of whom acknowledged the crowds from their balconies on multiple occasions.
Toronto ❤️ pic.twitter.com/AoxUJ0mZcB
"Obrigado, Toronto," Ronaldo wrote on his Instagram following the victory, accompanied by images of red, green, and gold filling the city's streets.
"[It's] amazing, it's the first time I've arrived in Canada," Martínez added. "Congratulations to everybody, to the organizers, to everybody who is involved in football, in soccer, in the city. The welcome that we had was incredible."
Toronto Taken by World Cup Fever
For a city that had never previously staged a major international sporting event beyond the 2015 Pan American Games, Toronto wholeheartedly embraced the World Cup. Celebrated as one of the most multicultural cities on the planet, Toronto attracted supporters from all 10 nations that competed at BMO Field in considerable numbers.
Following Ghana's late 1–0 victory over Panama, the city's main downtown gathering place, Sankofa Square, was flooded with Ghanaian fans in scenes reminiscent of when the city's NBA team, the Toronto Raptors, claimed the 2019 NBA championship.
FT: Ghana 1-0 Panama
Thousands of Ghanaians that didn't make it to the stadium are celebrating at Sankofa Square here in Toronto, Ontario
There are an estimated 50,000 Ghanaians in the Greater Toronto Area pic.twitter.com/8pksa5mtmM
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Beyond the post-match festivities, the organized fan marches to the ground along the Lake Ontario shoreline and from nearby parks to the north provided a refreshing alternative to the parking-lot-dominated experience typical of U.S. stadiums.
Just hours after the final whistle signaled the end of Toronto's World Cup hosting duties, crews had already begun dismantling sections of the scaffolding supporting the temporary stands, as the stadium started its transformation back to its original configuration, save for a new hospitality area at the north end.