Hayley Rodriguez’s father is one of many soccer fans who had always dreamed of attending a World Cup game.But when the global event arrived in his city for the first time, the ticket prices made him resign himself to once again watching on television in his Los Angeles home.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.What he didn’t realize was that Rodriguez, 21, had been secretly working with her two siblings to score tickets for him, checking daily to see if they could find a game they could afford.“It was just funny to hear him be like … ‘If only I was going,’ and in our head we were just like, ‘Just you wait,’” Rodriguez said.
“It felt great to be able to surprise the one man that doesn’t accept gifts with the one thing he’s always mentioned wanting.”With the World Cup in North America for the first time in three decades, Rodriguez is one of a slew of people in the United States now taking the opportunity to surprise their dads with the ultimate Father’s Day gift.On social media, soccer fans are sharing videos of their fathers’ disbelieving reactions to being presented with World Cup tickets.The posts, which have garnered hundreds of thousands of views, have drawn tearful responses from many online.Rodriguez said her dad, a longtime truck driver who put her and her siblings above everything, has never been one to treat himself to anything.
Even when given the tickets, she said, his first instinct was to insist they should sell them instead, claiming that he’d rather watch from home.But at the Iran vs.New Zealand game in Los Angeles on Monday, he made it clear to everybody that he was living out his dream.“He was calling everybody in his contact list, FaceTiming them, sending them pictures to show them where he’s at, telling them how he got tickets to the World Cup,” Rodriguez said.
“It felt great because me and my siblings have always talked about how, honestly,...