As the World Cup comes to North America for the first time in three decades, many children are surprising their fathers with the ultimate gift: World Cup tickets. Hayley Rodriguez, 21, from Los Angeles, secretly worked with her siblings to score tickets for her father, a longtime soccer fan who had always dreamed of attending a World Cup game.

A Dream Come True

Rodriguez’s father, a truck driver, had resigned himself to watching the games on television due to high ticket prices. However, his children had other plans. They checked daily for affordable tickets and eventually found a game they could attend. The surprise was a huge success, with Rodriguez’s father calling everyone in his contact list to share the news.

Similar stories are emerging across the United States, with children surprising their fathers with World Cup tickets. Diana Figueira, 25, from Houston, spent hours waiting in a resale queue to get tickets for her father, who has rooted for Portugal his entire life. Jesús Morales, 29, spent over $10,000 on tickets for the opening World Cup game to surprise his father, who had dreamed of attending the World Cup since he was 8 years old.

A Unique Experience

The World Cup in North America has given many immigrants a rare opportunity to display national pride for both their past and present homes. Sasha Abdallah, who recently surprised her Egypt-born father with tickets, said that the experience was priceless. ‘These memories that I’ve built with him in these past few days, just riding the Lime scooters through Seattle, cracking crabs together, watching the game, just seeing the pure joy on his face when Egypt scored — I can’t explain the sense of fulfillment it’s given me,’ she said.

Original reporting: NBC4 Los Angeles — read the source article.