KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland, including Liberty. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
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For Santiago Alba, the journey to Kansas City was already emotional — but not for the reason he expected.
Alba is from Colombia and he bought tickets to Kansas City months ago, not knowing which teams would play there. When he found out on Saturday that Colombia would be among them, he immediately reacted.
"We cried when we found out Colombia was going to play here," Alba said.
But after attending the Orange Fan Walk last week, Alba found himself with a new allegiance.
"I turned out to be another fan of the Netherlands," Alba said.
Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, was a sea of orange Thursday morning as Dutch fans gathered to celebrate their country before a World Cup match against Tunisia later that night.
Luis Criales and his son were among the more than 30,000 fans who attended the Orange Fan Walk. The experience was enough to add the Dutch to their list of favorite teams.
"We love the fans, we love the energy, we love the excitement," Criales said. "We love to go now and see them take part in the tournament as well."
Noah Barks couldn't make it to the historic walk — so he chose to watch the Netherlands play their Round of 32 match in a watch party in Kansas City. He drove from Springfield, Missouri, just to be a part of the fun.
"Oh, 100%, 100%. That's why we're here," Barks said, when asked if he had felt some fear of missing out. "I wanted to be involved with that."
The Netherlands is currently playing Morocco in the Round of 32. That match is not in Kansas City, but fans can see the game at a watch party at the Power and Light District in downtown KCMO.
Colombian fans are hoping for a moment of their own. Colombia faces Ghana in a Round of 32 match in Kansas City on Friday.
"There are a lot of people I already know here in Kansas who always see us wearing our Colombian shirts, and they're always hoping we can beat every team we play," Alba said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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