FIFA Fan Festival reopens for some hours today due to weather, organizers say: Live updates

After its closure on Monday due to stormy weather, FIFA Fan Festival organizers say the event will reopen for some time on Tuesday.

They said the festival will be open from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, instead of 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

"The shortened hours of operation remain subject to change if the weather conditions are unfavorable to a safe environment for attendees," organizers added.

Officials said they would continue to monitor weather conditions and update the public on festival hours.

After he opened the scoring in Sweden's 5-1 victory over Tunisia in the World Cup on Sunday night, Yasin Ayari chose not to celebrate. Instead, he raised his hands in apology.

The gesture was a way of paying respect to his heritage.

The 22-year-old Ayari was born in Solna, Sweden, to a Tunisian father, Azzouz Ayari.

Ayari, who represented Sweden at the youth level, was given the chance to switch allegiances and play for Tunisia ahead of the 2022 World Cup, but he declined.

When asked about his son's choice to represent Sweden, Azzouz Ayari told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet earlier this year that he agreed with the decision.

"No, I wanted him to play for Sweden," Azzouz Ayari said. "He must feel like he's giving back to the country that took care of him."

On Saturday, Tunisia coach Sabri Lamouchi also offered support to Ayari.

"I know him and his brother," Lamouchi said. "He made a choice, I have a lot of respect, and he's a very good player. We wish him after the game best of luck, but that is after the game."

In the final seconds, Ayari scored a second goal with a long-range shot to the left corner. He celebrated more enthusiastically, sliding on his knees while cupping his ear with his hand toward the Sweden fans behind the goal.

The fans certainly believe he made the right decision.

In the shadow of Tennessee's Signal and Lookout mountains, 8-year-old Beckham has been balancing on a fence for more than three hours, gripping a handwritten note and waiting for Spain's national team to emerge.

"I love you and I look up to you," the note reads, addressed to Pedri and Lamine Yamal. "Thanks for coming to my city. I hope you win the World Cup."

As the players run onto the field, his eyes grow wide.

"Dad," he whispers, "they're real."

The scene was equally incredible to his father, Jaxon McClure, a Marine Corps veteran who grew up in Chattanooga playing soccer with trash cans for goalposts, now coaches hundreds of local children and named his first child after one of the sport's greatest stars.

This summer - 32 years since the United States first hosted the world's biggest sporting competition - Chattanooga is among several cities established as World Cup base camps, where visiting teams live and train between matches.

Spain - among the favorites to win the tournament - has set up camp at a boarding school on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga; Iraq is in a mountain resort town in West Virginia with fewer than 3,000 residents; and Germany is in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where cobblestone streets and tobacco warehouses share space with German flags and television crews.

To host the World Cup, Houston had to overcome tough competition and doubts about the playing surface indoors at NRG Stadium.

Greg Bailey sat down with the man who spent years working on a world-class solution, the Dynamo's Dan Bergstrom.

WATCH:

Greg Bailey sat down with the Dynamo's Dan Bergstrom to talk about the World Cup turf.