Ten-year-old Bailey DeWitt won World Cup tickets on Monday and sat pitchside at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to watch Spain and Cape Verde play to a 0-0 draw in the opening match of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Atlanta. Her mother found the closing-window promotion on a routine check of a Verizon autopay setting.
Bailey has played wing and center mid at Macon Soccer Club since age three. On Monday, she watched the European champions held scoreless by a World Cup debutant ranked 67th in the world, from seats that were supposed to be unreachable for a ten-year-old without a corporate connection. The night reset her ambitions: a U.S. Women’s Team call-up is now the next goal, her mother said.
How a Routine Autopay Check Became a World Cup Seat
Susanna DeWitt said she had opened the My Verizon app to confirm her autopay was active, and a local access reward notification caught her eye. “I got on my Verizon just to make sure my autopay was on, and it said there was a local access reward near me, and I looked, and it said it was with Giselle Thompson, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we love Giselle Thompson! She’s on U.S.A.,'” Susanna said. “All of a sudden, it said ‘Congratulations!'” The promotion had roughly thirteen minutes left to enter when she tapped on it, per the local station’s account of how she won.
Thompson broke the news to Bailey on the call. “She was like, ‘Have you ever been to a World Cup game?’ And I was like, ‘No.’ And she gave us the World Cup tickets,” Bailey said. Susanna said the two of them responded with hugs and shaking, and Bailey peppered the U.S. international with a prepared list of questions she had been carrying.
Bailey’s father, Tommy DeWitt, said she had been angling for World Cup tickets since the host city list came out. “As soon as we found out they were gonna have some games in Georgia, she was already trying to figure out how we could get up there,” he said. Her coach at Macon Soccer Club, Todd Swanson, described her as focused and aggressive on the field. “I think she’s going to be shocked at how big the players are when you see them up close,” he said. Susanna put it more simply: “I’m just really proud of her. She’s a great soccer player, and she’s very dedicated.”
The Match She Watched
The Group H opener ended 0-0, and Cape Verde’s draw against the European champions landed as the surprise result of the tournament’s first full day. Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha’s performance drew the headlines as the debutants held Spain scoreless in front of 67,640 spectators, per the official Group H records. USA Today called it the “first upset” of the 2026 World Cup.
- Attendance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium: 67,640
- Final score: Spain 0, Cape Verde 0
- Spain FIFA ranking: 2nd
- Cape Verde FIFA ranking: 67th
- Cape Verde’s first World Cup appearance
The two teams had never met before Monday, per the Group H page, and the rankings made the result a stunner: Spain sat at No. 2, Cape Verde at No. 67. Spain are in their 17th World Cup and chasing a record-extending title after their 2010 win. Cape Verde are playing in their first tournament as a nation. The Group H table after Matchday 1 shows Uruguay and Saudi Arabia level at the top after their own 1-1 draw in the day’s other match.
After the final whistle, Susanna said the night had already reset Bailey’s ambitions. “Her new goal in life, it was just to play on the U.S. Women’s Team, but now it is to play on the U.S. Women’s Team at the World Cup,” she said. That reframe is what Bailey carried home: a Macon Soccer Club jersey, a phone full of questions she still wanted answered, and a name she now wants on the back of a senior national team shirt.
With the result, Cape Verde and Spain each have a point and sit level in Group H after Matchday 1, behind Uruguay and Saudi Arabia on tiebreakers. Spain’s 2010 title remains the only World Cup championship on their resume, and a goalless draw with a World Cup debutant puts early pressure on the squad. Cape Verde take the same single point into their June 21 matchup against Uruguay, with the group finale still ahead. The Group H picture will shift again when all four teams play their second fixtures in the days after.
Verizon’s Golden Ticket Pipeline
Verizon is the Official Telecommunication Services Sponsor for the 2026 World Cup, and the DeWitt tickets came from a small slice of the carrier’s largest free ticket giveaway yet. On June 1, Verizon dropped more than 2,500 free seats across 64 matches in every U.S. host city, available first-come, first-served through Verizon Access inside the My Verizon app. Hundreds of those seats were Golden Tickets for pitchside access, the same class the DeWitts won, with an account-home-address rule that locked entries to games within 150 miles. The full plan is in Verizon’s announcement of its largest ticket drop.
The pipeline is part of a longer Verizon push that began when the host cities were announced. Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland framed the latest drop as a way of giving customers “access and experiences that are above and beyond.” A new commercial featuring David Beckham, who returned to pitch Verizon’s “Ultimate Access” angle, runs alongside the giveaway. The carrier has handed out thousands of free tickets to U.S. fans across the run-up to the tournament, according to its own announcement. For Bailey, the experience was a thirteen-minute window the family hadn’t even planned to open.
Atlanta’s Eight-Match World Cup Run
Atlanta is one of the U.S. host cities for the 2026 World Cup, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium sits on the schedule for eight matches, including a semifinal on July 15. The venue’s retractable roof and full air conditioning have made it one of the tournament’s preferred heat-refuge stadiums for a tournament running through the North American summer. The Spain-Cape Verde opener was the first of those eight Atlanta matches, and the city expects more than 300,000 visitors across the month, per the local host city plan.
Atlanta’s full schedule runs from the Group H opener on June 15 through the semifinal on July 15, with the city’s other matches sitting between the group stage and the knockout rounds. Spain and Cape Verde both return to the group stage schedule in the days after the opener, and Atlanta organizers have framed the eight-match run as the city’s biggest single-sport event of the decade. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s air-conditioned bowl is a key selling point for organizers worried about North American summer heat. Atlanta’s other Group H fixtures, knockout matches, and the semifinal all sit inside the same eight-match window.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium also hosts a knockout round match on the road to the semifinal, rounding out the eight-match slate. FIFA’s Group H schedule lists Spain and Cape Verde opening the group in Atlanta and returning for fixtures later in June, with Cape Verde’s group finale still to be assigned to a host city.
From a Macon Pitch to a U.S. Women’s Team Dream
For Bailey, the takeaway is concrete: she has been playing since age three, and the path to a U.S. Women’s Team call-up now has a stadium-floor reference point. “Her new goal in life, it was just to play on the U.S. Women’s Team, but now it is to play on the U.S. Women’s Team at the World Cup,” Susanna said. U.S. Soccer has been chasing exactly that on-ramp for the women’s game, with 2026 framed as a generational moment for young American players.
Verizon’s pitchside Golden Tickets are one route, and the My Verizon app remains the carrier’s other free-seat pipeline for fans inside the 150-mile radius. CBS News Atlanta reports that FIFA Fan Fest is running a separate ticket giveaway, and both Airbnb and Showcase Atlanta are also offering chances to win seats.
- My Verizon app (Golden Tickets and standard free seats, 150-mile rule)
- FIFA Fan Fest ticket giveaway
- Airbnb ticket giveaway
- Showcase Atlanta ticket giveaway
Other host cities are running parallel activations through their own sponsors, with Atlanta’s eight-match run spanning the group stage through the semifinal. Bailey’s mother, who opened the app for the most ordinary of reasons, summed up the new goal plainly: “Anything that she wants to be. Just to be able to come to the World Cup.”
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Bailey DeWitt win World Cup tickets?
Susanna DeWitt entered a Verizon “local access reward” promotion inside the My Verizon app on a closing-window deadline of roughly thirteen minutes. A video call with U.S. Women’s National Team defender Giselle Thompson revealed she had won two pitchside Golden Tickets to the Spain vs Cape Verde Group H opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
What was the result of Spain vs Cape Verde at the 2026 World Cup?
Spain and Cape Verde drew 0-0 on June 15, 2026, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in front of 67,640 spectators, per the official Group H records. Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha was the standout, holding the European champions scoreless in the Group H opener.
How can fans still win World Cup tickets in Atlanta?
Verizon’s largest free ticket drop ran on June 1, 2026, with more than 2,500 free seats across 64 matches released through the My Verizon app. Accounts are limited to games within 150 miles of their home address, and hundreds of Golden Tickets are set aside for pitchside access.
What are Verizon Golden Tickets?
Verizon’s Golden Tickets are a class of free seats that put fans pitchside for a portion of a 2026 World Cup match, awarded through the carrier’s Access program in the My Verizon app. A commercial featuring David Beckham runs alongside the giveaway, framing Verizon as the “Ultimate Access” route to the tournament.
How many World Cup matches is Atlanta hosting?
Atlanta is hosting eight 2026 World Cup matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, including a semifinal on July 15, with games running from the Group H opener on June 15 through the knockout rounds. The city’s air-conditioned, retractable-roof venue is being framed as a heat-refuge stadium for a summer tournament.
