Five Cities, One World Cup: Guadalajara to Vancouver From Behind a Camera

The 2026 FIFA World Cup was the first played across three countries, and following one team through it meant experiencing the tournament as a continent-sized road trip. Embedded with the Colombian national team as their FIFA crew cameraman, PUP Creative founder Pat Ulloa worked the tournament through five cities — each with its own character, each shaping the working weeks differently.

A production diary of sorts, from behind the camera. (Photography throughout is from the tournament — all frames Pat's own.)

Guadalajara: The Introduction

The tournament began in Guadalajara, and it was the right place to start. The city had warmth without frenzy — relaxed on the surface, while everything underneath ran like clockwork. For a crew finding the rhythms of an embedded role, that combination was ideal: enough calm to establish the working patterns, enough structure to trust the machine around the team.

First cities set the tone for a touring operation. Guadalajara's tone was: settle in, the standard starts now.

Mexico City: The Big Stage

Mexico City felt like exactly what it is — one of the great cities of the world, with a buzz that never switched off. The hustle was constant, the scale enormous, and the time short; the city seemed to hold more than the schedule could touch.

For the working week, that energy was a gift. World Cup football in a city that vibrates anyway produces an atmosphere a camera can almost record on its own. The craft challenge becomes selection — too much texture, not too little.

Miami: The Film Set

Miami felt like a movie. The light, the colour, the theatre of the place — it was like walking through the cinematic version of itself, familiar from every screen it has ever been on.

For image-makers, Miami photographs almost unfairly well, and the tournament's stop there produced frames soaked in that heightened quality. A city that behaves like production design is a gift to any camera pointed at it.

Kansas City: The Exhale

Kansas City was the surprise of the tour — spacious, pretty, and generous, with food that earned its reputation and a mood that made the working week easy. After the bigger stages, everything simply ran: clean logistics, a city operating like clockwork, room to breathe.

Touring productions learn to treasure these stops. The quiet, functional city is where a crew resets its standard — and some of the best working days of a tournament happen exactly there.

Vancouver: The Ending

Vancouver was beautiful in a way that almost felt unfair, given what it hosted: green, scenic, calm — and the place where Colombia's tournament ended against Switzerland. The contrast stays with you. The most serene city of the five held the most pressure-filled week, and then the sudden quiet of elimination.

Endings are part of sport, and part of filming it. The tournament simply stops for a team, and the road trip is over.

What Five Cities Teach a Production

A two-person crew that can rebuild its standard in five different cities — different venues, light, logistics, moods — has proven something no single-location shoot can: that the quality lives in the crew, not the conditions. That is the portable lesson, from a World Cup or from any touring season or event series: the environment changes; the standard travels.