Soccer fans brave surcharges, shuttles and the threat of traffic for N.J.’s first World Cup match

Soccer fans started calling Ubers, catching trains and queuing for shuttle buses hours in advance of New Jersey’s opening World Cup match Saturday.Despite concerns that nightmarish traffic, $100 NJ transit rides and eye-popping ticket prices would ruin the day, thousands of people traveled to the newly renamed New York New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford. They braved it all for the love of the game.

Emma Arrango left early with her boyfriend to catch the 1 p.m. train at NJ Transit’s Bay Street Station in Montclair, which would take them to Secaucus Junction and then the Meadowlands for the 6 p.

m. game between Morocco and Brazil.Arrango, 20, of Wayne, was wearing a generic soccer jersey and she said she wasn’t rooting for either team.

“I’m a soccer fan,” she said, adding, “I’m half-Colombian.”Among those taking public transit Saturday was Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who posted a video of herself welcoming soccer fans to New Jersey aboard an NJ Transit train to the stadium.

“I want to welcome everyone to New Jersey. I hope you have fantastic day today and have a great game everybody,” Sherrill told travelers. Fans also arrived via rideshare, like Uber and Lyft, which dropped people at the Meadowlands Racetrack located 1.

3 miles away. On Saturday, fans could be seen getting out of Ubers along Paterson Plank Road and walking in droves to the stadium.View this post on InstagramOthers took advantage of the shuttle buses being offered by the New York New Jersey host committee.

They came from Bloomfield, Hasbrouck Heights, Old Bridge and countless other towns — in BMWs, Subarus, Toyotas and Teslas — lining up for more than a mile to park in a deck at the Hackensack Meridian Medical School campus in Nutley before boarding shuttle buses to the Meadowlands Sports Complex a few miles up Route 3.With dad behind the wheel of their white Acura SUV, the four members of the Santa family of Bloomfield were all wearing Brazilian yellow-and-green jerseys as they crept slowly along Kingsland