A World Cup semifinal is one of the few afternoons all summer when a good part of the office is following the same match. As the person who organizes the team's events, you can turn that shared attention into a reason to gather — a catered hour together instead of everyone streaming alone at their desks.
This post is about the semifinals specifically: why these two matches fit an office in a way the final can't, and how to put the event together before the menu window closes. You'll finish with a plan you can book this week.
Timing is the piece worth settling first. Both semifinals are the afternoon of Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15, and Metro's World Cup menu is available only through July 17. That makes the semifinals the last catered World Cup moment of the tournament, and it gives you a reason to book early rather than wait.
That timing is the whole reason a semifinal works as an office event. Both matches start at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, on Tuesday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 15, so the room fills during hours people are already at work, and a mid-afternoon kickoff carries the group into the end of the day. The final can't do that — it's a Sunday, when the office is empty and the team is home.
Metro's World Cup menu closes on July 17, so either semifinal falls inside the window and the final falls outside it. If you cater one World Cup match this year, these are the two dates that still work.
Metro built its World Cup menu around the tournament's host cities, which gives you a ready theme and a spread people can eat standing up, plate in one hand. The hors d'oeuvres run by city: New York Wagyu Franks n Blanket, Philly Mini Cheesesteaks, Miami Mini Cuban Sliders, Atlanta Mac n Cheese Bites, Canada Maple Bacon Skewers, and Mexico Mini Beef Birria Tacos. Order three or four of them together and it makes a spread, not a tray of the same thing — and the theme points straight to the final coming to New York.
Let the format guide the order more than the guest count. Everything here is meant to be picked up, not cut or plated, so nobody misses a goal at a carving station. For a plant-based option, the Crudités Board is vegan and the Atlanta Mac n Cheese Bites are vegetarian. If you want a fuller setup, the Taco Bar and All American BBQ each feed a crowd from one station.
A watch event is really just a room pointed at a screen, so set that up first. Book the space with the biggest screen you can get, test the sound before the room fills, and confirm the feed is ready before kickoff. A scramble for the right channel is the fastest way to pull the afternoon off track.
Put the food and drinks along a side wall, away from the screen, so the refill line never crosses everyone's sightline. Drinks matter more than usual here because people settle in for two hours; a simple bar setup or a batch of non-alcoholic options keeps the group in the room instead of wandering off to the kitchen. Metro's bar service can handle that end, so you're not stocking a fridge the morning of.
Both semifinals sit inside the World Cup menu window and the final doesn't, so these two afternoons are the last chance to cater a World Cup match this year. Metro needs an order placed and confirmed by 3:00 p.m. the day before delivery, and some items ask for a full day's notice — so the real deadline for the Tuesday match is Monday afternoon, and for Wednesday's, Tuesday afternoon. You have a week before the first match, which is plenty of room to lock it early instead of cutting it close.
Pick your date, build the host-city spread, and send it to our corporate catering team this week. You'll have the room, the food, and the afternoon settled long before the whistle.
Author
Chris Zamfotis
Managing Partner, Metro Catering
Chris Zamfotis is the Managing Partner at Metro Catering, a New York City catering company serving corporate offices, private events, and businesses across Manhattan. With a focus on reliable service, thoughtful menu planning, and polished presentation, Chris helps lead Metro Catering’s approach to modern corporate catering, from daily office lunches to executive meetings, happy hours, and large-scale events.
Metro Catering has been NYC’s trusted corporate catering provider since 1981, offering fresh, high-quality meals for office lunches, corporate events, and workplace dining—delivered on time, every time.
