Stranded in the swamp

Good morning!

One World Cup match down, seven to go.

The Brazil and Morocco match at MetLife Stadium on Saturday — which ended in a 1-1 tie, because soccer is very exciting — had hundreds of fans waiting for hours to get rides back amid what sounds like a traffic nightmare in the Meadowlands.

The big worry had been NJ Transit, but it sounds like the train from MetLife wasn’t bad — it’s just that not many people used it. The agency said it moved ~22K soccer fans via train and bus, but MetLife holds 82~ people. I have to imagine pricing train tickets at nearly $100 may have had something to do with this.

The team at NJ Advance Media said by 10:15 p.m., about two hours after the match ended, fans still stuck in the parking lot were told by workers that no more ride-share cars would be allowed to come to the pick-up area. They talked to one person who at midnight was still waiting for a way out.

From that story: “For some fans looking to go only a few miles away they were told to their best option was to take an Uber shuttle to Newport Mall in Jersey City, then another Uber from Newport Mall to their destination.” A fun and affordable journey at midnight, I’m sure.

Colleen Wilson at the Bergen Record, meanwhile, snapped this photo of fans waiting for the shuttle buses provided by the committee organizing the tournament. Looks like a grand time.

NJ Transit earned some roasting for sharing a “good news story” of a woman with a sick child who missed all the trains to MetLife and was crying about not getting to the match when some transit police officers took her there in a truck. The woman later shared her gratitude but also explained the obstacles she faced getting to the Secaucus train station. NJ Transit volunteers were kind but wholly unprepared for the event, she said.

Next match is Tuesday. It will coincide with the evening rush. 🙃

Health: Lilo Stainton dives deep today into an issue that affects millions of women even as few get treatment. Uterine fibroids are benign but painful and potentially debilitating tumors that impact at least two-thirds of all women by the time they are in their 50s. The figures for Black women are even higher. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who has had four surgeries for her fibroids, told Lilo she’s lucky she was diagnosed early. “No one can give me a real answer of why it’s happening, especially in Black and brown women, who are dealing with this at high numbers and just cannot get answers,” she said.

More: Well, this is alarming. Nada Hassanein reports that rates of congenital syphilis are rising, but the U.S. has a shortage of the only first-line medication recommended for pregnant women with syphilis to prevent passing it to their baby. There was a big recall on the drug last year, and now supplies won’t return to normal until December 2027.

Tom Kean: Saturday marked 100 days since Rep. Tom Kean Jr. was seen last in public. His team has said Kean is suffering from an illness but has not disclosed what it is. They have said since mid-March that he’ll be back at work soon. His district is one New Jersey’s swingiest, and Democrats it is one of the state’s three GOP-held districts they can win back in the fall.

Trump: President Trump told the New York Times that a deal reached with Iran to end the war there would open the Strait of Hormuz “permanently toll-free,” and he took a swipe at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while praising the leaders of Russia and China. Meanwhile, the UFC fights at the White House last night were … about what you’d expect.