Thoughts From The Editor...
BY DC CUEVA
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| All Pictures: Me |
Whenever a last digit of any given year ends with an even number, it also means the coming of a biannual or quadrennial sports event that brings different countries of our complicated world together, all in the name of sport, fierce competition and the glory of national pride and honor with a gold-plated prize at stake. Ever since I first discovered it as a fan back then (but who was quite literally born with a love of it when I got baptized during one of those), the Olympic Games have become the most vivid example of my sports fanaticism -- from the nineteen straight days of binge-watching the action on TV and streaming, to being engaged in the kinds of sports most of us don't ordinarily follow but somehow have become the kinds of sports which I now follow quite a bit in between Olympics.
But for thirty-nine days over the course of the summer of '26, that passion for the kind of sporting events that only come around once every four (or two) years and captivate the world grew considerably. This time, it was for the other big global event on our calendar that, not long ago, didn't really strike a cord with most Americans outside of just a small handful. But a series of notable events in the last four decades turned the tide for the world's most popular sport to finally take over our country, and in the midst of a milestone commemoration of our 250th anniversary of independence led to the summer we all fell in love with soccer... and it was all thanks to a little tournament known as FIFA World Cup 2026.
As one who watches a lot of international sport -- and one who actually prefers to watching these kinds of events few of us watch (except me) over hours of extraneous analysis and chatter in between games, I know what it's like to be a sort-of contrarian in our American sports landscape. An op-ed in the European branch of the Sports Video Group illustrated how special these events are: events and sports that a lot of us might skip over in the sports page or now in our apps... but just the sheer appeal of these global gatherings, the decades-long lineage of those events and the scarce nature of them coming around only once in a blue moon that still enthralls people the world over after all these years.
As one who only played this roundball version of football in P.E. classes back then in 4th grade, I can figure out why America has had such a complicated relationship with the sport that has grown to becoming the world's most popular game... but never become as popular as our own brand of football or the other team sports in the most powerful country on this planet. And it's no wonder why that was the case for decades: there's low-scoring matches that often end in scoreless draws, 90-minute games split into two halves of non-stop play (and thus, unfriendly for U.S. Anglophone television), and attempts at pro leagues that crashed and burned -- among many things during the '70s and '80s.
Indeed, soccer in the United States chiefly became the domain for the diaspora of the countless millions from around the world who immigrated to our country in search of the American dream. Whether it's those from Latin America or who came here from Europe, they were lucky just to find a channel on our TV dial airing an occasional game or a highlights show of any kind in the early days of cable sports. Growing up back then, the old North American Soccer League had disbanded after a decade and a half which left this country without a men's major pro outdoor league... and the women were also having a tough time trying to find their way in a sport dominated by their male counterparts. All that was left after were various indoor leagues and a budding college game for those intent on staying at home here.
But in the same year that the NASL blew its final whistle, the world came together in Los Angeles for the 1984 Summer Olympics: the then male-only soccer tournament garnered crowds not only at the Rose Bowl, but also at Stanford and the East Coast where other matches were played. And when France beat Brazil in a gold medal final that sold out to a record crowd of 100,000+ at the seven-times' Super Bowl venue to cap a tournament that had over 1 million fans attend the matches, it gave the sport enough of a visibility to encourage a unlikely bid for a future World Cup tournament. The nation did attempt it once in 1982 when Colombia's financial struggles forced them to withdraw from hosting the 1986 tournament, which was ultimately awarded to Mexico... but the second time was the charm.
After FIFA visited the other two finalists in Brazil and Morocco - and found insufficient stadiums in the former and potential new stadium cost over-runs in the ladder, it was the American bid of already having stadiums and infrastructure in place that earned them the '94 World Cup bid... most fittingly being awarded on Independence Day 1988. A year later, a U.S. men's national team which had not been any near being a power in the sport finally had their moment when Paul Caligiuri's 1st half goal held up in a 1-0 win away at Trinidad & Tobago to qualify for their first World Cup tournament since the year of their shocking upset of England, 1950 in Uruguay. And not long after, the U.S. women's national team would claim the first edition of their World Cup - albeit with their '91 win being overshadowed by the busy fall sports slate back home, and returning from China to a muted homecoming at the airport.
By the time the summer of 1994 came around, there were skeptics around the world and within the soccer community of how a nation that lives in its own world when it comes to sports could embrace The Beautiful Game. In its last as a 24-team tournament and years before expanding to double that amount, this fifteenth edition was the first to award three points for a win in the group stages and introduce a back-pass rule to encourage more attacking play. It also saw the first major usage of a score bug in sports television with sponsor logos superimposed on screen to compensate for no commercial timeouts. And it all began with a moment typical of bringing America and soccer together: a living legend in Diana Ross sending her kick up top in the opening ceremony, just as it would be for the last act of a scoreless final when Italy's last penalty kick sailed over the bar in giving Brazil its fourth World Cup.
From record attendance of over three million packing NFL stadiums coast-to-coast to the emergence of the GOAT of American soccer broadcasting in Andres Cantor, World Cup '94 was a resounding success in every aspect. It also helped set the stage for everything that's happened to soccer in this country since -- the U.S. winning three more Women's World Cups just as women's sports has grown at the same time, the arrivals of David Beckham and Lionel Messi into the one condition of the '94 bid in the reinstatement of the American top-flight in Major League Soccer, and the game's growth at the grassroots level to the point of the "soccer mom" stereotype being brought up in our culture. Not to mention, every soccer league and competition has, or will have been, shown on just about every national and local television channel and streaming outlet by the time that this summer of soccer came around.
It was in the summer of 2018 that the Americans were given the best-possible consolation prize for them missing out on that year's tournament in Russia: co-hosting duties for the 2026 World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico. For the first men's main event to expand to forty-eight nations, there were skeptics of how an expanded summer of football could become a cash grab for the world's most high-profile individual sports governing body. There would more games -- 104 in all, more host cities spread across the entire North American continent -- 16, and as it was then there would later be the influence of the most powerful individual in the whole world as well as his counterpart leading FIFA itself. But above all -- and like it always does during the Olympics when various aspects cloud its buildup to those two weeks every two years, those would give way as it was the soccer and the spectacle that would not only take center stage... but it would also define this memorable summer over everything else.
Few things bring sports fans and casual viewers in our country all together -- the Super Bowl, any of the other major championships in our land, and every time Team USA takes to the global stage. After seeing our Olympians once again own the podium in front of full houses in Paris and Italy -- including the men's hockey team winning gold just months before this tournament and with LA28 looming ahead, there were some enormous expectations surrounding the U.S. men's national team going into this World Cup. What happened a decade ago served as a referendum on the men's national program, and from the ashes of that painful last match night's qualifying defeat to that same Trinidad & Tobago side in 2017 came a golden generation of men's players that helped the Americans get over that Caribbean nightmare and set up for the home game here this past summer.
Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Gio Reyna, Malik Tillman, an NFL wideout's son in Alex Freeman, and former U.S. manager Gregg Berhalter's son Sebastian were among the twenty-six chosen to sport the Stars & Stripes on our home soil in this World Cup. They felt the pressure to follow in the footsteps of Alexi Lalas, Cobi Jones, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, their WNT counterparts, and the dozens before them of getting to put on the American jersey... and of getting to prove that this nation can play with the big boys in this sport. Though this team played in only five matches in this World Cup and a litany of tune-up affairs in the four years leading into this summer without having to go through the ringer of the CONCACAF qualification hex, they brought us on this incredible ride. From the elation of their seven goals this summer, through the soap opera of Floarin Balogun's red card, and the sheer heartache of that Round of 16 defeat to Belgium... no wonder why we all became so engrossed in seeing our team become the home team in the world's tournament.
It wasn't just Team USA who garnered our attention at this year's World Cup: whether it's soccer, hockey or basketball, any best-on-best competition in team sports anywhere in the world always brings us the cream of the crop. Given how fans in this country have access on TV and streaming to more leagues and competitions in this game than anywhere else in the world, we were spoiled to have the greatest stars in football finally come to our backyard. FIFA knew exactly what they were doing in '88 in carving a future niche that would be worth billions in untapped future revenue available here in the U.S. And it was inevitable that the enormous growth this sport has had in our country in the past two decades would result in seeing the single greatest collection of soccer talent ever assembled: Lionel Messi, Christian Ronaldo, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal, and many more. Think, it's what those in the NBA and NHL have enjoyed with their best players competing at the Olympics -- only this World Cup has that greater microscope considering soccer's massive global profile.
As we all know, some of the greatest stories in American sports history lie in the underdogs... and the squad that became the world's team in this World Cup were the ones that came from the most unlikeliest of places. With having the total area the size of Rhode Island and a population total equivalent to that of Baltimore, Cape Verde became the smallest nation to have ever qualified for this World Cup having 31 men compete for a nation of over 500,000. But in a World Cup that invited countries big and small to this party over a four-time champ in Italy among others, they got to do something that would have been outrageous to begin with... they not only put up a historic result on the eventual world champions, but they came oh so close to knocking out the incumbents. The herculean effort of goalkeeper Josimar Jose "Vizinha" Evora Dias keeping Spain off the scoreboard in their opener, and the stunning curler by Sidney Lopes Cabral to tie Argentina gave us belief in the impossible... and though they came close to pulling off the greatest upset in the history of this sport, they did most surely won our hearts.
When we saw empty competition venues at the Tokyo Summer and Beijing Winter Olympics and most other pandemic sports events, we saw the huge difference in what having fans in the stands can make on the action going on in front of them below. They made for a boisterous atmosphere at every venue including when French swimmer Leon Marchand became the star of the Paris Games, and they are always a factor in many an upset in college football and basketball here. The fans are what make sports so fantastic... and to have millions of them come into our country to bring the joy sports brings all of us was a sight to behold, regardless of whether it was in America or the countless fan reactions that flooded in from around the world. Whether it's Norwegian fans giving a new dictionary definition in having the icon of Manchester City lead their post-match Viking Row, the slew of Scotland's Tartan Army flooding into the cities of their team's matches and exhaust out the city's entire beer supply... or the immense passion of the Mexican supporters -- we couldn't help but be fascinated by how soccer fans are in their element, maybe more than even their college counterparts here.
We were sure that television sports producers were watching what was going on here once Taylor Swift first made her way into that suite in Arrowhead Stadium seeing her future husband in action... and how it brought not only a new audience into America's favorite sport, but also impacted how to make big sports events feel like a Lakers game. The idea of celebrities and sports intersecting has existed for decades, but since Taylor it has really taken off... and the trend continued with this World Cup. After all, we in North America are responsible for the biggest stars in entertainment... so why not bring the masses and their fandoms to this great game? We saw countless stars take up residency in the luxury boxes alongside footballing greats and distinguished dignitaries... we saw Paris Hilton, Tate McRae and others deliver the match ball in the opening ceremonies. And the big names in music in Shakira, BTS, Post Malone and others perform... obviously for this music fanatic, I was just as home as I would at SB halftime.
As someone who goes on regular walks to stay active, I took advantage of a suggestion by my mom to spend some afternoons at my local mall (Great Mall of the Bay Area near Levi's Stadium) to not only walk around the racetrack configuration of the former local Ford plant, but also window shop -- and do actual shopping too. The money from my slot handpay winnings was finally spent this summer in the hundreds as I roamed the mall, my local Walmart and online to grab as much souvenirs as I can to fill my closet. As a result of these several Merch Search sessions during the World Cup that began even before the first match, I bought three different game balls, many shirts, lanyards, guides and hats to give me constant reminders of this amazing experience. It's the same thing I also did two summers prior during the Paris Olympics... and also among New Yorkers when the Knicks finally won it all again.
In walking through the Great Mall several times during the World Cup, I also saw the personal impact of how much one tournament can have on the American public... all by just people watching and their fashion sense. There, I couldn't go anywhere in the mall without seeing anyone wear a soccer jersey or a shirt supporting any of the tournament's forty-eight teams, even those of clubs from where the players played in their domestic leagues prior to the summer tradition of swapping club for country. From the local Dick's Sporting Goods store inside of there to the quintessential hangout spot on a weekend afternoon for sports fans everywhere: the sports bar at our Dave & Busters having all of their TV's tuned to the matches... I had the rare chance of watching away from home, getting to be like all of them and having the same raw reactions at the big moments and every goal. It even extended to when I brought a rarely-used handheld TV out and about to watch games without incurring any streaming charges.
A week after Spain lifted the trophy for a second time, FIFA President Infantino wrote a letter on its website to rebuke his detractors and before floating around surprise plans to transfer operations of its tournaments to a separate company with shares from private investors. Before walking back on his word after universal pushback which may cost him his job, in that letter he reminded everyone why something like the World Cup can bring all of us to a standstill and give us something to divert from other matters for a few hours -- and which became a daily routine for a month & a half. There was joy, despair and all the emotions in between of how a simple little game can spur the world's attention like no other.
Even with countless incidents of bad officiating and VAR intervening too much on the biggest incidents, there were no security incidents or major issues in or outside the stadiums during those thirty-nine days. Almost three decades after an intense group stage battle, a nation at war with our country in the past several months had thoughts of pulling out at first at our World Cup, but thought twice of the once-in-a-lifetime moment of just getting to play... and they not only did Iran play on our turf, they almost had a miracle of making the knockouts had it not been for an offside in the last seconds. Sports does, indeed, transcend political boundaries to give us something so memorable in stories such as that.
In taking my analogy of comparing notable seasons of one of my favorite MTV shows in The Real World -- if World Cup '94 was the birth, the '99 Women's World Cup a baptism and various points along the journey were birthdays, then 2026 certainly marked American soccer's super sweet 16 party. The future of the sport is now all but secured thanks to this second contesting of the world's premier tournament in our soil: more overseas stars can now look to MLS as more than just the last stop on a career for club and country, thanks to it now adopting the same fall to spring calendar and our franchises can better contend in the transfer market. More companies and broadcasters can invest in this sport when they were once cynical of just how different in many ways soccer was then to Americans. Team USA has a strong future ahead in both the men's and women's national programs with a home Olympics in Los Angeles to come in two years and the 2031 Women's World Cup on American soil. And there's a whole generation of fans who became glued to that other football who, even though they might watch our own homegrown sports most of the time, they now have reason to at least tune into an occasional soccer game.
If the avid fan of this most global of sports told the average American back in the mid 1980's after the fall of the NASL that soccer will one day flourish and become just as big as gridiron football, baseball, basketball, hockey or other sports... then that fan would have been out of his mind. But that same fan was looking some five decades into the future -- and look where we are. We all can thank this a most memorable summer of the greatest stars of The Beautiful Game for making that reality possible.
- I AM DC
@DC408DXTR
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