DC Summer of Sports: The Summer We Fell in Love with Soccer

Thoughts From The Editor...

BY DC CUEVA      

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All Pictures: Me

For so very long since my days in elementary school, sports has been in my blood... whether it's those spending time with my late dad watching games on TV with him, going to games in person across the major sports to watch our favorite teams, or in the past two years taking the train up to fan festivals surrounding two of our country's biggest annual sports events. But perhaps the most avid part of my own personal sports fandom doesn't even involve rooting on the Warriors, 49ers or any Bay Area sports team... but something even bigger than just regional loyalties that are at the root of our sports culture.

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.

Summer of Sports: What's This Soccer Speak?!

BY DC CUEVA

> @DC408dxtr / @DC408dxnow

The Summer of Sports rolls on, and after both a compelling NBA Finals and Stanley Cup, the focus shifts to baseball, major championship golf, Wimbledon which begins next week, the wheeling and dealing of free agency, and most especially the sport that's referred to worldwide as football, but commonly called in this country, soccer. The FIFA Women's World Cup begins its quarterfinal phase this weekend, while the COMEBOL Copa America tournament continues down in Chile, and the young men from Serbia bask in their FIFA U-20 World Cup upset win over Brazil.

   Soccer has grown leaps and bounds in mainstream exposure here in the United States, and of course, it was last year's FIFA World Cup in Brazil that had something to do with that. The sport is more popular than ever in anglophone America, in addition to the traditional hotbed of Hispanics and those migrants who brought this game to our shores. Those who avidly follow the beautiful game know that there's a dictionary all it's own when it comes to following the sport that, outside of the U.S., Canada and Australia, is referred to worldwide as football.

   For sports fans like me, there's a lot of words, lingo and jargon we use in following, covering and watching the sports we love. We use it everyday when we talk about the players, teams and events, and often it sticks out so much it even applies to everyday life as well. It might be a bit complicated for those outside of the hardcore soccer fanbase to find out what the lingo of a game growing in interest in this country at first, but when you get the hang of it, you'll catch on to the unique glossary of the world game. After the jump, DCBLOG brings you a sampling of the words that's used in the world of soccer.