America’s diversity has made it the perfect World Cup host

Bullet point summary by AI

• The World Cup in the United States has showcased the nation’s diverse fan base and passionate soccer support.
• Fans from countless cultural backgrounds united in stadiums, proving America’s ability to host a truly global event.
• Despite visa issues affecting international attendees, the American people’s enthusiasm continues to make this World Cup a triumph.

They say Americans don’t care about soccer. I beg to differ. Granted, I’ve always begged to differ on that. But after attending a World Cup match on U.S. soil, my begs to differ could lift me to the moon.

I’m a wake-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn-to-watch-games-while-double-fisting-a-coffee-and-cider Liverpool fan. I’ve seen how soccer-crazy my fellow countrymen can be. I’ve flung myself into the arms of a stranger at seven o’clock in the morning, cheering a go-ahead goal in a dimly lit pub packed to the gills with Americans singing British drinking songs. I’ve marched with hundreds of others wearing red kits down the middle of the street in a parade to Yankee Stadium for a summertime friendly. I’ve shed tears, despondent and joyous, over this sport. And I’ve never walked alone.

When I went to not-Sofi Stadium for Monday’s group stage game between Iran and New Zealand, I had no emotional investment in either side. I could name one player on each team, and neither mattered much to me beyond their usefulness in EAFC 26. Yet it was one of the most emotionally satisfying sporting experiences of my life.

The roar of that crowd was deafening. The atmosphere in the stadium was magical. There was an energy in the air that I can’t describe. The closest I can compare it to is being on the peak of Mount San Jacinto (an apt comparison considering our seats were in the second-to-last row) and looking out at the vastness of the world below. San Jacinto is where I learned the true meaning of awe-inspiring. That’s the feeling I encountered on Monday night in the presence of 70,000 fans at a World Cup match.

The World Cup is bringing out the best in America

Soccer may not be the No. 1 sport in the United States, but the people who love the sport are as passionate as any others. And there are more of them than many across the country and world would admit before the World Cup landed on our shores. Viewership for the 2022 World Cup final hit 25.8 million in the U.S. That’s more than the 22 million who tuned in for the college football national title game that same year. Football is still king in America, but fútbol isn’t some forgotten stepchild. This World Cup is proving that, four times a day, every day.

The World Cup is everything that’s great about soccer, and the World Cup in the United States has heightened everything that’s great about this country.

It’s been awesome to see overseas fans like the viral German Freddy experience America with fresh eyes, appreciating all the things we take for granted. It’s been magical watching the Tartan Army of Scotland take over a Boston Red Sox game and people from the Netherlands gather en masse in Dallas. Cape Verde’s triumphant draw over Spain was a moment for underdogs everywhere. But my World Cup experience in Los Angeles didn’t actually involve many foreigners. The vast majority of people at the stadium on Monday, by my estimation, were Americans. Americans who cared a whole lot about soccer.

I’ve lived in Los Angeles my whole life. It’s a multicultural mosaic. It’s never been more beautiful to me than on Monday. The game was between Iran and New Zealand. The Iranian diaspora, a significant portion of which settled in L.A., accounted for the majority of the crowd. There was a solid smattering of New Zealand representation. More than anything though, the crowd was a hodgepodge of literally every other community you could think of. 

I, a Spanish-Mexican-American, sat next to my German-Mexican-American husband. The people behind us were white. The people to our left were Latino. The people to our right were Asian. I saw people repping U.S.A, Mexico, England, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Colombia, Sweden, Uruguay, Canada and France. There were club shirts from around the world, including the most random from what appeared to be a Mongolian Premier League team.

The cultural backgrounds were different. The goal of the evening was the same: Celebrate the World Cup. Celebrate the sport of soccer.

The crowds at World Cup games are proving that America was the perfect choice to host the World Cup. It’s not just about the infrastructure, which could host the tournament four times simultaneously and not break a sweat. It’s about the melting pot with enclaves of cultures all around the world already living here and just waiting to be activated on a national stage.

This isn’t just a Los Angeles experience. Just look at Lawrence, Kansas and the Algerian national team. Cities all over the country have welcomed the world to their doorsteps.

Politics divide but the World Cup unites

Of course, the political underpinnings of this game were significant. The U.S. and Iran were literally at war until a peace deal was struck just days before kickoff. Iranian-Americans have a complex relationship with the country of their heritage. They are proud to be Iranian. They are not proud of the regime currently in control, one that has murdered countless protestors whose only sin was expressing the freedom of speech we in America often take for granted. The atmosphere could have been tense. Instead, it was electric. Because regardless of the politics, personal and national, the thing that mattered most inside the walls of the stadium was what happened on the pitch.

What happened on the pitch was a neutral’s dream. Four goals. Good ones. Back and forth. Two teams that came to play, both chasing three points instead of sitting back and cowering. For 90 minutes, everyone in that stadium got to set their worries aside. They got to enjoy Chris Wood’s movement, Ramin Rezaeian’s heroics, and all the shots and passes and dribbles and saves and tackles.

Unfortunately, the World Cup at large can’t just be about the games. Economics and politics are always a factor. It would be naive to say otherwise. So I’ll say this again with some added nuance: The American people are the perfect hosts for the World Cup. The current United States government, however, is not. Fans around the world couldn’t get visas to come see their team play. A Somali referee was barred entry. Visa issues forced the Iranian national team to bus back to their home base in Tijuana two hours after the final whistle. Frankly, these issues are a disgrace that’s counter to the American spirit, the one that’s resulting in an embrace of the World Cup around the country.

The disconnect between a people and their government wasn’t enough to dissuade thousands of Iranian-Americans from turning up in Los Angeles to cheer on their team in earnest. It won’t stop this World Cup from being a triumph for the American people.

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