Special to WorldTribune.com

By John J. Metzler, July 2, 2026 250 Years of Freedom — 9

There’s a perfect nexus of sport, celebration and patriotism throughout the USA this summer as the FIFA World Cup, the countdown to the American 250th Birthday celebrations, and the 4th of July Independence Day holiday have converged into a memorable national gala.

The World Cup venue has not been on American shores for a generation; not since 1994, when the audience appeal and knowledge of the “beautiful game” was about as rudimentary as people’s understanding of the then-infant world wide web on the internet!

Nonetheless, the future seeds of Soccer, or Football as most of the world calls it, were planted in very fertile soil across America. Today, Team USA is a serious contender.

This year the Swiss-based FIFA governing body is hosting the World Cup primarily in the USA but also in Canada and Mexico, a perfect North American sports trifecta, between June 11th to July 19th.

The World Cup Final will be played at New York/New Jersey Stadium, just outside New York City, where President Donald Trump will partake in the awards ceremony.

Besides key venues in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco, many other cities are sharing the soccer extravaganza such as Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, and Houston. Canada hosts matches in Toronto and Vancouver, and Mexico in Monterrey and Mexico City.

The 48 participating national teams include the traditional powerhouses such as Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Then there are many mid-level teams such as Austria, Bosnia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Senegal, South Korea, and Turkey.

This World Cup has hosted the largest number of African teams ever, Algeria, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Morocco, South Africa, and aforementioned Senegal!

Surprising additions making the cut this tournament were Curacao, from the Dutch Caribbean and Cape Verde, the West African island nation, a crowd fun-favorite. The 48 teams were put into 12 brackets which have now been culled down to 32 serious contenders, 16 by the end of Friday’s games.

We now have entered the hazardous knockout stages; win or go home.

The tournament has created tumultuous surprises. Germany and the Netherlands unexpectedly fell to Paraguay and Morocco. England and Belgium battled on to win tight taught matches. But the amazing victory of Team USA over Bosnia, 2-0, set a new sporting standard and hurdle for the motivated American players.

Fans are enchanted with the USA too as a host country.

Beyond the obvious, it reflects that fact that much if not most of the West European media have presented a vision of America as a dystopian place of strife, discord and chaos. But visitors from Britain, France and Germany seem charmed by American friendliness, openness, and hospitality.

And yes, they love large food portions and air-conditioned venues. Given that European visitors, well aware of the terrible heat waves hitting most of their home continent parallel to the tournament, are decidedly impressed with ubiquitous air-conditioning throughout the U.S.

Even a BBC report conceded, “Some travelers were so struck by Costco and Walmart, that they declared, ‘I’m in love with America.’ ”

As for Football nationalism, witness Scotland’s Tartan Army, the Norwegian Rowing Wave, the Netherlands Orange, and emotional cheers of fans from France, to Colombia, Argentina in near rapture as their teams play.

As British commentators often say, “The lads are playing for club and country.”

Lest anyone say nationalism is dead, experience the unifying exuberance of Team USA, the camaraderie of English fans, the solidarity of Germany’s fanbase, and euphoria of Argentinians as the tournament continues. Listen to fans sing their national anthems often with a rousing glee of proud defiance. Watch the flags and costuming in national colors for fans.

Think of the trials by the cauldron of conflict not to mention sporting prowess some of these teams went through historically as nations a generation ago before arriving at this sporting pinnacle such as Bosnia and Croatia.

Every four years the world comes together for the FIFA World Cup, the pinnacle of soccer excellence and passion. And yes, the World Cup is about diplomacy too. Your country being selected as a venue, participating with your best foot forward, and showing a global audience that you are a power player. This is about American soft-power extraordinaire.

Now the World Cup matches get really serious. Amazingly, Cape Verde’s magical run has brought them to a face-off with powerhouse Argentina! Team USA beat Bosnia and advances to the next level!

A fortuitous combination of extraordinary talent, luck and passion often decides winners in the global game.

John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism the Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China (2014). [See pre-2011 Archives]

  World Cup Soccer showcases USA