USMNT World Cup buzz is turning casual soccer fans into believers

USMNT World Cup buzz is turning casual soccer fans into believers

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America has Monday Night Football to watch in mid-July. Only this time, there are no helmets.

Tonight, the US men’s national team will face Belgium in the first World Cup qualifier, a quarterfinal spot and a team the country wants to chase.

This is not the norm, at least in the US For decades, soccer in the United States has been considered the next big thing that never ends. The World Cup arrives, the average fan listens, the conversation goes on for a few weeks, and then the country usually returns to its usual rotation of soccer, basketball, baseball, or whatever scandal the managers are talking about.

But this tournament was different. The US opener against Paraguay drew an average audience of 18 million on Fox’s social networks and another 7 million tuned in on Spanish-language Telemundo. FIFA also said attendance exceeded 3.6 million in the first two weeks of the tournament, breaking the record set in 1994, the last time America hosted the men’s World Cup. So if soccer was trying to prove it’s place in the American sports conversation, this tournament makes a strong case.

Part of the buzz comes down to logistics. The games are played in American zones and American time zones, meaning the American team isn’t asking regular fans to wake up at 5 a.m. or schedule their entire day for a game halfway around the world. The first time game is an easy sell. It can be watched in bars, at home, in group chats, after work — the way Americans already watch major sporting events.

Part of it is time. The US has reached this stage during a summer already wrapped in red, white, and blue, as the country celebrates its 250th birthday and host cities turn World Cup games into what looks like an extended Fourth of July weekend. Across the country, the scene was hard to miss: packed fan bases, pop-up stores selling soccer gear, viewing parties in parks, malls, and museums, and US fans showing up in jerseys, flags, and face paint.

There’s also the fact that the American team gave people a reason to keep watching.

Striker Folarin Balogun was at the center of that, giving the US the kind of scoring threat it hasn’t always had at the World Cup stage. But the whole program is one of the clearest examples yet of what American football looks like, from Christian Pulisic to Chris Richards and Weston McKennie.

Also, players like Tim Weah, Sergiño Dest, Malik Tillman, and others show the US system made up of several pipelines at the same time: players developed abroad, players connected to immigrant families, players who qualify for multiple national teams, and players who have made soccer for European teams, MLS schools, and the American youth system. Many would stand for other countries and choose the United States instead. For casual fans, that makes the team easy to get behind.

And then there’s the contradiction, because nothing draws Americans to sports faster than a good scandal.

During the US team’s 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Balogun was sent off after a VAR review for a challenge on defender Tarik Muharemović. The red card initially meant he would miss the Belgium game, knocking the US’s leading scorer out of his biggest game of the tournament. Then after a conversation between Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, FIFA changed course.

The red card itself was not rescinded, but FIFA suspended Balogun’s one-match suspension, freeing him to play in the round of 16. This decision was taken after Trump called the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and asked for the game to be reviewed, saying on Monday that he did not think it was bad. The decision, although controversial, has sparked debate online.

The betting market is moving, too. Sportsbooks saw unusually strong activity for US games, with games featuring the USMNT drawing more action than other World Cup games on the same day. Betting volume doesn’t indicate long-term popularity, but it does show that the US team has moved from behind-the-scenes programs to something people actively track as part of the broader American sports calendar.

However, the increase in interest in sports did not start with this game, not even the World Cup in general. A Nielsen study found that soccer fans in North America have grown 10.9 percent over the past five years to more than 136 million people. The US now has the fourth largest group of soccer fans in the world, with 62.5 million fans, according to the same report. The tournament certainly helps, with nearly seven in ten North American fans saying their passion for the game has increased over the past three years as the World Cup approaches, and 64 percent expect their interest to grow.

Locally, youth football clubs have reported new registrations and renewed interest from families during the tournament. In Houston, HTX Soccer said hundreds of kids have signed up in recent weeks, a jump for the club linked to World Cup excitement. In Florida, the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team used watch parties and youth outreach programs to turn World Cup attention into something lasting.

That still doesn’t mean that football has overtaken soccer, basketball, or baseball in the US. But it means that this world cup has come at a time when the game is already booming. Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami also helped propel MLS to the top, creating the celebrity and global attention David Beckham has been cultivating since becoming one of the club’s owners. MLS has grown to 30 teams across the US and Canada. Broadcasting of the Premier League and La Liga has helped make the US the largest foreign market for several of Europe’s major leagues. Streaming, social media, FIFA video games, and shows like Ted Lasso again Welcome to Wrexham they made this show familiar to an American audience that didn’t grow up watching it.

For once, the question about soccer in the United States is not whether people can be influenced to care. It sounds like many of them already do.

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