Editorial of July 2, 2026

Beyond the World Cup

It’s July. It’s hot, humid, sunny, rainy, green, noisy, busy, crowded—and not particularly relaxing. It’s also the beginning, this week, of the round of 32—the knockout round—of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, whose 48 teams have been duking it out in brilliant form on soccer pitches across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.—three in Mexico; two in Canada; 11 in the U.S.—since June 11.

In the early stage of the great contest, the group stage, these 48 teams were divided into 12 groups of four to play round-robin matches. Each team played three games—giving their fans 144 games to watch over a period of two weeks and two days—for the most part, four games a day. That’s a healthy amount of soccer. The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams then advanced to the 32-team knockout round, sending 16 teams back home. This is where we are now, and will be until the World Cup final, in New York, on July 19 (right in the middle of the highly popular and universally televised Tour de France). No time to watch any news.

Each FIFA World Cup team is entitled to bring 23 to 26 players, plus up to nine more to fill in for training. Eleven staff members—manager, coaches, trainers, physiotherapist, and the required team doctor—are allowed on the bench at a game, although more staff might be sitting in the background. So, in fact, each team might bring as many as 50 players and staff to the World Cup, where they camp out in a variety of chosen towns and cities in the three host countries for at least the early two-week stage and its preliminary training period. That’s a sizable number of people to house, feed, nurture, amuse and, wonder of wonders, support.

But all of this has, happily, happened. The visiting teams and their retinues each chose towns and cities to live and train in—25 such places are being used as base camps—as they await their games, which are being played at 16 stadiums. The group stage stadiums must have a capacity of at least 40,000; the knock-out round stadiums must seat 60,000; and the finals and opening ceremony stadiums must seat 80,000. Many have been brought up to speed with natural grass, having undergone multi-million-dollar sod installations. The teams, then, live and train in their host metropolises, traveling to and from their games.

While the entire process of the World Cup has been, so far, astonishing and exciting to watch, the little-known, and little-discussed, activities that have been going on behind the scenes are even more enlightening. In Lawrence, Kansas, the Algerian team was met with Algerian flags decorating storefronts, green jerseys decorating citizens, and a welcoming surge. The University of Kansas marching band learned the Algerian national anthem and then played it as the team came out for practice. In return, the Algerians opened a training session to their American hosts and walked the neighborhood kids through drills and plays, signing autographs and posing for pictures. There was a street festival in Alexandria, Virginia, with Croatian food and music. Boston, although not hosting Scotland, did host their multitude of fans, running out of Sam Adams beer but not their good cheer. Everyone had a raucously good time. And every host town has a story to tell.

So, what is happening here? Is the U.S. population over being convinced that the rest of the world’s population is a threat? Are we, or part of us, once again able to see a person instead of a problem? We can only hope these gestures will expand beyond the World Cup and include us all.