New York will come to a standstill this morning so it can once again celebrate a Knicks championship. The victory parade, which will begin near the Statue of Liberty and continue for a mile and a half to City Hall, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.
Most of them, naturally, will be New Yorkers, but the sidewalks will also be packed with thousands of wide-eyed tourists who came to the city to watch soccer and have discovered since last Saturday that the once-in-a-lifetime event they arrived for is not necessarily the World Cup.
Not that they should feel bad about it. At least in its first week, this World Cup has exceeded all expectations, partly because the bar was indeed very low. Until two days before the opening whistle, it seemed as if not a single soccer fan had crossed the ocean to come to the United States, and many Americans did not even know the World Cup was happening. Not anymore. Full stadiums, more tourists than expected, street parties and plenty of sweet encounters between locals and visitors have wrapped this World Cup in a good feeling that the United States desperately needed.
Global village
New York made a special effort for that. Were it not for the Knicks, the World Cup would have completely taken over the city this week. Even as it is, the only clothing visible in New York seems to be divided between Knicks shirts and soccer jerseys from national teams around the world. In New York, everyone is an immigrant, and as Senegal discovered the other day, no team is left without fans, even if no one came from home because it was too expensive or because they were not granted a visa.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who in less than half a year in office has seen Arsenal win a championship after 22 years and the Knicks after 53, is a real soccer fan. He made sure to set aside some low-cost tickets for city residents, organized watch parties and arranged buses to help fans get to MetLife Stadium without emptying their wallets.
New York City also released a limited edition of 1,500 shirts meant to commemorate the city’s role as a host. Simple, unbranded shirts, with only the words “New York City” printed across the chest. They originally sold for $50 and were snapped up within minutes. At least 20 have already made their way to eBay. “I waited in line for over six hours in the heat,” wrote one seller, “so keep that in mind when you send offers.” He sold the shirt for $995.
In the middle of Times Square, Fox built a special viewing cube whose entire purpose is to serve as a place for two fans who won a contest that gave them the best job in the world for the next month: sitting and watching all 104 matches for $50,000. “I quit my job,” said Kevin Acuto, a Liverpool fan from Florida who had worked as a waiter. “I found out Thursday that I won the contest and told them Friday would be my last day.”
Acuto and the second fan, Austin Franklin of Philadelphia, were chosen from thousands of applicants. They are not allowed to miss even a minute of any match and, of course, they are expected to create viral content. There are no bathrooms inside the viewing cube, and their hardest task is using the time between matches to find a hotel or restaurant that will let them pee. Since becoming famous, that is no longer a problem. Dozens of people stand outside the cube and watch them watching the match. Do not ask why.
The other evening, an American man stood there after deciding he was a fan of both Algeria and Argentina, and explained that this made perfect sense. After Lionel Messi’s second goal, he got up, thanked everyone present and said he was going to drink in order to celebrate the victory and process the defeat. He received hugs from fans of both teams and went home happy and sad.
Above expectations
After just one week, it is already clear that this is a very American World Cup. Most of the time, that is charming, and sometimes it is unbearable. It is nice to see the biggest stadiums in the world completely full. The United States has about 80 stadiums with more than 60,000 seats. All of Europe has around 45. Some of these stadiums were built for American football, and not all of them have made the transition gracefully to the round-ball version, but that is a small price to pay for the spectacular images of giant arenas packed to the brim in every color of the rainbow. In Tuesday’s match between France and Senegal at MetLife, there were more than 80,000 spectators, the overwhelming majority of them France fans. They did not march to the stadium, because no one marches to MetLife, but they filled every corner and painted the stands blue.
The most controversial issue is the ridiculous invention of “hydration breaks,” which has turned soccer into a game of four quarters. When the first break arrived, sweeping boos could be heard throughout MetLife. It is such a bluntly capitalist idea that one has no choice but to respect the cynical mind that invented a “hydration break” in order to add three minutes of commercials. The nonstop entertainment for fans before the match and during breaks is another very American thing, as is the deafening music in a stadium sound system built for some of the biggest rock concerts in the world. On the other hand, there is no escaping the smell of hot dogs coming from the concession stands, and if that is not an American sports-viewing experience, then what is?
Another conclusion already possible is that this World Cup is allowing Americans to feel good about themselves for the first time in a very long while. There is no bigger viral hit than clips of soccer tourists visiting the United States for the first time and discovering pieces of Americana: the wonders of coffee and soda refills, giant malls, monstrous sandwiches and Chipotle. They dance with police officers in Boston, get excited about enormous lizards in Florida and repeatedly marvel at how “this car is so big.” In each such video, the tourists describe how everyone is nice to them, happy to help with every request and willing to invite Japanese fans to a barbecue in Texas.
These clips have managed to sweeten, at least a little, the awful headlines that preceded the World Cup, mostly about players and referees, all Black, who were denied entry visas to the United States. “All the stories that appeared in the media are true,” said Jeroen Boersma, who came from the Netherlands, “but only when you get here do you also see the other side, the beauty of the American people.”
And the Americans really are moved. “Watching these clips is just beautiful,” an American TikTok user said through tears. “They restore our faith in ourselves. I saw a video of tourists crossing the country to watch matches, and one of them said, ‘If you want to hate America, watch the news, but if you want to love it, drive across it.’ After so many years of political chaos and international mockery, seeing the whole world come here and discover who we really are feels different.”