Posted on 06/18/2026 5:36:27 PM PDT by DoodleBob
In the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted primarily in the United States along with Mexico and Canada, there was widespread criticism from many European fans.
Concern that the Trump administration's immigration policies would somehow impact fans' ability to enter the country. Complaints that the host stadiums, places like Los Angeles Stadium, Boston Stadium or Seattle Stadium would somehow prove unworthy of hosting World Cup matches.
Those concerns and complaints have proven to be wildly unfounded.
The atmosphere in Los Angeles for the U.S. Men's National Team opening match win over Paraguay was widely praised. To the point where even non-American commentators Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimović were emotionally moved by the performances and crowd. Other stadiums have created equally impressive scenes, with Brazil-Morocco at New York-New Jersey Stadium one of the prime examples.
Then there's Boston.
The entire New England region has been taken over by fans of the Scotland national football team, more commonly known as the Tartan Army. The Scottish national anthem echoed around Boston Stadium ahead of their opening match against Haiti. Then they won 1-0, putting fans in an even better mood.
But the Scots visiting the Boston area aren't just bringing their passion and energy to soccer. On Sunday night, the Red Sox hosted Scottish Heritage Night at Fenway Park, giving away specially themed Tartan jerseys for the occasion. And boy oh boy, did the Tartan Army show up.
Before the game, fans were performing traditional Scottish music, marching down to the stadium en masse.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I still don’t like soccer.
But I was in Boston this past week.
I haven’t seen such a display like this of cultural exchange, brotherhood, joy, and friendship in a LONG time. Even the cops were chill.
I can’t tell who’s happier: the foreigners or Americans.
I pray that the empirical realization that we are different but not (always) foes, and that it’s the media and WEF et al bringing enmity between us lives beyond the games.
They couldn’t be happier than to be away from Kier Starmer and the United King dumb.
Boston pubs have had to get emergency beer & alcohol shipments sent in, after the Scots drank the city dry
Good thing they re-stocked, Scotland plays again tomorrow, in Boston!
“Complaints that the host stadiums, places like Los Angeles Stadium, Boston Stadium or Seattle Stadium would somehow prove unworthy of hosting World Cup matches.”
Attitude is one thing. Having an area that can handle the influx of people is different. I live just south of Seattle and they will not be able to handle the traffic, parking, lack of food facilities, and lack of hotel/motel capacity. And the competitors will have to be chaperoned continually as crime and filth is everywhere in Seattle. Good luck with this.
wy69
Yeah the games themselves would be tedious to watch but hanging and partying with some of these fan bases would be fun as hell.
And some of the Latino and Scandinavian groupies are nice eye candy too.
I told my wife tonight that I’m surprised there hasn’t been at least one serious incident.
At least none that I’ve heard of
Had to be this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJACPfUU3nk
Multiple arrests made during England’s World Cup win in Dallas
Six people were arrested during England’s 4-2 World Cup win against Croatia, with one arrest made for criminal trespass, police have confirmed.
Arlington Police Department reported that officers also responded to two separate fight incidents inside the AT&T Stadium on Wednesday, though neither resulted in any arrests.
Among those taken into custody at the stadium, three faced charges for drugs offences, one for public intoxication, and another for trademark counterfeiting involving goods valued between £1,889 and £22,679.
The force clarified that none of the arrested individuals were British nationals.
Meanwhile, at the nearby Texas Live sports bar, England supporters turned out in significant numbers, consuming a staggering 45,349 pints of beer.
Meanwhile, at the nearby Texas Live sports bar, England supporters turned out in significant numbers, consuming a staggering 45,349 pints of beer.
“The cheats that they are!”
I was hoping Poland would have qualified, I wanted to go to one of their games.
It’s also a shame the Italians didn’t qualify.
Ahnd he iz deed.
LOL, I need to check on his WC videos.
Wonderful :)! Thanks for sharing!
Don’t get me wrong...I think soccer is boring, but I don’t mind at all people from all over the world coming here and finding out we aren’t the fork-tailed devils many of them like to think we are, or at least, are told we are by our media and their own.
I have always fundamentally felt average Americans are generally decent people, and it is good to see it displayed.
Despite the impression of a lot of people here that soccer is a ‘liberal’ sport, most of the fans from these countries are patriotic and more or less conservative, compared to their governments.
More power to them. I appreciate their Nationalism.
Damn!, I love the World Cup!
At least spell his name correctly.
Forgive me for this long reply, but your question did make me consider why, after a life of playing and following sports, I rarely watch them, and...being older, I no longer play them. But your post made me think about sports, something I rarely think of these days.
I never liked soccer, even as a kid playing it, I hated it. I was not made for soccer. I was made for a sport that did not require endurance. I was a short term physical burst physique where strength made a bigger impact than speed did. I remember being forced to play soccer in gym, wearing the stupid required “gym clothes” that were imposed on us which I recall my parents had to buy. I was a slow, uncoordinated runner, and gym class where we played that for a whole hour on some days, was like grinding torture. I remember doing it when wearing only those shorts and t-shirt, but it was cold enough early on a school day and the grass was still frozen and crunchy as you walked on it. I wasn’t a fan of being involuntarily cold (even then) and I didn’t like it.
Funny-I don’t think soccer is a “liberal” sport myself-that connection never wholly was made by me...although I suspect that in my subconscious-it did.
For example, dislike the appellation “Soccer Mom” because it does seem to make that liberal connection in some way, I suppose. I just hate the phrase because it DOES seem like it is AWFULs who immerse their kids in the sport.
I just think soccer is boring. That said, I also think baseball is boring. I would rather watch golfing than baseball.
Oddly, I am occasionally “coerced” into watching golf, which I always thought was the most boring “sport” of all to watch, and on television...it is actually kind of interesting and appeals to me, even if I don’t play.
I guess that is because they have added all kinds of things to the visuals and changed the game in some respects.
I watched my first basketball game in about 20 years, one of the Knicks-Spurs games (visiting with a friend who watches all sports) and I could appreciate the physical ability of some of the players, but it definitely is missing something for me, still.
I have often noted the similarity between hockey (which I love) and soccer in some respects, but soccer is just too big and slow paced. Hockey can be quite fast, and while hockey does have its players who take dives...every sport has them.
And I do think soccer is a great sport for kids...conditioning and all. Anything that makes them run and move.
My first and favorite sport that I loved and followed as a kid was baseball. Being a military brat, we didn’t go to schools that had a sport like football, but all of them had baseball, and I grew to love it and followed professional baseball. I remember in 1968, being grilled by US Marines who pulled me aside at the Main Gate in Yokosuka, Japan (In retrospect, they were bored and were messing with me-my dad was their boss at the time (He was a Naval Officer in charge of Base Security, but I never made that connection.) where they took me into a little shack with a metal chair in it, and asked if I was a spy, and how would they know if I wasn’t...they asked me who won the World Series that year, and I knew it was the St. Louis Cardinals, because Lou Brock was my favorite player in baseball. But alas, while I could field decently and threw competently, I was an utter failure at batting, so I rode the bench a lot, longing to get it. I would occasionally get to play in right field for a few innings, and get maybe one attempt at batting. I was uncoordinated, slow, with bad eyesight, none of those things improving hitting in any way.
I discovered hockey in high school when my dad retired and moved to New England where he grew up. All my new friends played street hockey, and they always needed a goalie, so...I became a goalie. I was decent at it because I had a relatively high tolerance for pain, and would stubbornly refuse to give up, and my coordination was improving.
And they needed a goalie. I ended up playing in men’s leagues for the next fifteen years or so, because...everyone needed a goalie!
Sigh. My favorite sport my whole life was NFL football, and with their BS politics, I cannot enjoy it anymore. I try. The game is a social lubricant for me, and I can meet people I like and do something together, but I don’t have the fire in me for it, which I had for about the last fifty years or so as a fanatical fan, sometimes to my detriment.
I always felt that NFL football was geared, in some way, to the American frame of mind. It was warfare off the battlefield. Offense. Defense. Bombs. Blitzes. Each play run was like a battle in a larger war of a game and a season. There was mayhem. Mistakes. Triumphs. And occasionally, real blood. There was honest to goodness real strategy that I could grasp.
There is the intense game planning, how to approach a given opponent, much as the military would do. The “game planning” for each new opponent was like generals planning a large campaign, like an amphibious assault. The coaches spent a great time looking at each upcoming opponent, trying to find ways to attack and defend, both maximizing their own strengths and minimizing their weaknesses, and plotting just how to avoid or neutralize their enemies strengths while, at the same time, attacking and exploiting their enemies’ deficiencies. Like the military, each team had its doctrine that it followed. Each team had its tactics that it used. (Doctrine and Tactics being distinctly different things)
All that is nothing wholly unique to “American Football”. All other sports have it. But American Football seems to be a sport directly derived from actual warfare to me, which is its attraction. It
But I suppose the thing that appealed to me most was the intensity of each play during the game where .
I suppose that is good, but I miss feeling that moved by the sport. I haven’t watched television for going on thirty years now, so I don’t watch much else in the way of sports.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.