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Beckham?
A brief shot in the crowd of David Beckham who seems to be omnipresent at every major international tournament.
Presumably cheering on USA considering he played for LA Galaxy for a stint but maybe just there for the pay check a la Qatar.
Get ready for kick off!
We’re moments away in Los Angeles to the USA v Paraguay game kicking off.
Find out how to watch it where you are below, but stay tuned as I stay with you through the wee hours in Europe or normal time in America.
Don’t miss a second of the action here…
England has Kane, Argentina has Messi…America has Pulisic
Christian Pulisic. Not a name you’d necessarily be familiar with outside of America, or even in America outside football circles but he’s been plastered on all World Cup paraphernalia stateside.
A lot of teams seem to have a talisman. England has Kane, Argentina has Messi, and America has Pulisic. Not on equal footing at all but if the States want to get any further then the Pennsylvania player will have to give it his all.
So, with all the pressure, will the 27-year-old deliver?
Soccer, only marginally more popular than Ice Hockey in the States
Again, I cannot emphasise how little ‘soccer’ is watched in the States. American football, baseball and basketball are easily the three most popular sports in the States with soccer trailing and only a tad more popular than ice hockey in terms of viewership.
To put that in to perspective, what the Americans are doing with the World Cup now would be the equivalent of Brits deciding to get stuck into basketball. For the record, we did and the British Basketball League existed from 1987 until a few years ago when it folded.
Again, just merely putting it into perspective but let’s focus on the players and the pitch now.
The atmosphere in Los Angeles
The action tonight comes from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California and the fans are bringing their enthusiasm in droves.
Football may not be America’s first sport, or even their first ‘football’, but you sense for this few months that they, and Canada and Mexico, will embrace it as if it’s been a beloved pastime.
Hopefully the crowd will give some momentum to the team, and Paraguay too, and give us an entertaining match at the very least.
The host nations’ (realistic) chances
To put it in to perspective, the furthest the USA have got in World Cups is over two decades ago in 2002. Going out in the quarterfinals to Germany 1-0 seems a remarkable achievement for USA ‘soccer’ (yuck) men’s squad, which has always had a stronger women’s side, but they’ve not done a whole lot since then.
Likewise fellow host Mexico have only achieved quarterfinal status in 1970 and 1986. Canada have never left the group stages, and by equalising 1-1 against Bosnia and Herzegovina yesterday have achieved their greatest result in tournament history: a draw!
The stakes are very low for all three host nations but with the home crowd behind you, you really never know what will happen…
One hour until kick off!
We had Future, and then a performance of ‘Goals’ from LISA, Anitta, and Rema – a song about scoring goals and the importance of having goals, a clever double play – and now we have a 10 minute interval.
The mostly sold out crowd seem content, for now, but wait presumably for some more artists performing including Katy Perry and then some more awkward intervals between performances.
God bless America’s enthusiastic fans though. There’s not many countries’ fans who you could just put in front of a camera and get such an enthusiastic response from. Chants of U-S-A, dancing to the beat of their own drum and booing the Paraguay fans when they come on the big screen…you’ve got to love it.
The Future…does not look bright
Autotune, lacklustre performance and miming lyrics…you can tell how America views ‘soccer’.
Future starts the proceedings off with a fairly meh performance, let’s see if it can be topped…it almost certainly can.
Strap in for the Opening Ceremony
Drums aplenty as the United States finish the three – dare I say it exhaustive – Opening Ceremonies with this extravaganza.
They’ve already mentioned ‘freedom’ in the first minute, so you can cross that off your bingo card.