The day after Belgium knocked the United States out of the 2026 World Cup, the post-mortems began. There were the tired snickers, the familiar quip that soccer is "the sport of the future and always will be," and the usual banter about how America's men can't compete because our best athletes are claimed by more established sports, or because our flawed "pay to play" youth system doesn't develop talented players whose families can't afford access to pro academies.
This is all outdated nonsense. It's time to get a grip and change the way we understand and talk about America's relationship with global football. This 2026 Fifa men's World Cup has showcased how integrated America now is in the global sporting community and, conversely, how integrated the world's sport has already become in American life.
This has been the gradual achievement, dating back at least to the first 1994 men's World Cup, of three distinct protagonists who've pulled the world's pop culture superpower and its top sport closer together: immigrants, girls and women who took up the game post-Title IX, and US-based companies whose global aspirations required them to embrace a sport with global reach. (That list includes Coca-Cola, McDonald's, EA Sports, Nike, Apple TV and the owners of the LA Rams and LA Dodgers who have each acquired an English Premier League club.)
