Sports: The Grassy, Gory Glory Of World Cup 2026

0:00This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees, and free perks, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mint mobile. dot com slash switch. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details.

0:25Where's ball towards McKinney? We're continuing the run down the right side. Options in the middle. Balogun is one of them. It's Balogun!

0:36Balogun gets his goal! That was U.S. men's national team forward Fulurin Baligan scoring the winning goal against Senegal in a friendly match that took place on May 31st. Both teams were preparing to play on the biggest stage in international football. But for the U.S., the pressure was on just a little bit more. That's because the biggest sports tournament in the world is returning to North America for the first time in 32 years. And the soccer, or football as most call it, frenzy, is gripping fans. The 2026 FIFA World Cup officially begins tomorrow as Mexico takes on South Africa in the tournament's opening match.

1:15This year's three host nations are Canada, the United States, and Mexico. But it's not all flags and fervor. Like any international event, this competition has been a challenge. Ticket prices, transportation costs, and geopolitical conflicts have frustrated fans and foreign soccer federations alike. I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A Podcast. Today, what does World Cup 2026 in all its gory, grassy glory have in store? We'll get the answers to that question and more after this short break. Stay with us.

1:50This message comes from Better Health. Summer can feel like a sprint. Kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down. It's easy to slip into survival mode, just trying to get through it. Then suddenly, it's over, and you're wishing you enjoyed the days just a little bit more. Therapy can help you slow down and actually be present for the moments that matter. With BetterHelp, you can connect with a licensed therapist from anywhere, on your schedule. Don't just survive the summer. Thrive. Visit BetterHelp.com slash NPR. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Carvana. Your time is worth more than a waiting game.

2:28Carvana gives you a transparent offer for your car in minutes and picks it up from your door. Sell your car today at Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. This message comes from ZipRecruiter. Finding great candidates to hire can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Unless you use ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. That's why four out of five employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash zip. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash zip.

3:09This is Eric Glass. On This American Life, one thing we like is a good mystery. Sometimes about really big things, but most times, the little mysteries are the best. Our lost and found is currently filled with pants. I don't know. I've never seen this happen. Is this true? This is true. Mysteries of every size, each week, This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from NPR sponsor, the NPR Wine Club, a place to find boutique wines from around the world and bottles inspired by popular NPR shows, as well as to explore the producers, regions, and exciting stories that bring each selection to life.

3:49Whether you buy a few bottles or join the club, all purchases support NPR programming and help fund quality reporting. You can learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. Let's kick off our conversation about the 2026 World Cup and meet our guests. Joining us from Los Angeles is Jeff Reuter. He's the Guardian's soccer correspondent. Jeff, welcome to 1A. Thank you for having me. Also with us is Kavitha Davidson. She's a sports journalist and the co-author of Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back, Dilemmas of the Modern Fan.

4:25Kavitha, welcome back to the program. Thanks for having me on. And we want to hear from you. What are your favorite World Cup memories? And are you going to any of the games this year? When and where? And of course, who are you rooting for? Email us at 1a at wamu.org. Now, in 2018, just before the World Cup in Russia, representatives from Morocco sat across from their counterparts from the United States, Canada and Mexico at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow. Both parties had submitted bids to host the 2026 Men's World Cup. So we have a winner for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The member associations of Canada, Mexico and USA have been selected by the FIFA Congress to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

5:14Thank you. Organizing a major international sporting tournament is a major undertaking. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico have had eight years to prepare. Jeff, how have they done? Well, it's funny. You listen back to that's the president of FIFA, Johnny Infantino, awarding it. And indeed, it's alphabetical, right? Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Well, in reality, I think a lot of the world thinks this is the United States' World Cup just by how front and center the United States has been. Part of that is where the games were awarded. So the semifinals and the finals will solely be played in the United States in American venues.

5:49But by and large, Canada and Mexico have not had as much of an impact on maybe, let's say, like kind of the soft powers or the feeling around this tournament. This has become very much in the custom of the modern American economy, which is to say dynamic pricing models for tickets and expansive sprawl geographically, difficulty with transportation. So it's become a logistical difficulty, we will say. And so I think that they've done their best. But in reality, a lot of these World Cups, you're in closer quarters, so it's easier to coordinate. You know, if you have games in Berlin, you can talk to Dusseldorf and you can see, okay, what do we want to do and figure out how to make the 2006 World Cup in Germany feel holistic.

6:32And it's just been very difficult to find that sort of massive continuity across the entirety of the continent of North America. Well, Jeff mentions dynamic pricing for tickets. And listen, getting tickets for this tournament is always tough, but it does feel different this time. As of last week, tickets for the Mexico versus South Africa opener were still on sale for over$2 ,200. Kavitha, soccer is kind of thought of as a working person's sport. What's going on with these prices? Yeah, soccer for players can be a working person's sport. It's one of the reasons it's the most popular sport in the world.

7:08But as Jeff mentioned, the dynamic pricing of these tickets has been a little out of control. and it is kind of out of custom with what we're used to seeing. The United States is the only developed nation that doesn't have significant regulation on third-party ticket sailors. And the dynamic pricing, it's not just dynamic pricing, I'll have to point out. There's also, they're using AI to determine price tolerance. So one fan could be getting a different price point than another fan, depending on how they've determined that fan is willing to spend. And that's one of the reasons that we're seeing the prices as they are.

7:43Now, the third-party ticket sellers, that's also a huge problem here because what we have are resale bots essentially signing into presales, scooping up tickets within minutes of them going on sale, and then putting them back on the secondary market for these exorbitant prices. So what you end up seeing is fans of a certain level of wealth who can afford to not just travel, as Jeff said, across the three nations, but can afford the ticket prices as they are. Well, Jeff, what does this mean for attendance at the World Cup? You are still seeing tickets available for some marquee games, including, for example, the United States' own opening game of the tournament, which is being held in two days' time in Los Angeles against Paraguay.

8:24the reality is it is prohibitive for a large number of people who would otherwise love to go to a world cup historically there has been a portion of tickets that's called category four which has been reserved for residents of the host nations and very famously or infamous me depending how you want to slant it it was something that vladimir putin utilized to make it as cheap as possible for russians to go and support in 2018 and created these uh you know very loud atmospheres that made russia one of the most difficult teams to play against in the field despite not being anywhere close to the top four or eight teams in contention as they made it to the quarterfinals.

8:57So in a way, it's actually hurting the ability for the men's national teams of Canada, Mexico, and the United States because they won't be able to have, so to speak, the diehards. It might feel more like a Super Bowl atmosphere if you're more familiar with American football where you watch games between the Eagles and their opponents in Philadelphia, and there's this raucous atmosphere, but you get them into a neutral site and the tickets are the traders, whatever the case may be, who can afford them. It's a very different atmosphere around these games. And that's an unfortunate reality that I think was just going to typify a lot about the atmospheres around the 2026 World Cup at this point.

9:35Well, it's one thing to manage to get tickets for a World Cup game, but then you have to get inside the host country to actually use them. And getting into the U.S. is proving difficult. Here's legendary England attacker Ian Wright in a video post on social media. I just read that the Somalian referee has been denied entry. Every few hours, it's another story. Another story about fans denied, players denied, officials denied, journalists denied. Now, refs? You know something? I'm laughing, but it's not funny. It's actually not funny. Something has to be said. Expensive tickets, the most expensive tickets ever.

10:12Expensive accommodation, transport through the roof. Is this how the hosts behave, really? for the greatest game, the greatest tournament in the world. Is this how the hosts behave? The Somali referee Omar Arten was set to become the first person from his country to officiate matches at the World Cup. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol detained him upon arrival in Miami on Saturday and ultimately denied him entry to the U.S. FIFA released a statement saying that it, quote, is not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications, and has been informed by authorities that Mr.

10:46Arten's status will not be changed at present, end quote. Now, this referee was denied entry. Scottish fans' travel permissions were revoked. The official photographer for the Iraqi national team was denied entry. In fact, one of Iraq's vice captains was detained at O 'Hare Airport in Chicago for hours. What else are you hearing, Kavitha, about people associated with the World Cup being blocked from entering the U.S.? Yeah, obviously, the travel bans and visa denials are a huge problem now, and they affect four countries that are set to compete in these World Cups. But we're also seeing, as you mentioned, Iraq is not actually on that travel ban, and the Iraqi team photographer were also denied entry.

11:26We had 15 members of the Iranian team and staff denied entry. They had said that that's been resolved, but they also kind of faced the absurd idea of having to travel from Mexico to the U.S. to play the matches that are scheduled in the U.S. And then on top of all of that, you know, we're seeing this affect fans. The entire Iranian fan delegation has said that they were denied entry as well. So as Jeff said, there are still tickets available. We probably will not have full stadiums. And this is a real, this is a big problem and a terrible look for the U.S. as a host country. Well, Jeff, and as you said, the U.S.

12:01has really taken the lead in hosting the World Cup this year. So what are they saying about why they're making it more difficult for fans and players and referees and people associated with the World Cup to enter the country? Nothing direct. I think maybe the best way I can summarize it. It's a lot of trying to talk around the issues. Look, there was also contention because when this World Cup was awarded in 2018, Donald Trump was the president. And there may have been some assumptions that by the end of 2024, if he had been reelected for two conjoined 10 years of office, then maybe there would have been a different sort of political tenor around the United States.

12:35And obviously that has not manifested. And so FIFA had been saying that all will be allowed into the country as usual. FIFA has always ensured. For example, there was a international conference where they were having some annual meetings this spring in Vancouver. And FIFA does actually sign letters to – on the behalf of anyone who is going to attend that, journalists, dignitaries, you name it, to say, hey, they need to be in here because they are here for FIFA business, right? And that has been common custom. The idea is that when you qualify for a World Cup, when you're chosen to officiate at a World Cup, when you are told by your managing editor that you will be covering a World Cup, you're going to the World Cup.

13:11That's just – that is a moment that is so crystallized for players, referees, journalists as sort of kind of the hallmark of what you're doing if soccer is at the heart of what your job is. And so to be denying that is against FIFA's own promise and their own practices in the past. And so it is something that is going to be a stain on this tournament moving forward. And it's something that will be impossible for them to get past or talk through or to try to excuse away. Now, one team that could shock soccer fans in this competition, Austria. Here's Max Burley, head of communications at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City, on what he thinks his nation's team can achieve.

13:46For us, the World Cup isn't just a sporting event. It's a moment when the whole country stops, cafes fill up, offices go quiet, and everyone is an expert. After so many years in the wilderness, Austrian football is alive again, and now we're at the World Cup for the first time in 28 years. That alone is cause for celebration. We believe we can make it out of the group, and once you're through, football has a way of surprising everyone. Austria's back, and we intend to make some noise. More on the action on the field in just a moment. We'll be right back.

14:20This message comes from ZipRecruiter. Finding great candidates to hire can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Unless you use ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. That's why four out of five employers who post a job on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And right now, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash zip. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash zip. IP. Every episode of It's Been a Minute, NPR's What's Happening in Culture podcast starts by asking three questions. Who? How? Why now? If the culture's asking it, we're talking about it.

15:02At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious and indulge your cultural curiosity. Follow It's Been a Minute wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll break down the zeitgeisty topics that are filling your feed. This message comes from the NPR Wine Club, which has generated over$1.75 million to support NPR. Whether buying a few bottles or joining the club, learn more at nprwineclub.org slash podcast. Must be 21 or older to purchase. Let's get back into the conversation. We're previewing all things 2026 FIFA World Cup, both on and off the field. Now we reached out to folks about how they think their teams might fare.

15:45Here's press counselor at the Swedish embassy, David Lunderquist. Now in the World Cup this summer, I think Alexander Isak might make the difference for Sweden. If he quickly gets back to full speed after a few months of absence, I think he can surprise. Yes. I think Sweden will make it past the group stage, but I'm not overly optimistic about our chances after that. Okay, so not a lot of hope there from David. One team I want to make sure we do talk about is Iran. Now, Iran's national soccer team is scheduled to play in this year's World Cup. Of course, the U.S. and Israel are at war with the country.

16:28Now, the Trump administration's messaging on whether Iran is welcome to play in the World Cup has been mixed. He's also floated the idea of replacing Iran with Italy, whose storied national team failed to qualify for this year's tournament. Jeff, he says he can't guarantee the Iranian players' safety. Where does all of this stand? It is a very open question how their opening match against New Zealand in Los Angeles, what the tenor of that game will be. one of the the great shames of this is that we're unable to really acknowledge the the accomplishments of these players you know in the way that we talk about the other 47 teams that are in this tournament field iran was actually one of the two top performing nations in asia during their qualifying cycle they they were one of the first two teams to qualify for the tournament actually chronologically um along with japan and so this is a group that has been building they have been very consistently a well-performing team, difficult to play against, maybe not advancing to the knockout rounds, but a game that every opponent treats with respect because they are so well organized and because they do have some really good quality in attack.

17:34But of course, all of that is fading into the background at this point because of the situation that has been brought on by the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran. So I think that it's very difficult to know. There are so many off-field elements to this all that also include the commissioner of sport in Iran, setting sort of demands for how Iran will be treated in this tournament with respect, showing the modern flag and not past iterations, not displaying any sort of political signage that references what's going on outside of the stadium, and have threatened to withdraw from the tournament if these conditions are not met.

18:07Now, one of those conditions, of course, was that everyone who travels with Iran will get visas to be able to participate in the United States, and that was not honored. So we are already sort of on watch to see how the team will respond to that. But yeah, it is ultimately to the point now where they are playing a very different sort of tournament than every other team because of everything that's going on right now in the world around them. Well, last week, Homeland Security Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen was asked about how the U.S. is preparing for potential security threats at the World Cup. Again, this is a huge international event.

18:39He said that every agency would be present. I mean, Kavitha, how is that coloring the shape and feel of this event? Yeah, it's certainly casting an extremely dark cloud over this tournament. You know, I'm in New York, where I'm from, and just today our mayor, Zoran Mamdani, released a kit, essentially, to help New Yorkers inform them of their rights as immigrants as we prepare for ice to come into our city. I think one aspect of this that we're not talking about enough, which is, yes, absolutely, we should be concerned about ice enforcement of tourists, of people from other countries. But I'm also concerned, again, as a New Yorker, about what ice is going to do in our neighborhoods that are filled with immigrants.

19:23So I'm not just talking about the area around Penn Station or around the stadium in New Jersey. I'm talking about neighborhoods like Astoria and Corona with heavy Colombian and Ecuadorian and Venezuelan communities that I fear might be targeted by the Department of Homeland Security and by ICE. And, you know, the governor of New York and the mayor of New York have both said that they are here to protect our immigrants and our neighbors and our citizens. But that will certainly come into clash with what the federal government and what federal security plans to do. Jeff, what are you seeing and hearing in Los Angeles?

19:56A very similar sort of, look, part of this is also in Los Angeles. I'm following the United States team. So I'm actually outside of Los Angeles. A lot of the time I'm in Fullerton, I'm in Irvine, right? Which is where they're based. And I think that you're seeing a lot of communities come out and be very excited about this tournament, right? You're seeing a lot of people wearing their jerseys around shops. Yesterday I was doing some simple grocery shopping and I think I saw five or six different national team jerseys just as I was going through the produce section. And that is something that is so quintessentially World Cup.

20:25It's something where it is, you know, in the great American melting pot, you just a lot of people feel like they need to try to fit in. Right. And it's about kind of assimilation of sorts. But it's sort of this this this moment to really be front and center and proud behind your team, much like an Olympics, much like maybe an election, perhaps if you're happy with the result, you know, from your homeland. And so you're catching a lot of the enthusiasm, but I think that there is this sort of undertone of concern about what is going to manifest in and around the stadiums, how they will look at watch parties, for example, which I think would be an area that maybe would be seen as of lesser international focus and maybe easier for them to execute.

21:04I'm based in Minnesota, of course, so I still have vivid memories of living through Metro Surge. And so that is going to be something that is going to be coloring a lot of people's perceptions. And that has colored a lot of international tourists' perceptions of whether or not they should even come to the United States because of what they saw in January in Minnesota and elsewhere in other states and other cities. So it has put a damper on some of the international tourism component, which usually typifies a World Cup, just because of the pure fear of if legal residents, if citizens, birthright citizens are all being questioned about whether or not they belong to this country, why would they look the other way when it comes to somebody who is just visiting for a few weeks?

21:43Well, lots to watch off the field, but I do want to make sure we also talk about what's happening in the game itself. Starting with the U.S. team, the United States men's national team is coached by Mauricio Pochettino. He says his team's goal is to win the World Cup. Kavitha, simply put, do you think that's possible? Anything's possible in the World Cup. I think it is extremely highly unlikely. I believe the latest odds for the United States to win the World Cup were at 1.2%. I think that, you know, every soccer expert, which Jeff is much more than I am, would tell you that if, you know, especially with the expanded field right now, the realistic expectation is for the U.S.

22:23to get to the round of 16. They've got a pretty evenly matched group in the group stage. But then, you know, if they don't win Group D, if they come in second, they could face a path where they face Egypt in the second round. They could face Argentina in the round of 16 if that happens. There's so many permutations of matchups. So I think it's going to be a rough road for the United States to get to the final, let alone win the World Cup. I mean, if you're following the team, what do you think is a realistic outcome? I think the round of 16 is exactly right. That will be sort of seen as a pass-fail metric.

22:57And it is indeed the step that they reached in 2022 when the World Cup was held in Qatar. So in a sense, there's a concern about whether or not the United States needs to match or exceed what they did four years ago to be able to show that there has actually been progress within this program. The United States made a pretty dramatic decision to change coaches midway through its World Cup cycle. The coach who had led them at the last World Cup, Greg Berhalter, was dismissed after a poor tournament showing at a different competition against South American nations in 2024. And they brought in Pochettino after he had left Chelsea, one of the biggest clubs in the world that's based out of London.

23:32And it's the first time he's ever done the international job, and it took him quite some time to actually be able to learn the finer skills. You are training with national team players far less often than your club. That's basically your day job. So you work with them for 10 months of the year. And the other two months of the year are theoretically either on break or with the international team. But it's spread out in 10-day increments across an entire calendar. So it's very difficult to build that sort of requisite continuity and familiarity, especially for a coach who has never coached American players at a high level in his career before taking this job.

24:03They're finally rolling into a little bit of a rhythm. They were able to beat Senegal, which is a team that was one of the finalists in the African Cup of Nations, which was held in January and February. So that is a credible result, though. Senegal did rotate out a couple of players, as it should be said. The United States did, too. They lost to Germany 2-1, but played Germany very well. And Germany was playing very close to their first choice team that they will be playing in this World Cup. And Germany always expects to win a World Cup when they get here. So it is a lot of encouraging progress as you look at the tail end in this specific camp with this specific group now that the players do know that they are on the squad, which is such a crucial point of anxiety of whether or not you will make a tournament squad.