Ode to the World Cup

Why the World Cup will always be my favorite sporting event

Since before I even liked watching sports, the World Cup has been my favorite event/tournament/league to watch. When it was last in the USA - in 1994 - I was lucky enough to go to a game at the Rose Bowl as a young child. My only real memories of that were the enormous crowds and seeing The Wave go around the stadium, mesmerizing me. There’s truly nothing else like it, so I’m going to go off-topic for a post to explain why for those who don’t share my appreciation.

A Unifying Force

When you read the title of this article, you almost certainly knew that it was the football/soccer World Cup. There is also a “world cup” for many other sports, but the name is synonymous with the (men’s) FIFA World Cup (I also love watching the Women’s, and most of what I will write applies to that tournament too :D). An important note for my fellow Americans - it is definitively not called “the FIFA”.

This is an event that brings together the entire world, with each country competing for a tournament berth within their own region. There are perennial favorites such as Brazil and Germany, and Europe and South America are certainly the hardest regions to qualify in. But, this format allows for some incredible underdogs to attend as well, such as Curacao and Cape Verde this year, each with a tiny population and that many people will have never even heard of. Additionally, many countries tend to have a signature style that transcends individual players and generations, even as tactics and strategy change over the years, and it can be incredibly fun to watch those go head-to-head.

There are certainly other tournaments that share some of these traits - probably most notably, the Olympics, both winter and summer. However, in my mind, the huge distinction is that in the Olympics, most nations only care about the events in which their nation is expected to do well. That is in enormous contrast to the World Cup, where everyone is playing the same game and can understand what is a good or bad performance from anyone else. What makes this even better in my mind is that football/soccer is a relatively easy sport to understand (although hard to master), with fairly straightforward rules in comparison to something like baseball or gridiron football, so those who don’t often watch can follow along without much trouble. With even a passing familiarity, it’s not necessary to even hear or understand the commentary - and it’s not uncommon to play on a team with teammates who don’t speak the same language.

The Only Show In Town

Due to its size and importance, professional leagues pause play during the World Cup. This makes sense when you think about many of each club’s pest players being needed to play for their country, but it even extends to things like the NWSL (professional women’s league in the US) pausing play during the men’s World Cup. It would be rough to compete for viewership, but it is still a cool thing to see; for someone like myself who tries to watch MLS and NWSL, I don’t need to worry about splitting my attention, and can focus just on the World Cup (and its 104 games this year!).

Conveniently, the NBA finals also just finished, and the Stanley Cup will be done soon as well. The main competition in the US will be regular season MLB, but in most of the world, there isn’t much of a question as to what sports fans will be watching. For reference, the last World Cup final in 2022 had over 10x the number of viewers as this year’s Super Bowl (1.5 billion, compared to 137 million, according to Wikipedia). It truly feels like a shared, universal experience across the globe.

Nothing is Perfect

It is certainly the case that the World Cup is not without controversy. FIFA has had more than its share of corruption issues, there are immigration problems this time around like the USA denying entry to Africa’s “best” referee, and the universal hydration breaks regardless of a game’s weather is not popular with fans or commentators.

Despite all of this, I believe that the World Cup often shows us a wonderful side of humanity and how much we all have in common. Whether it’s Korean and Mexican fans partying together, Japanese and Dutch fans chanting together on TV before their match, or neutral fans picking a side to start following and cheering for, there is so much that can bring us together. And that is a beautiful game indeed.