FIFA World Cup 2026 has finally arrived, but does it really matter for the US?

The flight to Newark can sap your energy. Sixteen hours in a closed metal tube with more than 300 strangers for company is not the ideal experience for any human being.

The initial thrill of reaching a new city, of watching the best football in the world, is easily dampened by the claustrophobia and cramped legroom of an international economy flight. However, the United States of America (USA) airline that transported me fared much better in terms of comfort than the desi airline I had previously taken the same trip with.

However, football was not the main activity of my fellow travelers.

Most were seniors traveling to visit their NRI children in the United States, or those returning to their homes in Jersey after spending time with aging parents.

The lovely, mostly octogenarian ladies manned the cabin fantastically, although the food was as stale as airline food can be. Hours into the trip, I did my best to follow a banal movie over the varied sounds of late-night naps into which the plane had descended.

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But the conversation eventually turned to football, or soccer as they call it here in the woods. The desi saleswoman, now a convert to American football, was happy to debate whether football now occupies a place among the top four sports in the American pantheon, long dominated by the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.

Americans are strangely unaware of the world around them.

Their local champions, who are similar to our IPL champions, are called world champions. They have only won a competition played in the United States with a few representatives from their North American neighbor Canada.

Yet they unapologetically call themselves world champions, a boast that even our cricketing mandarins, despite controlling much of the world’s cricket, would never dare to claim.

By now, somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean, you’re starting to regret your choices. It seems a heavy price to pay to endure this ordeal for forty summers, and several more to follow.

However, football has a remarkable ability to convince otherwise sensible people to do very uncomfortable things.

Landing at Newark Liberty International Airport offers the first signs that a World Cup is coming, although the atmosphere is a far cry from the festive atmosphere seen at previous editions of the tournament.

A long line of Brazilian fans and journalists arriving in New York ahead of their side’s first match against Morocco signals a tournament is approaching.

However, airport signage, immigration officials and baggage counters appear oblivious to the arrival of the world’s greatest sporting spectacle.

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The drive to the hotel, just eight kilometers from the MetLife Stadium, where the World Cup final will be held on July 19, cannot allay the anxiety. Is the World Cup really important to the United States?

Various road signs indicating competition day restrictions are the only telltale signs that a sporting event is taking place. A giant bowl rising above the New Jersey landscape, MetLife looks imposing enough to host a competition of that magnitude.

There is plenty of signage and the media is also present, mainly Brazilian. What is missing, however, are the fans who followed their teams all over Russia and Qatar.

Come Saturday, as the match unfolds, we may be proven wrong and New York will show us that football, and its biggest showpiece, is important to the city.

Published on June 12, 2026