Written with the help of artificial-intelligence tools and checked by automated controls.
This content was machine-translated from the French version.
Five weeks, sixteen cities, thousands of miles swallowed across time zones, and a World Cup that ended Sunday evening with Spain's triumph over Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New York. For Antoine Huot de Saint Albin and Aymeric Le Gall, the two special envoys from 20 Minutes, it's time to take stock. Theirs is not a simple score report or tactical debriefing: it's the travel diary of two French journalists who spent a month crisscrossing the United States and returned with one certainty: this country doesn't resemble the idea we have of it.
Americans who turned all the clichés upside down
Before setting foot in the United States, the two reporters expected polite indifference, at best, from a people reputed to be impervious to soccer and obsessed with their four national sports.
The prejudice was hard to shake. Before setting foot in the United States, the two reporters expected polite indifference, at best, from a people reputed to be impervious to soccer and obsessed with their four national sports. Reality greeted them from the very first days. In Los Angeles, Dallas, Kansas City, Seattle, Philadelphia, or Miami, they found Americans not ignorant of the World Cup, but curious, incredibly helpful, and often far better informed than they had imagined.
"They shattered many of our preconceptions," they write in this assessment that reads as much like a travelogue as a sports analysis. The clichés about an individualistic, cold America indifferent to the rest of the world didn't survive a month of immersion in the host cities. Everywhere, the two journalists were welcomed with a generosity that disconcerted them. Even in the many states where soccer remains a niche sport played on weekends by children and watched on TV by a minority. The observation is all the more striking given that the country never seemed passionate about the competition itself: TV ratings remained modest, newspaper front pages kept talking about baseball and the presidential election. But the Americans met on the ground were present, attentive, often better informed than one might think. The World Cup left a human mark, even where it didn't shake up the ratings.
The logistical chaos
Because alongside the human warmth, the two special envoys also collected absurd situations. Endless queues in stadiums sometimes far from city centers, hesitant signage, saturated public transport, security checks varying from site to site: the American World Cup often resembled a giant party organized in a hurry, with whatever means were available. The two reporters hide nothing of the logistical mishaps, which they recount with a sense of detail that beats any official press release.
The narrative thus mixes amusing anecdotes with harsher observations. Some fan zones struggled to fill up, foreign supporters got lost in gigantic parking lots, ride-hailing drivers refused trips to stadiums for fear of traffic jams. But behind this logistical chaos, the two journalists insist on one point: none of it ever spoiled the fans' experience. On the contrary, the improvisation sometimes produced moments of sheer laughter, like motorists honking as Mexican supporter buses passed by, or fast-food servers learning European team names by heart to better welcome customers.
The post-World Cup, an uncertain legacy
The real question, for the two special envoys, remains that of the legacy. Has American soccer emerged stronger from a month of World Cup on its soil? The answer is nuanced. Local professional leagues saw their attendance slightly increase, some sporting goods manufacturers noted a spike in interest in soccer products, and the sport's visibility among the general public undeniably increased. But the American sports calendar remains dominated by football, basketball, baseball, and hockey, and nothing yet indicates a lasting shift in habits.
The two reporters finally note a point often overlooked: the role of secondary host cities, those medium-sized municipalities that hosted teams for several weeks, sometimes for the first time in their history. Many of these cities played the game wholeheartedly, seeing the event as a showcase and an economic boost. The future will tell whether local enthusiasm turns into lasting roots, or whether the excitement evaporates as soon as the spotlight returns to other sports. One thing, however, is beyond doubt for the two special envoys: the America they discovered in July 2026 is not the one they imagined when they boarded.