Nick Gatz - Falls Church News-Press Online

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to North America, the real story may not be soccer. It may be what the tournament reveals about America, immigration, politics, class, and whether this country still knows how to welcome the world.

By Nick Gatz

The World Cup is coming back to America.

For someone like me, that should be enough.

I grew up playing soccer. I attended the 1994 FIFA World Cup when it came to the United States. I played against kids who would go on to earn Division I scholarships and even represent the United States National Team. Some of my best memories were formed on soccer fields where race, religion, income, language, and politics did not matter nearly as much as whether you could play, listen, sacrifice, and work together.

By every measure, I should be excited about the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Instead, I find myself feeling something I never expected.

Sadness.

Not because of the sport.

Because of what America has become.

Northern Virginia Should Be Celebrating

Perhaps nowhere is the contradiction more visible than here in Northern Virginia.

This is one of the most internationally diverse regions in America. Walk through Falls Church, Annandale, Arlington, Alexandria, Herndon, or Tysons and you’ll hear dozens of languages, encounter people from every continent, and see youth soccer fields packed with children whose families trace their roots to every corner of the globe.

If any region in America should be celebrating the return of the World Cup, it should be this one.

The Washington region has long been one of the country’s strongest soccer hotbeds. It is also one of its most diverse.

And maybe those facts are connected.

Because soccer, at its core, is about bringing people together.

The World Cup Should Feel Different

The world’s largest sporting event is returning to our doorstep. More than three decades after the successful 1994 World Cup helped launch soccer into the American mainstream, the sport has never been stronger in this country.

Major League Soccer has grown. Youth soccer participation remains among the highest in the nation. The U.S. has more international stars than ever before. Soccer culture has moved from the margins into the mainstream.

And yet the excitement feels muted.

The warning signs are real. The Financial Times reported that roughly 180,000 World Cup tickets were sitting on FIFA’s official resale platform, with median resale prices falling by approximately 20 percent. Forbes also reported declining resale values in several markets as organizers attempt to generate additional excitement.

This should be a celebration.

Instead, it feels like a country arguing with itself.

And maybe that is because the World Cup has become a perfect microcosm of America.

For one month, billions of people from every corner of the globe gather around a shared experience. They speak different languages. They practice different religions. They come from different political systems and cultures.

Yet they all understand the same game.

The World Cup represents something larger than soccer.

It represents the possibility that people who are different from one another can still come together.

America increasingly seems uncomfortable with that idea.

The Irony of America’s Immigration Problem

The irony is impossible to ignore.

Russia hosted the World Cup in 2018.

Qatar hosted it in 2022.

Neither country is a model democracy. Both were criticized around the world for their human rights records.

Yet both understood a basic truth about hosting a global event:

If you want the world to come, you have to make it possible for the world to arrive.

Russia created a Fan ID system that gave foreign ticket holders visa-free entry and streamlined travel benefits during the tournament.

Qatar created the Hayya Card, which functioned as an entry permit, transportation pass, ticketing platform, and visitor services tool.

The results were undeniable.

According to FIFA’s World Cup Qatar 2022 in Numbers report, more than 3.4 million spectators attended matches and stadiums averaged 96.3 percent capacity. Qatar welcomed more than 1.4 million international visitors despite having a population smaller than many American metropolitan areas.

America, by contrast, is preparing to host the largest World Cup in history while sending mixed messages about whether the world is actually welcome.

According to the U.S. State Department’s World Cup planning briefing, officials project between five and seven million international visitors for the tournament. Yet unlike Russia’s Fan ID or Qatar’s Hayya Card, many visitors still face traditional visa requirements and entry procedures.

The U.S. State Department’s visa guidance for World Cup visitors says fans from Visa Waiver Program countries may apply through ESTA, while many others must secure a B1/B2 visitor visa.

That may sound routine on paper.

In practice, it can become a wall.

The Guardian reported that Somali referee Omar Artan, one of Africa’s most respected officials, was denied entry to the United States despite reportedly possessing a valid visa. Similar concerns have emerged involving fans, officials, and participants from other nations.

Think about that for a moment.

The country that proudly calls itself the “Land of the Free” is making it harder for some fans, officials, and participants to attend a global sporting event than countries Americans routinely criticize for being less free.

That contradiction matters.

Not just for soccer.

But for America’s image in the world.

What Soccer Taught Me About America

Maybe that is why soccer has always felt different.

Soccer taught me lessons that modern politics seems determined to forget.

You cannot build a successful team by convincing half the locker room that the other half is the enemy.

Every great team is diverse.

Every championship team requires trust.

Every successful locker room is filled with people from different backgrounds working toward a common goal.

The game does not care where you were born.

The scoreboard does not care what language you speak.

The goal is the goal.

Historically, America’s strongest soccer cultures have emerged in places like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, and California — places where cultures mix naturally and immigrant communities helped build the game from the ground up.

Those communities understand something many politicians do not.

Diversity is not a weakness.

It is a strength.

It is how great teams are built.

And it is how great nations are built.

American Sports Are Already Global

The strangest part is that America has already accepted globalization in almost every major sport.

Baseball may still call itself America’s pastime, but Major League Baseball has become deeply international.

According to Major League Baseball’s 2024 Opening Day international player report, 264 internationally born players appeared on Opening Day rosters, injured lists, and inactive lists. The Dominican Republic alone produced 108 players.

Think about that.

The Dominican Republic has roughly 11 million people.

The United States has more than 340 million.

Yet the Dominican Republic continues to produce Major League players at a per-capita rate that dwarfs America’s.

Basketball tells a similar story.

According to NBA.com’s history of international MVP winners, international players have won the league’s MVP award for eight consecutive seasons. Serbia’s Nikola Jokic, Greece’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, Cameroon’s Joel Embiid, and Canada’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have become faces of the league.

Hockey is no different.

According to QuantHockey’s 2024-25 NHL nationality breakdown, American-born players account for less than one-third of NHL rosters. Canadians and Europeans make up most of the league.

So what exactly are we resisting?

American sports are already global.

American business is global.

American culture is global.

The world is already here.

The question is whether our politics can catch up to reality.

Have We Forgotten How to Be Teammates?

Sometimes I wonder whether part of our divide stems from the loss of shared experiences.

Sports teach humility.

Sports teach sacrifice.

Sports teach cooperation.

Sports teach that success is impossible without other people.

Not everyone gets the opportunity to learn those lessons.

Not everyone gets to experience the joy of working toward a common goal with people who may look different, sound different, worship differently, or come from a different neighborhood.

But those lessons matter.

Because I do not know how anyone can spend years in a locker room and walk away believing that diversity itself is a threat.

A team does not function that way.

A nation does not either.

Yet increasingly, our politics seems built on the idea that someone else’s success must be your failure.

Someone else’s gain must be your loss.

Someone different from you must somehow be your enemy.

That is not how teams win.

And it is not how countries thrive.

Why Bryan Andrews’ Lyrics Hit So Hard

Recently, I stumbled across a song called Yeehaw by Missouri musician and former pipe welder Bryan Andrews.

One lyric stopped me cold:

“Land of the free, ain’t free for all.”

That may be the most honest political statement I have heard this year.

Because freedom means little when opportunity is shrinking.

Freedom means little when housing is unaffordable, healthcare is out of reach, wages lag behind costs, and ordinary families are working harder simply to stay in place.

Yet instead of addressing those problems, America has become addicted to finding new people to blame.

Politicians blame immigrants.

Cable news blames cities.

Cities blame rural America.

Rural America blames urban America.

Liberals blame conservatives.

Conservatives blame liberals.

Everyone is angry.

Everyone is exhausted.

And somehow the people with the most power keep getting richer.

That is why Andrews’ next lines hit so hard:

“Ain’t nobody winnin’ in the war we’re in
Got them row crop farmers on their knees again
If I’m bitter, well, it’s better from a grizzly can
Ain’t lickin’ no boots, don’t worship no man.”

The farmer struggling with commodity prices is not winning.

The teacher working a second job is not winning.

The immigrant trying to build a life is not winning.

The young family unable to buy a home is not winning.

The soccer fan trying to bring his children to a World Cup match is not winning.

Ordinary Americans are being told they are enemies when, in reality, they are facing many of the same challenges.

The Real Game Being Played

The genius of modern politics is that it has convinced millions of people to look sideways instead of upward.

Look at your neighbor.

Look at the immigrant.

Look at the city.

Look at the rural voter.

Look at the other political party.

Just do not look at the people accumulating unprecedented wealth, influence, and control while everyone else fights.

That is why sports remain such a powerful counterargument.

A soccer team cannot function that way.

Imagine a coach spending all week convincing players that their teammates are the problem. Imagine defenders blaming midfielders. Veterans blaming rookies. Strikers blaming goalkeepers.

The team would collapse before kickoff.

Yet that increasingly feels like America’s political model.

Division has become the strategy.

Outrage has become the product.

And Americans have become the customers.

Even Sports Aren’t Neutral Anymore

Perhaps the clearest example came during the NBA Finals.

When President Trump attended Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, the story was not the game itself. The story became the reaction to his presence. Sports media covered it. Political media covered it. Social media turned it into another battlefield.

That alone says something about where America is today.

There was a time when sporting events served as neutral ground. Democrats and Republicans sat in the same stands. They cheered for the same team. For a few hours, politics took a back seat to the game.

Today, even that shared space feels increasingly fragile.

The NBA crowd reaction was not really about Donald Trump. It was about the fact that Americans now carry their political identities into nearly every aspect of public life.

Concerts become political.

Schools become political.

Businesses become political.

Even the World Cup — an event designed to unite billions of people around a common experience — cannot escape the gravitational pull of our divisions.

That should concern all of us.

Because once sports stop being a place where people can simply be fans together, we lose one of the last institutions capable of bringing Americans into the same room.

And perhaps that is why this World Cup feels different.

The issue is not ticket sales.

The issue is not immigration policy.

The issue is not even soccer.

The issue is whether Americans still believe they can share a common space with people they disagree with.

Because that is the lesson every team learns.

You do not have to agree on everything to win together.

You simply have to recognize that the person next to you is not your enemy.

What Kind of America Is Showing Up?

The World Cup presents a vision of the world that many politicians cannot profit from: one where people recognize their shared humanity before their differences.

For one month, billions of people from different nations, religions, languages, races, and political beliefs gather around the same game.

They cheer.

They celebrate.

They argue.

They mourn.

But they do it together.

The question facing America is not whether we can host the World Cup.

We have the stadiums.

We have the infrastructure.

We have the resources.

The question is whether we still possess the spirit that makes such an event meaningful.

Russia understood that hosting the world meant opening the door.

Qatar understood that hosting the world meant welcoming guests.

America now has its opportunity.

And if the “Land of the Free” has become a place where the world no longer feels fully welcome, then Bryan Andrews may have written the defining lyric of this era:

“Land of the free, ain’t free for all.”

If that line feels uncomfortable, maybe it is because it sounds too much like the truth.

The World Cup is coming to America.

The harder question is this:

What kind of America is showing up to greet the world?

Land of the Free, Ain’t Free for All: The World Cup and America’s Crossroads