IRVINE, Calif. — The 2026 World Cup arrives in North America as a faceless behemoth.It will, by many measures, be the grandest sporting event ever: a six-week-long spectacle of soccer, culture and nationalism that will captivate the planet. It won’t be ubiquitous in the United States, because nothing ever is, but it will seize mainstream American attention. In some ways, it already has.Its problem, though, for years and still today, is that it doesn’t have an American face.It has superstars such as Lionel Messi — but so did past World Cups and so do domestic soccer leagues. It has thousands of people organizing it, but only one, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who wanted the spotlight. Infantino positioned himself as the spokesman and star salesman, but the American public quickly saw through his wildly exaggerated claims and self-interest. Millions of sports fans here are excited for the World Cup, but many have struggled to pinpoint the source, or the place into which they’ll pour their excitement.And that, beginning Friday, is where the U.S. men’s national team comes in. The USMNT, as it’s often known, can fill the void.Any player who scores a decisive goal against Paraguay in Friday’s opener could instantly become the American face of this tournament, and inject it with a breath of fresh, patriotic air.Until then, the story of this World Cup will continue to be prices and politics. Its American face has been unvarnished capitalism. The two things your grocer or Uber driver know are that tickets were absurdly expensive and that Infantino gave a ‘Peace Prize’ to U.S. President Donald Trump two months before the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran.U.S. President Donald Trump receiving his peace prize from Gianni Infantino (Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images)Infantino, at times throughout 2025, seemingly tried to make Trump a face of the World Cup. The Italian-Swiss FIFA leader would regularly appear in the Oval Office, and together they’d promote the “biggest, safest and most extraordinary soccer tournament in history.”But Trump’s public alignment with the tournament has ebbed in recent months. Perhaps FIFA realized that a divisive and unpopular president was not an ideal salesman. Perhaps the war with Iran, a FIFA member and World Cup participant, changed things. Or, perhaps Trump realized that FIFA was similarly unpopular. Even he, in an interview with the New York Post last month, criticized the ticket prices.Transit prices and hotels became controversial. In the absence of a coherent national narrative, of a trustworthy voice pumping up the tournament in a positive light, cynicism took hold. American warts filled the void. Even with kickoff three days away, tickets and visa denials — and water bottle bans — feel like the biggest stories.