By
Adam Elder,
a writer covering sports and culture
The combination of FIFA’s bottomless greed and America’s current authoritarian-lite atmosphere was always going to make for a strange World Cup this year. (Sorry, co-hosts Mexico and Canada, it’s not your fault.) Even so, the degree of avarice and hostility in the run-up to the tournament exceeded most people’s worst expectations.
First, a dose of positivity: The U.S. team’s spectacular win over Paraguay on Friday was a joy to watch, and now that the World Cup is reaching full swing, everything the Trump administration and soccer’s governing body have done to hijack the world’s most egalitarian sport is being shoved into the background. Even before the U.S. win, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, despite FIFA’s and the president’s best attempts. There have been genuinely endearing stories of foreigners visiting a Buc-ee’s, trying ranch dressing or experiencing tailgating for the first time, or seeing the folks of Lawrence, Kansas become huge Algeria fans — some of the best little things about America.
