World Cup visitors say American hospitality is contrary to media portrayals
Wrapping up the World Cup
Gerry Baker moderates a panel discussion about the 2026 FIFA World Cup and its impact on America’s soft power. Jason Riley questions the long-term popularity of soccer in the US, while Joseph Sternberg and Kim Strassel highlight how foreign visitors have experienced first-hand American hospitality and everyday life. Investigators debate whether the World Cup has significantly increased the country’s reputation around the world.
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Some of the best stories on the internet lately don’t come from celebrities or influencers. They have come from people visiting America for the first time because of the World Cup.
For example, consider Sebastian. Sebastian is a German soccer fan who flew to the United States at first with trepidation.
Like many people overseas, he has spent years feeding on headlines that portray America as a country full of crime, division and chaos. Before he even got off the plane, he was worried about his safety.
Sebastian watched Germany play Paraguay in Boston. After the game, he found himself trapped with no way back to his hotel. It was then that he met a man named Bob.
Bob, a Japanese scout for America during the World Cup, became the talk of social media because of his powerful videos dealing with different aspects of the United States during his first-ever tour of the country. (Elizabeth Heckman)
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Bob didn’t know Sebastian from Adam. He did not ask about politics. He didn’t care where he came from. He saw a man in need and didn’t think twice about helping him by giving him a ride back to his hotel.
In a video that has now been viewed millions of times, Sebastian fought back tears as he described the kindness he felt from Bob. He admitted that he was more saddened to leave America than Germany’s exclusion from the World Cup.
Total honesty? I can think of many Americans I could trade for Sebastian.
With only one match remaining, social media is full of videos from international tourists documenting what they found here. They praise the hospitality of ordinary Americans. They marvel at our diversity, our parks, our food, our culture, yes, even our patriotism.
Team USA fans turned out in droves to see the US Men’s National Team play World Cup football on US soil for the first time in 32 years. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP))
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They danced in the streets with complete strangers after the game. They sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads” shoulder to shoulder with thousands of Americans they had never met. They are standing speechless looking at the Grand Canyon. They tried real American barbecue for the first time. They have talked about feeling welcome in cities they were told to fear.
Watching these videos, I kept asking myself one question: Why do people from around the world seem to value America more than most Americans? Maybe it’s because they haven’t spent years being told to hate.
For decades, we’ve been fed a version of America that focuses too much on what’s broken. Turn on the news and you’d think our streets are always on fire, neighbors are hating each other, and every conversation ends in political rants. It’s just not how most Americans live.
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The sad truth is that anger sells. Fear gets clicks and conflict gets ratings. Good news rarely comes out because it’s hard to monetize content that leaves people with hope.
If you feed on anger all day, eventually you get angry. When every headline tells you that your country is falling apart, you eventually start to believe it.
The same anti-American propaganda is perpetuated in our education system. Educators, professors, and other educators are quick to teach students about America’s failures while not yet embracing its successes. Children learn at an early age that America is full of colonists and oppressors, and are left feeling ashamed and guilty about their heritage or the color of their skin.
United States fans celebrate during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round Of 32 match between the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium on July 1, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
To be clear, I am not saying that we should not teach students about slavery, segregation, Japanese internment, and all the other dark chapters of our history. Pretending those things never happened helps no one. But this is not the whole story.
We also ended slavery. We defeated fascism. We lived on the moon. We have built the most innovative economy the world has ever seen. Millions of people willingly gave up everything for the chance to achieve the American dream. That doesn’t happen by accident.
Loving your country does not require believing that it is perfect. It needs to be recognized that, despite its faults, it is worth protecting and developing. Ironically, it took millions of soccer fans overseas to remind most Americans of that.
Sports have always had a way of cutting through the noise. Anyone who has ever played on a team or sat in the stands knows that. It’s one place where identity and feelings don’t matter – well, at least they shouldn’t.
Norway fans line up for the Vikings in Times Square, New York, before the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I match against Senegal on June 21, 2026. (John Sibley/Reuters)
No one cares what your skin is like when you score the game-winning goal. No one asks if you are Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim, or if you only come to church on Christmas and Easter. No one pauses to ask who they voted for before celebrating a touchdown or raising the trophy. The only things that matter is your skill level and your dedication to winning.
The fans are no different. For ninety minutes, thousands of complete strangers become one group. They rejoice together, celebrate together, and sometimes even cry together. It’s that kind of unity that we’ve been told is impossible, yet it happens every single weekend in stadiums across America.
Fans gather at designated FIFA World Cup fan zones in downtown Seattle to watch the 2026 FIFA World Cup games on big screens on July 6, 2026. (Ercin Erturk/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Sports remind us of something we’ve forgotten in almost every aspect of American life: We have more in common than the people and institutions making money off our team would have us believe.
The World Cup did not do America any favors. It just gave the world an excuse to see the America that has always existed under click-bait headlines. An America where someone like Bob helps a stranger in need because it’s the right thing to do. This is the America that millions of tourists are now discovering is not the caricature they have been sold.
My biggest takeaway from this world cup is not football at all. Maybe America looks better when you see it for yourself instead of letting someone else tell you what to think about it. Most Americans can remember that too.
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