Por Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES, June 27 (Reuters) – Evan Hand had seen viral sports moments before, but the one that changed the way he understood the scope of football didn’t come from a superstar.
It came from Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper from Cape Verde, whose seven-save performance in the goalless draw against Spain — the big favorite — transformed him, overnight, into a social media sensation.
InfoMoney Tool
Download now (and for free)!
“The big moment for me was the story of Vozinha,” said Hand, a sports content creator.
“It was seeing this guy gain 15 million followers practically overnight playing for a team that, if you were to look at the map, you wouldn’t be able to tell me where Cape Verde is now’.
“(NFL star) Tom Brady has a smaller following than this guy, and he’s had arguably the most dominant run in the history of the sport. So that was a special moment for me.”
For many North American sports fans, this World Cup has had a similar impact.
As fans from around the world fill stadiums, television ratings soar and North American fans flock to cheer festivals and sports bars, the tournament served as a vivid reminder that soccer is not a niche sport trying to break into the North American mainstream. It is the dominant sport in the world, and the United States is still trying to reach its magnitude.
The tournament is already on track to break attendance records. In the first 44 matches, total attendance exceeded 2.85 million, with stadiums operating on average at around 99.6% capacity, according to a Reuters analysis based on data from 🏽FIFA.
Continues after advertising
Fox’s broadcast of the U.S. victory over Australia drew 16.2 million viewers, a number likely to be surpassed as the Americans advance to the knockout stages.
“I think a lot of people who have always found sports boring are discovering that it is exciting,” said sports marketing analyst Bob Dorfman. “And that’s helping football.”
GLOBAL PASSION
The impact of the tournament in the United States can be measured both by emotion and viewing figures.
Continues after advertising
Dorfman said American fans are coming into contact not only with elite players, but also with the passion of fans who travel to follow the team and immigrant communities, who treat the World Cup more like a national holiday than a sporting event.
“In the United States, there are all these foreigners who are coming in or immigrants who are already here and are just going crazy about it,” he said. “And I think, to a certain extent, North American citizens are a little jealous of the Scottish and Brazilian fans.’
“I was watching the Brazil game yesterday and I got a lump in my throat when I saw them singing the national anthem. The emotion is huge. The excitement is huge. There are big stars playing that Americans are finally getting to see up close.”
Continues after advertising
Hand said his World Cup videos are doing “much better” than his usual content, which typically focuses on sports like college football and golf.
“It’s not that we didn’t know football was big,” he said.
“I don’t think we knew the true extent of how big football really is. Every person in the rest of the world, even if they are from some random city in Brazil or Siberia, knows football. And they love football and would die for this sport.”
Continues after advertising
ENTHUSIASM IN THE USA GROWS
Outside Los Angeles Stadium ahead of Thursday’s match between the United States and Turkey, fans created a carnival atmosphere, singing songs, playing drums and releasing red, white and blue smoke bombs. The U.S. team’s success in the tournament so far — winning its first two matches and topping its group — has fueled enthusiasm.
Alicia Rutz, a former player dressed as Wonder Woman on her way to the game with her husband, who appeared in costume as Ted Lasso, the fictional coach from the TV series, said Americans have begun to appreciate the small details of the sport.
“It’s really fun to see Americans understanding football, loving football,” Rutz said. “They’re not just rooting for the goals, they’re rooting for the right things — the right plays, the right touches — and it’s really fun to see Americans embrace soccer and love it.”
Still, the idea of football advancing in the United States is almost as old as modern American sport itself.
The hosting of the 1994 men’s World Cup, the rise of Major League Soccer and the success of the US women’s national team each brought, in turn, predictions that the sport was ready to carve out a permanent place alongside the country’s most powerful leagues.
“We’ve seen this many times in the U.S.,” Rutz said.
“But I think it could finally happen. Grassroots programs are taking off across the country and this could finally become something equivalent to NFL football, which I would love to see.”
WILL THIS LAST?
Soccer has a stronger foundation in the U.S. than in previous generations: wider access to international broadcasts, a growing MLS presence, prominent women’s soccer, Latino and immigrant fans, and a youth culture increasingly familiar with stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Christian Pulisic. Amateur teams are attracting fans, especially in places where North American professional leagues are lacking.
But the North American sports market is saturated, and the NFL remains the country’s dominant commercial force.
“The NFL is king here,” Dorfman said. “They’ve done a great job of dominating the market, and that’s where all the attention is. The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl, and even though the World Cup final has ten times the audience, this is an American soccer country. I don’t know if soccer will ever reach that level.”
Hand is also cautious. He sees a tournament capable of inspiring young fans, but not necessarily strong enough to maintain the national spotlight when the North American soccer season returns.
“I think right now we’re all really excited about football,” Hand said. “And there are thousands of little Timmys and little Emilys who look up to these icons like Messi, Ronaldo and Pulisic. They say, ‘I want to be like them when I grow up’.”
“But at the same time, hundreds of thousands of these kids still idolize Patrick Mahomes, Arch Mannings, Alex Ovechkins and Caitlin Clarks.”
“When August rolls around and we have the NFL preseason, Hard Knocks, and college football Week Zero, people will largely forget this ever happened.”
For now, though, the World Cup has accomplished what generations of soccer evangelists in the United States have tried to do: make the sport’s magnitude impossible to ignore.
The lesson for North American fans may not be that football is finally becoming huge.
It’s just that he already was.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll)
