Credit... Harriet Lenneman SKIP TO CONTENT SKIP TO SITE INDEX Section Navigation OPINION GUEST ESSAY The World Cup Is a Global Celebration, Shared With Neighbors. It’s a Trump Nightmare. Credit... Harriet Lenneman Listen · 19:22 min Share full article 199 By Joshua Jelly-SchapiroJuan Villoro and Andrew Potter Mr.

Jelly-Schapiro wrote from New York City, Mr. Villoro wrote from Mexico City, and Mr. Potter wrote from Montreal. June 10, 2026 After nearly four years, the World Cup is back to take over the summer. But alongside celebration for the sumptuous soccer to come, there’s ample cause for consternation.

This year’s tournament, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, will play out against a backdrop of endemic FIFA corruption, President Trump’s depredations and severely strained relations between the host nations. To gauge the mood on the eve of the competition, we asked three writers — an American, a Mexican, a Canadian — what the World Cup means to them and their countries.

Their varied responses testify to both the maddening complexity of contemporary life and the enduring wonder of world soccer. Video Credit Credit... It’s Not U.S. 1994, but It’s Something By Joshua Jelly-Schapiro Mr. Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer who edited a series of essays about the 2018 World Cup for The New York Review of Books.

ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT It’s not easy to explain, to kids growing up today surrounded by screens and viral videos, the epiphanic force with which the men’s World Cup landed on American TV in 1994. It certainly did on the old Magnavox TV in my parents’ house in northern New England’s woods.

Like many American kids in the waning years of the Cold War, I spent my Saturday mornings kicking a ball around American fields. I had joined a travel team whose sponsor’s logo (“CABOT: Cheese from Vermont”) vied for space with Adidas on our chests. But I’d never seen the game played at the highest level — until 1994.

To live in range of ABC’s coverage of the games that summer was to glimpse the world’s finest players and best-loved teams. It was also to be treated to vivid and at times incongruous tableaux of ethnic fervor and comity, involving not merely those teams but their impassioned fans, too.

They filled America’s biggest arenas — green-clad Nigerians and sombrero-wearing Mexicans, Swedes in Viking hats and Argentines singing songs about Diego Maradona. Feelings of national rivalry and pride occasioned not war but play. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

A version of this article appears in print on June 14, 2026, Section SR, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: It’s Not the 1994 World Cup, but It’s Something. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe READ 199 COMMENTS Share full article 199 Related Content ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Site Index Site Information Navigation © 2026 The New York Times Company NYTCoContact UsAccessibilityWork with usAdvertiseT Brand StudioPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyTerms of ServiceTerms of SaleSite MapHelpSubscriptionsManage Privacy Preferences To leave without signing in, use your browser's Back button.

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