World Cup visitors say American hospitality defies media portrayals
World Cup closing
Gerry Baker hosts a panel discussion about the 2026 FIFA World Cup and its impact on America’s soft power. Jason Riley expresses skepticism about soccer’s long-term popularity in the United States, while Joseph Sternberg and Kim Strassel highlight how international visitors experience American hospitality and daily life firsthand. Panelists discuss whether the World Cup has significantly boosted the country’s global image.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Some of the most wholesome stories on the internet lately don’t come from celebrities or influencers. They come from people visiting America for the first time because of the World Cup.
Take Sebastian for example. Sebastian is a German football fan who flies to the United States with initial apprehension.
Like so many people abroad, he had spent years covering headlines depicting America as a land filled with crime, division and chaos. He was worried about his safety even before getting off the plane.
Sebastian watched Germany play Paraguay in Boston. After the match he found himself stranded with no way back to his hotel. That’s when she met a man named Bob.
Bob, a Japanese man who discovered America during the World Cup, became a social media sensation with his high-energy videos experiencing different aspects of the United States during his first trip across the country. (Elizabeth Heckman)
VIRAL GERMAN FAN FREDDY WAS INVITED TO VISIT THE WHITE HOUSE WHILE HIS MONEY TALE TOUR CONTINUES IN AMERICA
Bob didn’t know Sebastian from Adam. He didn’t ask about politics. He didn’t care where he came from. She saw a man in need and thought nothing of helping him by taking him back to his hotel.
In the video that has been viewed millions of times, Sebastian couldn’t hold back his tears as he described Bob’s kindness. He admitted that he was more upset about leaving the United States than Germany’s elimination from the World Cup.
Complete honesty? I can think of many Americans I could trade for Sebastian.
With only the championship match remaining, social media was flooded with videos from international visitors documenting what they found there. They boast about the hospitality of ordinary Americans. They marvel at our diversity, our national parks, our food, our culture, and yes, even our patriotism.
Team USA fans turned out in full force to watch the US Men’s National Team play World Cup football on US soil for the first time in 32 years. (Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP))
BILL MAHER PRAISED FOREIGN VISITORS AT THE WORLD CUP: ‘THEY REMIND AMERICANS HOW AMAZING THIS PLACE IS’
After the matches, they danced in the streets with complete strangers. They sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads” shoulder to shoulder with thousands of Americans they had never met. They stood speechless as they stared at the Grand Canyon. They tried real American barbecue for the first time. They talked about feeling welcome in the cities they were told to fear.
While watching these videos, I kept asking myself a question: Why do people on the other side of the world appreciate America more than most Americans? Maybe it’s because they haven’t been told to hate him for years.
For decades, we have been fed a version of America that focuses almost exclusively on what is broken. When you turn on the news, you might think that our streets are constantly on fire, neighbors hate each other, and every conversation ends in a political fight. This is not the way most Americans actually live.
SPEAKER JOHNSON WARNES STUDENTS ARE ‘BLOCKED’ TO SEE US THROUGH THE ‘WRONG LENSES’ AS THE COUNTRY CELEBRATES 250TH ANNIVERSARY
The unfortunate truth is that anger sells. Horror gets clicks and conflict gets ratings. Good news rarely goes viral because it’s harder to monetize content that makes people hopeful.
If you consume anger all day long, you will eventually become angry. If every headline tells you that your country is falling apart, you’ll eventually start to believe it.
The same anti-American propaganda is carried out in our education system. Teachers, professors, and other educators are quick to teach students about America’s failures while almost never describing its successes. Children learn at a young age that America is full of colonizers and oppressors, and they feel shameful and guilty because of their heritage or skin color.
USA fans celebrate 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’m not saying we shouldn’t teach students about slavery, segregation, Japanese internment, and other dark chapters in our history. It doesn’t help anyone to act as if these events never happened. But that’s not the whole story.
We also abolished slavery. We defeated fascism. We landed on the moon. We have built the most innovative economy the world has ever seen. Millions of people willingly left everything behind for the chance to realize the American dream. This doesn’t happen by chance.
Loving your country doesn’t mean believing it’s perfect. It requires accepting that despite its flaws, it is worth preserving and developing. Ironically, it took millions of foreign football fans to remind many Americans of this.
Sports have always had a way to cut through the noise. Everyone who plays for a team or even sits in the stands knows this. It’s the only place where identities and emotions don’t matter; At least it shouldn’t be.
Norwegian fans perform a Viking rowing demonstration in New York’s Times Square ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group I match against Senegal on June 21, 2026. (John Sibley/Reuters)
When you score the game-winning goal, no one cares about the color of your skin. No one asks you if you are Catholic, Baptist, Jewish, Muslim, or if you only go to church at Christmas and Easter. No one stops to ask who you voted for before celebrating a goal or lifting a trophy. All that matters is your skill level and dedication to winning.
Fans are no different. For ninety minutes, thousands of strangers become a single team. They cheer together, celebrate together, and sometimes even cry together. We’re told such a union is impossible, but it happens every weekend in stadiums across America.
Fans gather in designated FIFA World Cup fan zones in downtown Seattle to watch 2026 FIFA World Cup matches on giant screens on July 6, 2026. (Ercin Ertürk/Anadolu via Getty Images)
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Sports remind us of something we have forgotten in nearly every aspect of American life: We have much more in common than the people and institutions who make money from our departments would like us to believe.
The World Cup didn’t magically make America kinder. It just gave the rest of the world an excuse to see the America that has always existed beneath the clickbait headlines. America where someone like Bob helps a stranded stranger because it’s the right thing to do. The same America where millions of visitors discovered that there were no cartoons being sold to them now.
My biggest takeaway from this World Cup is not about football. Maybe it’s because America looks so much better when you experience it for yourself rather than letting someone else tell you what to think of it. Most Americans can stand to remember that, too.
FOR MORE FROM RILEY GAINES, CLICK HERE
