Phil Bowman: My World Cup calendar runneth over
The FIFA World Cup championship is set for July 19 in the shadows of New York City, so there’s a lot of futbol to be played.
Still, the celebration of soccer and its worldwide pageantry, held every four years, has been an overwhelming success and it’s not just because the matches have been off the charts. Has your heart rate slowed down after Paraguay’s massive upset of Germany on June 29 in a controversial match that was decided by penalty kicks?
The matches are fascinating. That’s half the story. The rest of the story is that the United States has been the perfect host as it prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday on July 4.
It seems as if the world’s soccer fans have embraced America, its culture, its customs, its cities.
It’s as if Van Halen’s 1982 anthem “Dancing in the Streets” has come to life 44 years later. If you need proof, check out the video of Norway fans taking over Times Square in New York City and performing “The Viking” prior to its June 21 match against Senegal.
And World Cup fans are taking over Major League baseball stadiums and are creating soccer-like atmospheres across the league.
That includes Scotland’s Tartan Army, which showed up at the Texas Rangers-Boston Red Sox game at the iconic Fenway Park. Red Sox officials estimated more than 1,500 fans from Scotland were in the stands.
The World Cup, which kicked off on June 11, has already broken the World Cup attendance record with almost two weeks to go.
The previous attendance record?
The 1994 World Cup, which attracted 3.4 million fans and was hosted by the United States.
This has been an incredible experience for this sports scribe, whose resume includes more football than futbol.
But after 19 days of soccer stardom, I’m ready to declare that the World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world, and it’s not even close.
Sorry, Roger Goodall and the NFL, but your game is not even in the same zip code, and I don’t care how many times you have Bad Bunny perform at halftime.
The World Cup is a celebration of countries coming together on a world stage. The best part of the match is when you see the passion, the tears, and the emotion of fans when they hear their national anthem.
The Super Bowl became a symbol of corporate America -- way, way too long ago.
Speaking of America, the U.S. team held its own in pool play with a 2-1 record in Group D play. The men of stars and stripes defeated Australia and Paraguay while losing a close encounter against Turkey.
The U.S. was scheduled to play Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1, and a victory would send the U.S. to the Round of 16 with a match July 6 against the Belgium-Senegal winner.