I had been to seven World Cups. So when I knew the US was co-hosting this one, I really wanted to be sure to see all the US men’s group stage matches. After dealing with a nice amount of FIFIA induced uncertainty, I finally got tickets for all three of these matches in Los Angeles and Seattle through the resale market. It wasn’t cheap, but it was a good value relative to the original FIFA prices…and you only live once!
US vs Paraguay: 4 to 1 Win
The American Outlaws are the largest organized fan group for US Soccer. They had a large pre-party at a nearby restaurant/bar complex.
Then everyone marched the short distance to the match.
This was the third time I’d been to SoFi Stadium and it’s still an amazing experience.
Looking out to the nearby newly built Intuit Dome, the home of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team.
There were a few, short opening ceremonies. The first by K-pop artist Lisa.
The final performance by Katy Perry.
The national anthems were sung.
And then the match began with consistent US pressure.
In the seventh minute Weston McKennie tried a short cross pass…
…and a Paraguayan defender deflected it in accidently for an own goal. The US were up 1-0.
The US pressure continued for the entire first half.
They scored two more goals and ended the half up 3-0. Paraguay scored one goal in the second half. Then, with the match almost over, Gio Reyna scored a spectacular goal after a strong US buildup.
One last view of SoFi in the fading Southern California light.
Seattle
I went to the second US Men’s match in Seattle. I had some time before the match to explore this beautiful city.
On a clear day Mount Ranier towers over the area.
The main entrance to the beautiful University of Washington campus.
Drumheller Fountain is a famous University of Washington landmark. It provides a wonderful setting for Mount Ranier.
The main entrance to Pike Place Market.
Some of the distinct street art in Seattle.
The Fallen Firefighers Memorial in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle.
Per the Seattle Times: “On June 18, 2026, Seattle broke the Guinness World Record for the Largest Dim Sum Meal. A total of 830 participants sat down along S. King Street in the Chinatown-International District (CID) to eat dumplings and buns, surpassing the previous record of 764 people set in Sydney, Australia.”
They cordoned off four blocks for this. Is was fun to watch them let people in and try to get it all organized. And it was appropriate that the day before the US beat Australia in soccer they also did so in dumplings 🙂
The late June sun starting to set over the Olympic Mountains.
US vs Australia: 2 to 0 Win
Lumen Stadium is probably the loudest stadium in the US for both football and soccer. And Seattle has some of the most passionate soccer fans in the US. This led to a wonderful atmosphere for the match. Below the fans are filling up the stadium almost two hours before it started.
The view from the other direction as fans pore in.
A nice way to encourage recycling, although I’d imagine they’d have to empty the US bin much more than the Australian bin.
This was probably the loudest national anthem I’ve ever heard.
Here is the Balogun cross…
…that resulted in an Australia own goal and gave the US a 1 to 0 lead.
I even got the set piece that led to the second US goal, but my hand got bumped just before it got headed in and I accidently stopped the filming.
But I did get the celebration on the other side of the field after the delayed call when Alex Freeman was originally ruled offside on his goal.
The crowd was loud before every corner kick.
And on every shot attempt.
It was a wonderful feeling once the game ended and the US was guaranteed to move on to the knockout rounds after only two matches.
The fans continued to enjoy themselves as they emptied out of the stadium.
US vs Turkey: 3 to 2 Loss
The US vs Turkey was a meaningless last group stage match. It’s what the Europeans call a dead rubber match. The US already won the group and were guaranteed to play a third place team on July 1. Turkey was already eliminated. So the US put in 9 second team players. What that showed was that the US has good attacking depth and not much defensive depth. While the US lost the match on a 98th minute Turkey goal, it was still very entertaining.
As with the first match, we joined the American Outlaws preparty. We were in the back of the march to the stadium.
There were some members of the San Jose State University marching band that provided a nice soundtrack during the preparty and the march.
We saw all the smoke from the main American Outlaws group as we went by to try to enter the stadium before they piled in.
The national anthem was just as loud as it was in Seattle. Maybe having all the words displayed on the huge screens helped 🙂
Less then four minutes into the match Auston Trusty got a beautiful first goal to put the US up 1-0.
Turkey got two goals and the score at halftime had Turkey leading 2 to 1. Right after the half Sebastain Berhalter got the American’s second goal with a rocket shot to tie up the game.
There was also another shot in the first half that went in but, unfortunately, Mark McKenzie was offside before he hit the ball in.
There were a number of other chances for the US that were fun to watch and kept the 70,000 person crowd engaged.
One final view of SoFi Stadium as we made our way outside.
Pittsburgh Fireworks
I spent the last few days in the US visiting relatives in Pittsburgh. Below is a video of the July 4th fireworks show from my cousin’s boat on the Allegheny River by downtown Pittsburgh.
The fireworks didn’t stop there. We went to a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game a couple of nights later.
First, a vacant church caught on fire on Mount Washington and could clearly be seen from the stadium.
Next, Pirates first baseman Ryan O’Hearn figuratively caught on fire and had a career night. Below he hit a grand slam homerun at his first at bat.
He hit two more three run home runs in the game and set a single-game club record and recorded the most RBIs in the majors this year by driving in 10 runs in the 12-4 win against the Atlanta Braves. He became just the 11th player since 1920 to achieve 10 RBIs and three home runs in a single game.
It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful US trip.