{"id":183372,"date":"2026-06-20T21:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=183372"},"modified":"2026-06-20T21:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:26:25","slug":"world-cup-updates-smaller-u-s-cities-give-visiting-teams-an-extra-warm-embrace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=183372","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Updates: Smaller U.S. Cities Give Visiting Teams an Extra-Warm Embrace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Riley Sealander, a 26-year-old barista in Greensboro, N.C., is your typically rabid World Cup fan. He wears his favorite team\u2019s jersey and watches its matches as he makes cappuccinos. He drapes the red, white and blue around his workplace and tries hard to rally new supporters to fledging fan clubs.<\/p>\n

But Sealander isn\u2019t promoting the U.S. team. Instead, he\u2019s all-in on Team Norway, whose arrival this month in Greensboro has set off a communitywide embrace of the Scandinavian squad, merging Southern hospitality with a bona fide enthusiasm for one of Europe\u2019s trendiest teams<\/a> after it picked the city as its temporary home.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re not in Raleigh, we\u2019re not Charlotte,\u201d said Sealander, wearing a customized Norway jersey under his apron, \u201cso it was kind of a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since teams began decamping to the United States earlier this month, that mix of small-city pride and the global reach of international soccer has led to an unlikely romance between everyday Americans and squads from around the world, a juxtaposition of diverse cultures that has sparked moments of joy \u2014 like a goal in stoppage time \u2014 in both hosts and visitors alike.<\/p>\n

This weekslong love affair has been seen in bigger match locations like Boston, where jubilant, and thirsty, Scottish fans have been drinking the town dry<\/a> and posting emotional videos about their renewed faith in the American dream<\/a>. Argentines, known for their steak, have been sighted happily devouring hamburgers in Kansas City<\/a>; Austrians have taken over San Francisco restaurants, giant beer mugs in hand<\/a>, praising the city (and griping about its famous summer cold).<\/p>\n

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The Grandover Resort, in Greensboro, N.C., flies the Norwegian flag, as it became the residence for the Norwegian national soccer team. At right, the Norwegian national team chefs (left to right) Christian Karlsson, Aron Espeland and Eirik Tufte in the kitchen of the resort.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Americans\u2019 international reputation has dipped in recent years, according to polls,<\/a> and many of these World Cup testimonials have an element of surprise: The United States, it seems, has all kinds of estimable traits, with visitors praising everything from its alligators to its ice machines<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that sense of wonder and admiration has gone both ways, and seems particularly acute in less-well-known locales like Greensboro, which has recently turned into a kind of satellite Oslo, its sports bars filled with newly minted Norway fans, its shop windows and front porches adorned with the country\u2019s flags. About 20,000 fans clamored to get tickets to an open practice. And at the team\u2019s headquarters, the red carpet has been rolled out \u2014 as has the halibut, which was flown in for the team (and barbecued, because it\u2019s North Carolina).<\/p>\n

In all, the first World Cup hosted in the United States in more than 30 years has dispersed thousands of world-class athletes, staff members and supporters around the country, many of whom are experiencing the same excitement and hospitality as in Greensboro.<\/p>\n

In Chattanooga, Tenn., locals are camping outside an Embassy Suites for glimpses of Spain\u2019s national team. Residents of Lawrence, Kan., mastered the pronunciation of \u201cViva l\u2019Alg\u00e9rie!\u201d for Algeria\u2019s team. And sightings of the Egyptian team out and about in Spokane, Wash., are being traded with glee in town forums.<\/p>\n

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Locals showing off their fandom for the team from Algeria at a street party in Lawrence, Kan., which is hosting the team during the World Cup.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Doug Barrett\/Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The tournament, among the biggest and more expensive to date, comes at a fraught moment for the United States as the country\u2019s 250th birthday celebrations underscore clashing views of history<\/a> and set off partisan fighting<\/a> among organizers. At the same time, the country has long found unity in a passion for sports that is as zealous as ever, bringing together, for example, two million New York Knicks fans<\/a> across boroughs and state lines to toast their champion team at the team\u2019s ticker tape parade on Thursday.<\/p>\n

And some Americans see the tournament in similar terms: as a chance to renew the nation\u2019s reputation as a friendly place for international visitors, amid the aggressive anti-immigrant and foreign policy actions of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of the country have always been very welcoming and gracious with guests,\u201d said Peter Helseth, 45, an engineer from Greensboro, who took his 6-year-old son to a Norwegian team practice. \u201cAnd it\u2019s been really nice to see that, as a refreshing break, from national news.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Norwegian team during training on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Chuck Burton\/Imagn Images, via Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Others in Greensboro shared that sentiment, and a soft spot for their newly adopted Norwegians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always pull for the U.S.,\u201d said Matt Kirkman, a groundskeeper at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro who spent two months getting the soccer field\u2019s Bermuda grass ready for the World Cup team.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if they do win the whole thing,\u201d he said of Norway\u2019s squad, \u201cit will really have been awesome to have been part of that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here and elsewhere, the contact between teams and towns has often been up close and person-to-person, far removed from tensions over the fate of NATO, say, or the war in the Middle East, or other governmental disputes that often dominate and define one country\u2019s feelings about another.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the visitors and communities are bonding over everyday moments, with some online observers calling the World Cup \u201cthe Great International Sleepover<\/a>,\u201d suggesting a homey friendliness. Seeing a superstar athlete going about his day-to-day life \u2014 getting coffee or casually shopping \u2014 may well do more for d\u00e9tente than many diplomatic discussions.<\/p>\n

In Chattanooga, with a population of less than 200,000, the Spanish national team, a tournament favorite, was greeted by fans waving flags at the airport after its flight from Europe and was treated to sangria, bacon-wrapped dates and watermelon skewers courtesy of the city\u2019s only tapas restaurant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Spain could have stayed in a larger city but was drawn in part to the low-key environment and the level of anonymity Chattanooga afforded, according to Tim Kelly, the city\u2019s mayor, pictured in his office.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Julie Holder for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Fans trying to get a glimpse of the Spanish soccer team at the security gates of the Embassy Suites in Chattanooga. Amada, the sole tapas restaurant in the area, prepared for diners in celebration of the team.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Julie Holder for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Base camp cities \u2014 more than three dozen of which<\/a> are in the United States \u2014 are selected by the teams themselves. Some are tiny: White Sulfur Springs, W.Va., where the Iraq team is based<\/a>, has a population of under 3,000. Greensboro is huge by comparison, with a population of about 310,000.<\/p>\n

The Spanish team could have stayed in a larger city but was drawn in part to the low-key environment and the level of anonymity Chattanooga afforded, according to Tim Kelly, the city\u2019s mayor. That said, soccer fans have still staked out the Embassy Suites, which the team bought out for a month, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lamine Yamal, the Spanish team\u2019s teenage star, who has nearly 44 million followers on Instagram. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re calling it \u2018Lamine watching,\u2019\u201d said Sam Crickmar, the president of men\u2019s club soccer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. <\/p>\n

Some of the hometown cordiality has been driven by another cherished American value: competition.<\/p>\n

Lori Jenkins, regional director of sales for the group that owns the Embassy Suites, said she had felt a fire within when a member of Spain\u2019s soccer federation showed her a video of a reception that the team had gotten in another city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Nope, we\u2019re going to top that,\u2019\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n

The hotel\u2019s staff got to work turning part of one floor into a game room complete with table tennis, video game consoles, pool tables, poker tables and dart boards. For the hundreds of Chattanoogans cheering outside to welcome the team, they passed out sunglasses, beads and Spanish flags.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the most famous athletes in the world, and we\u2019re folding their laundry,\u201d Jenkins said. \u201cThat\u2019s something I get to tell people for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A poster of the Spanish team by the hotel they are staying at.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Julie Holder for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Fans and employees of the hotel welcoming the team.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Madison Frazier<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Less than an hour from Kansas City\u2019s metro area (where England, Argentina and the Netherlands are training), a similar zeal has been spreading in Lawrence, Kan., a college town with a population of fewer than 100,000 people, where residents have filled the streets with green, white and red, the Algerian team colors.<\/p>\n

Chuck Magerl, the owner of Free State Brewing on Lawrence\u2019s main drag, said people might have underestimated the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cKansas is seen as being a flyover area that some people don\u2019t think has much culture or international awareness,\u201d Magerl, 70, said, as he highlighted Lawrence\u2019s diversity. \u201cThose aspects of welcoming other cultures have shown through in how Lawrence has embraced the Algerian team.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some avid soccer fans, the sudden appearance of their favorite players in their hometowns has been a stroke of luck: In Spokane, Wash., Hamza Abohoush, a 16-year-old student at West Valley High School, got to meet Mo Salah, the Egyptian soccer star and a hero of his.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe acts like a normal guy, like us,\u201d Abohoush said.<\/p>\n

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Hanza Abohoush, a 16-year-old student and soccer player, met one of his favorite players from the Egyptian team, Mo Salah. The team is staying in Spokane, Wash., where he lives.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Margaret Albaugh for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In a nation built by \u00e9migr\u00e9s, and in a moment of sharp debate about immigration, the World Cup has also offered some a chance to voice pride over their heritage.<\/p>\n

The German team is based in Winston-Salem, N.C., with a population of about 250,000, where German flags adorn flower boxes downtown and fly atop the former R.J. Reynolds Building.<\/p>\n

And at a team practice at Wake Forest University on Thursday, one 16-year-old fan, Raphael Olivier, wore the country\u2019s jersey and said he had come to that affiliation naturally: Both his parents were from Germany, and spoke German at home.<\/p>\n

Olivier called seeing the team up close \u201conce in a lifetime.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen as many German-speaking fans as I have now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Others like Ashley Fritz, 35, a data engineer in Winston-Salem, said they had never been particularly interested in soccer. But then she and her 10-year-old daughter, who likes the sport, were among the 3,500 people to get tickets to attend Norway\u2019s open practice at U.N.C. Greensboro. (More than 20,000 had requested seats, prompting a lottery.)<\/p>\n

Fritz said it had been exciting to see \u201chow everyone has kind of embraced each other through this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we are in tough times and there can be a lot of turmoil between people,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just, like, a good vibe story,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

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Residents of Spokane playing a pickup soccer game on the Gonzaga campus, around the corner from where the team from Egypt has been training.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Margaret Albaugh for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

That sentiment was echoed back at the Norwegian headquarters, the Grandover Resort & Spa, where the mood was relaxed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

One of the team\u2019s chefs, Christian Karllson, prepared to make dinner for friends and relatives of the team, procuring a halibut for the grill and saying they were \u201cgoing to have an American barbecue because that\u2019s what you guys know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listening in, Heath Putman, a doorman at the resort, later expressed a kind of wonder at the scene: world-class athletes, talking barbecue, right here in Greensboro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe South has not always been that reputable in some of our viewpoints,\u201d Putman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d he added, \u201cHere we are, with open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n