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One of my favorite parts of the World Cup is asking people a deceptively simple question: What team are you rooting for?
In some cases the answer is obvious, but in many it isn’t. I always root for Colombia, where I am from. Yet I live in the United States. My father is Mexican. My grandfather is Argentinian. When Colombia was eliminated, I didn’t stop watching—I simply found myself cheering for someone else. My loyalties don’t compete; they accumulate.
The World Cup asks us to pick a team, but in doing so, it reveals that identity is rarely confined to a single flag. People cheer for the place where they grew up, where their parents came from, where they studied abroad, or simply for a player they admire or an underdog that captures their attention.
It’s an unexpected kind of unity. The tournament is organized around national competition, but it reminds us how interconnected those nations really are. For all of the flags and rivalries, the World Cup has a remarkable way of reminding us how much we share.
On Sports and Unity
How to Cheer for America
By Clint Smith
When I watch the World Cup, I’m celebrating not what this country is, but what it can be. (From 2022)
Something Incredible Every Single Game
By Charlie Warzel
Inside America’s World Cup fever dream
How the World Cup Explains the World
By Hanna Rosin
Hanna Rosin talks with the Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer, the author of How Soccer Explains the World, about how this year’s World Cup displays a gentler form of nationalism that we haven’t seen in a while.
Still Curious?
- When France plays soccer, you can’t look away. Sally Jenkins discusses the joys of watching Les Bleus at the World Cup.
- The feel-good story of the World Cup is too good to be true. Some of the people celebrating American excess are not what they seem, Will Oremus writes.
Other Diversions
PS
My colleague Isabel Fattal recently asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. Kristin E., from Indiana, shares “a monarch butterfly on fall asters in my native-plant garden.”
We’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
— Rafaela
