Exclusive | Andrs Cantor says America is ready for soccers takeover at 2026 World Cup
A World Cup in America once felt like a foreign broadcast bleeding faintly through static.Fans had to seek it out.
They had to know about it. In 1994, when the U.S.hosted the tournament for the first time, soccer existed on the outskirts of the American sports conversation.
It was tucked behind the NFL, NBA, MLB, college football and whatever Michael Jordan happened to be doing that week.There was no Major League Soccer.
The World Cup came to America like a traveling circus making its next stop. But now, according to legendary broadcaster Andrés Cantor, the 2026 World Cup will be more than just a passing fad.It will be unavoidable.“I don’t think there’s going to be anybody in this country … that won’t know the World Cup is going on,”” Cantor told The California Post during an exclusive wide-ranging interview.
“That is the beauty and the difference between 1994 and today.”And nobody understands soccer’s evolution better than Cantor.His voice didn’t just narrate the sport’s rise in the United States.
It was the soundtrack of it. For four decades, Cantor’s iconic “¡Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!” has echoed through living rooms, bars, restaurants, stadiums and households across America.It turned a Spanish-language broadcaster into a mainstream cultural figure during the 1994 World Cup, when his calls exploded beyond Univision and into late-night television, commercials and pop culture itself. Cantor believes 2026 will dwarf 1994 in scale, visibility and cultural reach because the power no longer belongs solely to television networks. Now the fans themselves are broadcasters. “In 1994, it was either the network that I worked for or ABC,” Cantor said.
“That was the only way for people to find out about the World Cup other than newspapers or radio.Nowadays, everybody amplifies everything.
Watch parties.Fan zones.
Social media.Clips.
Stadium videos.Fans themselves will amplify the fact that the World C...