It didn't take long for Americans to embrace the face paint.Or the flag-wearing.
Or the dancing and marching to the sounds of Brazil's samba or Scotland's bagpipes.The World Cup is halfway through, and it's shaping up exactly how soccer organizers and longtime fans had hoped: The tournament is one big party.A party that has stretched across sweaty sports bars and crowded parks.In hole-in-the-wall restaurants and sprawling football stadiums.
And in oppressive heat and relentless thunderstorms.In Boston, over a thousand fans gathered for the city's last fan festival at City Hall Plaza — cheering in unison with every goal scored during England vs.Panama." To be honest, I had no expectations.
But I didn't know how great it was gonna be," said Jason Jusino, of Medford, Mass." The city hasn't felt this kind of electricity in so long."The World Cup began dogged by criticism over sky-high ticket prices and concerns that the U.S.
was a problematic host.None of those issues has been resolved.
But Americans are showing up anyway for the world's most beloved sport and in record-breaking numbers.It comes as the U.S.
heads into its knockout stage match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday at 8 pm ET."Soccer has won," said Bret Myers, who teaches sports analytics at Villanova University's School of Business." In the sense of, it has kind of drowned out any potential issues or any of the controversies that were bubbling before the tournament."One of the most impressive stats so far is from the USMNT's opening game against Paraguay on June 12.
An average of about 25 million people tuned in across Fox, Telemundo and their streaming platforms — making it one of the most-watched soccer games ever broadcast in the U.S.That's according to data released by Nielsen, the media analytics company.To put that into perspective, the USMNT's first group stage game during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, against Wales, drew a total audience of 11.7 million people in the U.S.
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