Talking Sport with Craig Salmon - Home of Football deserves to stage the World Cup once again
America are set to host its second ‘soccer’ World Cup
My American-born partner Danielle is hugely looking forward to the start of the 2026 World Cup – especially as she has absolutely no recollection of the last time the competition was staged in her home country!
The 23rd edition of the greatest football tournament will begin in just over a couple of weeks’ time when joint host nation Mexico kick-off their campaign against South Africa in Mexico City.
It will only be the second occasion in its history that more than one country will be staging the competition following Japan and South Korea’s joint effort in 2002.
Mexico - which becomes the only country to stage the World Cup three times following the 1970 and 1986 tournaments - will join the USA and Canada as host nations.
Primarily the competition is being staged in the US though, with three cities in Mexico, including Guadulupe and Zapopan, alongside the capital, staging matches while Canadian cities
Vancouver and Toronto will also host ties.
Eleven American cities will host matches - Arlington, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, New York/New Jersey, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Philadelphia.
From the last eight of the competition onwards, the matches are held exclusively in the United States with the final scheduled for the 82,000 capacity MetLife Stadium - home of the New York Jets - in the state of New Jersey on July 19.
Excitement is certainly reaching fever pitch on this side of the pond as the tournament edges ever close - but whether it’s generating quite the same level of interest in “The Land of the Free” is anyone’s guess.
A convert to the beautiful game having lived on these shores for a number of years, Danielle admits the 1994 World Cup completely passed her by.
Aged 11 at the time, she vividly remembers World Cup fever failing to hit her sporty household in any shape or form .
There were no barbecue parties or family and friends, draped in the stars and stripes, crowded around the TV screen for the USA’s group matches.
For a football-mad Englishman, it’s incredible to think, especially as all of USA’s group matches took place in her home state of California!
Indeed the World Cup Final, which saw Brazil beat Italy on penalties, was held at the Pasadena Bowl in Los Angeles. She never watched one minute of it.
She was even chuckling to herself the other week when I showed her a grainy old YouTube clip of world-renowned singer Diana Ross’s epic failure to hit the target from the penalty spot at World Cup ’94’s opening ceremony - also held at the Pasadena - it was the first time she had heard about it or seen the footage.
So ask her about Bebeto or Baggio or Bulgaria’s epic run to the last four, she will look at you with some bewilderment.
To be fair, most people in England will not have great memories of the World Cup which took place 32 years ago.
It was the last time the Three Lions failed to qualify for a World Cup - indeed the most memorable moment of that summer for us Englishmen was watching Ireland’s English-born heroes Jack Charlton and John Aldridge have that comical spat with a FIFA official on the touchline during the Republic’s clash with Mexico.
This summer, we have no such issues with England safely qualified and set to begin their campaign against Croatia in Arlington on June 17.
After reaching the final of each of the past two European Championships - with both, of course, ending in glorious failure - and the semi-finals and quarter-finals of the past two respective World Cups in 2018 and 2022, it will be intriguing to see if the current crop of England stars can lay the ghost of 1966 to rest.
What is sure to happen is that everybody of an English persuasion is going to have fun over the next month or so finding out.
Pub opening times have been extended to accommodate the later kick-off times, St George’s flags will be hanging out of every bedroom and car window as World Cup fever promises to sweep across the nation.
I will be over in the States during part of the World Cup so it will be interesting to gauge how much of soccer’s World Cup touches the ordinary American family this time.
What is interesting is that in the country where the NFL, NBA, MLB reigns supreme and the Super Bowl is the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, it is now set to stage football’s premier international tournament for the second time.
Yet this country, our country, the one known as the ‘Home of Football’, boasting the world's first association football league, with some of the most historic and most known football clubs across the globe, is still waiting to have its second coming as a World Cup host.
We are the footballing superpower in terms of stadium infrastructure, training facilities and, of course, interest!
Football is our religion - it’s time we staged the World Cup once more.