Grass or no grass, Atlanta is a great soccer city

This World Cup set attendance records, but the event itself does not evoke any fond memories. The final ended when Roberto Baggio – the Divine Ponytail – sent his penalty kick into the stands of the Rose Bowl. This remains the only title game to end without an actual goal. The highlights of 1994, such as they were, only caused a shift: even though the World Cup had come to us, we didn’t really know what to think of it.

In 2026, we will know what to think.

The 2024 Copa America – not the World Cup, but the biggest quadrennial event in this hemisphere – opened Thursday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Attendance was 70,564 people. Argentina, the reigning world champion, beat Canada 2-0. Lionel Messi failed to score a goal, although he could have scored several. In the graceful fashion of big-time football, Argentina blamed the faltering performance on the newly installed turf.

On the football side, this wasn’t the stadium’s first rodeo. Atlanta United has been playing in MBS in front of the biggest crowds in MLS since 2017. (United plays on artificial turf. Maybe that’s why it hasn’t won a home game since March. Although he beat Messi’s Inter Miami 3-1 on the road).

The U.S. national team will face Panama here on June 27. That will be it for Atlanta and the 2024 Copa. The 2026 World Cup will see eight matches, including a semi-final, hosted here.

In 2026, the United States will be ready in a way it was not in 1994. MLS did not yet exist then. (Its first season was in 1996.) Football was not a staple in any American media outlet. Even a decade later, Euro 2004 – the rough equivalent of a Copa America – was only available on pay-per-view. We compare this to the basic Friday cable schedule:

— Noon EDT: Poland-Austria, FS1.

— 3 p.m.: France-Netherlands, Fox.

— 8 p.m.: Peru-Chile, FS1.

— Also available, but not basic: Ukraine-Slovakia on Fubo, 9 a.m.

As a spectator country, we were not scheduled for the 1994 World Cup because we had little knowledge of what world football entailed. We didn’t have access to the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga or Serie A. By the end of the 20th century, we had started to get a taste of the UEFA Champions League, although the final of 1999 — Manchester United 2, Bayern Munich 1 — airs at 3 p.m. Eastern on a Wednesday.

(I can recite the climax. “AND SOLSJKAER WON IT!!!!”)

The makeup of the United States has changed since 1994, and so has American sports. MLS was aimed not at those who grew up watching baseball/basketball/American football, but at a younger, broader audience ready to experience something different. If Mike Trout, the best baseball player of this century, knocked on your door, you might not recognize him. If Messi did it, your neighborhood would come together in 30 seconds flat.

Personal notes: I watched part of the 1994 World Cup, but I didn’t understand it well. A few years later I read a Vanity Fair article about how London had gone crazy over the Chelsea football team. Being a bit of an Anglophile – okay, more than a bit – I started watching (sometimes recording) the one Premier League match broadcast by ESPN per week. I learned a lot about Blackburn Rovers.

This, I saw from afar, was different from national teams playing away from home in stadiums built for American football. It was intense. Soon I had a favorite team (Man United) and player (Beckham). It hasn’t always been easy to follow – in the pre-WiFi days, I learned that United had clinched the 1997 Premier League crown by reading the scores in USA Today two days after the fact – but I I had caught the bug.

I bought a shortwave radio to listen to the BBC World Service match of the week. (I would hang the antenna out of the car window on the way to college football games.) I knew who Robbie Earle and Robbie Mustoe were long before they were NBC’s Two Robbies. I started with England, but my interest became broader and broader. I follow baseball/basketball/American football because it’s my job. I watch football because I like it.

And even though I don’t fit the demographic of MLS — I’m not young anymore and I’ve never been hip — I know I’m not alone. In 1994, soccer in the United States wasn’t even a niche sport. Thirty years later, it has become mainstream. Atlanta United draws bigger crowds than the Braves. We are the home of American football. Messi came to town and stopped traffic. (Traffic often stops here, but usually not for a single person.)

We’ve had a lot in Atlanta – Super Bowls, Final Fours and even an Olympiad – but the football summer of ’26 might be our biggest deal yet. Hopefully the grass is greener by then.