World Cup
“I don’t think there’s any passion in the world like Boston passion.”
Hours after fans learned which nations will be coming to Gillette Stadium for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a packed crowd at Roadrunner roared its delight at the state of local soccer as part of a live episode of the “Men in Blazers” podcast on Saturday night.
Led by perpetually amiable host Roger Bennett, an array of guests rotated through a night of festivities meant to mark the excitement about the official revealing of the World Cup schedule.
Surprise cameos were hinted at alongside a scheduled contingent that included musician and noted Chelsea fan (and New England native) Noah Kahan. And much to the crowd’s delight, former Bruins captain Zdeno Chara along with World Cup champion Sam Mewis provided jolts of excitement as the unexpected guests.
In between that, US soccer players past and present (Herculez Gomez, Clint Dempsey, and Matt Turner) along with soccer journalists James Horncastle and Rory Smith added insight about the approaching World Cup.
There were two common threads throughout the night. The first was a steady stream of jokes about the protracted and, at times, awkward World Cup Final Draw on Friday, which determined the composition of the tournament’s group stage.
“We learned that Wayne Gretzky doesn’t believe in rehearsals,” quipped Bennett, a nod at the Canadian hockey legend’s calamitous pronunciations of nations such as Curaçao, North Macedonia, and Jordan during FIFA’s draw.
“It could’ve been an email,” Horncastle added later of the two-hour production.
The other theme was the overriding excitement for the slate of summer games. Even with surprise guests and Kahan, arguably the loudest cheer of the night came at the mention of the Haitian men’s national team, which qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1974 and will begin the tournament against Scotland at Gillette Stadium on June 13.
The loudest boos, without question, arrived when Smith (an English journalist for The Athletic) brazenly suggested his home country might win the World Cup for the first time since 1966.
“The world has to get ready for the possibility of England winning the World Cup,” he noted smilingly as the crowd jeered. England, seen as one of the favorites, will face Ghana at Gillette Stadium on June 23.
On a more basic level, the show — as it often is with Bennett’s boundless enthusiasm — was a celebration of American soccer fandom. Fans donned jerseys representing a plethora of European, international, and New England teams. The local selection was especially strong. Portland Hearts of Pine, Vermont Green FC, Rhode Island FC, the Revolution, and Boston Legacy FC were on display along with the standard allotment of Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal fans (with a few stray Evertonians mixed in to cheer Bennett’s own team).
“It’s like a Star Wars Cantina of New England soccer,” Bennett joked.
When the World Cup gets underway in June, Boston Stadium (which is FIFA’s misleadingly formal distinction for Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium) will host five group stage games, as well as a Round of 32 matchup and a quarterfinal.
Bennett couldn’t resist a joke about FIFA’s “Boston” branding, predicting that locals need to brace for the many interactions in which they could be “explaining to thousands of Norwegians, ‘Where is Boston stadium?’”
One of the official representatives of the local World Cup organizers was on-hand, as Revolution president (and World Cup Boston 2026 chairman of the board) Brian Bilello arrived for the show wearing a throwback USA jersey from the 1994 World Cup (which also was hosted in the United States).
“We felt strongly that if we really went for it, we could make it happen for Massachusetts,” Bilello said beforehand of the Kraft family-led bid to bring World Cup games back to the area. “That’s what I’m most proud of, that we were able to get the games here, and we’re going to see a great impact on our community. More than anything, the World Cup is a community event. It’s not just the games, it’s everything that goes along with it. It’s a 30-day long celebration.
One of his only recommendations for US fans: “We need a new chant,” Kahan said of the longstanding “I believe that we will win” chant.
“Horrible,” he joked.
Kahan, asked about what he thinks Boston will bring to the world stage next summer, summarized his view with a straightforward take.
“I don’t think there’s any passion in the world like Boston passion.”
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