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<\/p>\nHe touches on watching matches from half-empty stands in Italy in 1990 to what he felt was the troubling legacy of Qatar in 2022. Kuper also presents the human side of the tournament from inside stadiums to local communities, bars, restaurants, and the streets.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
The off-field lead-up for this year\u2019s event was particularly unusual in the United States. Fans were concerned about immigration and customs enforcement, and travel restrictions were levied on the Iranian team, which moved its training camp from Tucson, Ariz., to Tijuana, Mexico. <\/p>\n
Kuper, who attended matches in the U.S. northeast and spent time in the fan festival areas there, described it as a \u201cfantastic atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of the face of the U.S. that we all love as opposed to the face of the U.S. that we\u2019ve been seeing these last 10 years,\u201d he said from Philadelphia. \u201cSo it\u2019s just lovely to see that the America we knew still exists, that it is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto and Vancouver hosted the 13 matches that were played in Canada. Kuper didn\u2019t make it north of the border, but was impressed by the spirit he saw on display from fans across the world. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a vision of an alternative U.S. that was much needed,\u201d he said in a recent interview. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s going to be an absolutely central legacy. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then another legacy for better or for worse is the expansion to 48 teams, which I think we\u2019re not going to go back from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada certainly benefited from the addition of 16 additional sides. The co-host landed in a weak pool that included just one top-20 team. <\/p>\n
The 30th-ranked national side finished second behind No. 19 Switzerland in a four-team group with No. 56 Qatar and No. 64 Bosnia-Herzegovina. <\/p>\n
Canada caught another break by securing a round-of-32 matchup against No. 60 South Africa. Canada won 1-0 before dropping a 3-0 decision to seventh-ranked Morocco in the round of 16 last weekend. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe quality has declined, but World Cups have never really been about quality \u2013 or not for many decades \u2013 anyway,\u201d Kuper said. \u201cSo it\u2019s long been true, probably for about 25 years, that the best soccer is club soccer. The best club soccer is the best soccer. And this World Cup is below (that).\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWorld Cups are about drama, not quality,\u201d he added. \u201cSo with 48 teams, there\u2019s more of these Cinderellas, more potential for a story like Cape Verde\u2019s. And given that we\u2019re not here for the quality, I think it enhances the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tournament continues through the July 19 final at New York\/New Jersey Stadium. The 2030 event will be another three-country effort with Morocco, Spain and Portugal sharing hosting duties.<\/p>\n
As for the potential of Canada hosting World Cup games again in the future, Kuper said the \u201crhythms are very slow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s in 30 years, that would make sense because even when Japan bid for (the) 2022 (tournament), people said, \u2018Oh, you know, it\u2019s only been 20 years since there was a World Cup in Japan,\u2019 he said. \u201cSo in a sense people have a long memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps not in many Canadians\u2019 lifetimes, but yes it will come back,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd of course Canada is a great country to host the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWorld Cup Fever: A Soccer Journey in Nine Tournaments\u201d is published by Pegasus Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It has a retail price of $39.95 in Canada.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 8, 2026. <\/p>\n
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He touches on watching matches from half-empty stands in Italy in 1990 to what he felt was the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-789115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}