{"id":823559,"date":"2026-07-24T17:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823559\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T17:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:53:19","slug":"soccer-stars-find-a-magical-connection-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823559\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer stars find ‘a magical connection’ in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

The 47 international soccer teams that visited the United States this summer found more than just competition. U.S. cities that served as training camps for visiting teams rolled out the red carpet for the world\u2019s best players and their traveling fans.<\/p>\n

Algeria\u2019s National Team chose Lawrence, Kansas, for its base camp \u2014 the place it would live and train before and during the tournament \u2014 because of the college town\u2019s outstanding facilities and proximity to Kansas City, where the team played two of its matches. As team members rolled into town, they heard their country\u2019s national anthem thanks to Sharon Toulouse, director of athletic bands at the University of Kansas. She had recruited members of the university\u2019s Marching Jayhawks band to rehearse the anthem and play it upon the Algerian team\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

\"MembersUniversity of Kansas band members show their support for Algeria\u2019s National Team. (\u00a9 Sharon L. Toulouse\/KU School of Music)<\/p>\n

Toulouse, who served in the U.S. military, tracked down a copy of the sheet music from the U.S. Army Band \u201cPershing\u2019s Own.\u201d Students wore Algerian scarves while playing the anthem for the Algerian players, and fans of the team who had come to watch practice sang along.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time I hear our national anthem, it means so much. I know it meant so much to them,\u201d Toulouse said. \u201cOur town just accepted them as their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Restaurants in Lawrence offered mint tea, an Algerian staple. And a local tourism bureau, eXplore Lawrence, hosted watch parties for Algeria\u2019s matches. Ruth DeWitt, director of community relations at eXplore Lawrence, and her husband hosted a fan of the Algerian team who visited from Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Algeria\u2019s fans showed their gratitude with a banner displayed at one of the team\u2019s matches. \u201cIt was a magical connection,\u201d DeWitt says, adding that Lawrence is now looking to form a sister city<\/a> relationship with a town in Algeria to continue the connection. \u201cThe joy and love between these communities has been valuable beyond any price tag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BelgiumBelgium National Team fans rally outside the stadium before a June 15 match in Seattle. (\u00a9 Blake Dahlin\/Imagn Images\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

Some of the outpouring of hospitality came from fans with connections to visiting teams. Ferdane Bekmezci, of Bellevue, Washington, was so \u201cjazzed up\u201d when she learned her native Belgium\u2019s national team would train near her adopted Seattle-area hometown that she organized a watch party and march to the stadium on match day.<\/p>\n

Fans of Team Belgium flocked together wearing matching face paint, jerseys and hats, she says, because soccer \u201cis in the backbone of people\u201d in Belgium. Bekmezci says she was also happy to see soccer gaining popularity<\/a> in the United States, where she is now a citizen, and that before watching the two teams square off, she believed she would win either way.<\/p>\n

\"FansFans watch the Croatia National Team train at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, June 10. (\u00a9 Igor Kralj\/Pixsell\/MB Media\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In anticipation of the Croatia National Team\u2019s arrival, staff at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, spent months growing, mowing, rolling and perfecting its Bermuda grass field. Dan O\u2019Neil, the school\u2019s director of auxiliary programs, says grounds crew head Glenn Sweet took the lead in readying the field. \u201cIf there was daylight, he was on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school provided golf carts to shuttle players between the weight room and the pitch and opened its basketball gym for players to unwind after practice.<\/p>\n

When hundreds of local kids came to watch practice, \u201cthe team seemed to have fun with it \u2014 signing autographs and kicking balls into the crowd,\u201d O\u2019Neil says. Croatian players also gifted the school a national team jersey that will go on display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 47 international soccer teams that visited the United States this summer found more than just competition. U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[118762,49,48,288064,561,82,1674],"class_list":["post-823559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-american-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-international-cooperation","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823559","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=823559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}