BETHLEHEM, Pa. – It’s a big day for soccer fans, as they gathered to learn which teams will participate in the World Cup.<\/p>\n
FIFA kicked off the draw around noon for the top men’s soccer tournament at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C.<\/p>\n
Fans from around the world are waiting to hear if their team will make it to the world stage.<\/p>\n
Those soccer fans include many in the Lehigh Valley. They gathered at SteelStacks Friday for a World Cup draw watch party.<\/p>\n
This is the kick off to the journey of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
Since 2014, ArtsQuest has hosted their World Cup Draw Party. It’s the day we find out who the United States will play. 48 teams will be placed into 12 groups for the next World Cup.<\/p>\n
ArtsQuest’s COO Curt Mosel said it is a day they have been waiting for for several years.<\/p>\n
Soccer fans, coaches, and others from all over the Lehigh Valley and beyond gathered.<\/p>\n
The Eastern PA Youth Soccer Association had a set up for giveaways.<\/p>\n
Folks can take photos with a giant soccer ball that’s a replica of the World Cup ball. ArtsQuest says this is the big event that kicks off next summer’s line up for all of their events and programs.<\/p>\n
The event runs until 3 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – It’s a big day for soccer fans, as they gathered to learn which teams will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,2013,29871,157,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-53245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-fifa-world-cup","12":"tag-kennedy-center","13":"tag-lehigh-valley","14":"tag-pennsylvania"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}