When the U.S. Men’s National Team hits the pitch in Los Angeles, fans will bust out in “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” <\/p>\n
U.S. Soccer officials picked John Denver’s 1971 country folk song as the post-match sing-along.<\/p>\n
Before he changed his name to Denver and became famous, the man who sang about West Virginia as the place he belonged belonged to Fort Worth for a time. <\/p>\n
“While he wasn’t here long, he is still a product of our songwriter scene and wrote a lot of great music while he was here,” said Tom Martens, the Vice President of Creative Film and Music, and Director of the Fort Worth Music office under Visit Fort Worth, the city’s tourism organization. <\/p>\n
Denver was the son of a U.S. Air Force officer who was stationed in Fort Worth while Denver was in high school.<\/p>\n
Before he took the stage name Denver, friends at Arlington Heights High School knew him as Henry John Deutschendorf, Junior. <\/p>\n
He graduated in 1961, and a decade later wrote and recorded the hit song “Take Me Home.” <\/p>\n
55 years later, it’s taking the World Cup by storm as the song that gets U.S. Soccer fans on their feet and players singing along. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just fun to see it, you know, kind of have a resurgence or seeing it added to a lot of playlists,” Martens said. “It’s such a beautiful song.”<\/p>\n
He knows the city’s singers and songwriters and says the Fort Worth connection to Denver should have us singing “Take Me Home” at the top of our lungs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn’t here long, but we see a lot of influence, and that he was possibly gifted a guitar while he was here in Fort Worth. And so that probably led to the songs that we all know and love and are part of the U.S. Men’s National Team, their unofficial anthem for the World Cup. So I think we’re gonna take as much credit as we can get for having this legend for the time he was in Fort Worth,” Martens said. <\/p>\n
NBC News reports that a spokesperson for U.S. Soccer said FIFA had asked teams to submit potential playlists for warmups, goals,<\/a> and wins. When trying to determine suitable postgame songs for wins, the team sought ones that were \u201cboth representative of American artists and would be great sing-alongs for the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d and \u201cLivin\u2019 on a Prayer\u201d were the winners. The shortlist also included \u201cSweet Caroline,\u201d according to the spokesperson, but England had already used that song.<\/p>\n Denver’s lyrics “Country roads, take me home \/ To the place I belong \/ West Virginia, mountain mama \/ Take me home, country roads,” are recognized around the world.<\/p>\n But Martens says, Denver had never been to The Mountain State.<\/p>\n “Supposedly at that time, he had never been been to West Virginia and he’d never even been that far in the United States and so it was really just a nostalgic song of coming home and you know getting back to your family and the place that you loved and I think that now connects with people more than ever and especially during this time where there’s so much pride in our teams and you, know our individual cities that are participating in the World Cup,” Martens said. <\/p>\n An article on the U.S. soccer website about the song quotes midfielder Sebastian Berhalter saying the atmosphere in Seattle Stadium after the win over Australia last week was insane,<\/a> and the singing of “Country Roads” was pretty special.<\/p>\n Fans in the stands posted numerous videos<\/a> on social media of the giant sing-along in Seattle.<\/p>\n \u201cCOUNTRY ROADS, TAKE ME HOME, TO THE PLACE I BELONG, WEST VIRGINIA!\u201d <\/p>\n The vibes are unreal in Seattle right now! \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 pic.twitter.com\/wgy7UeNWcA<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Kyle Sheldon \u26bd\ufe0f\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@kylesheldon) June 19, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n The U.S. Men’s National Team and their fans hope to belt it out loud and proud all the way to a World Cup win. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t