I’m a sucker for U.S. World Cup cheering montages; I love seeing that tense anticipation in a crowd of thousands turn into spasms of shared joy, flags waving and water flying through the air and the crowd chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” whenever the women’s or men’s team does something amazing. It feels extremely patriotic and extremely unifying, a rare occasion in these grim and seismic times.
The U.S. doesn’t compete in many big international events, which is why the World Cup always feels big. There’s too damn much going on in the Olympics and we don’t do Eurovision, due to a tragic lack of upper-echelon camp professionals.