Even by the lofty standards of Seattle sports lore, the scenes surrounding the opening match of the Emerald City’s FIFA World Cup debut were special. This is a city that is no stranger to the big event: from NCAA Final Fours, NFC Championships, the Goodwill Games, Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game and countless other sporting spectacles over the years.
Even in Seattle soccer history, there are some of the biggest moments in the sport’s North American past in the city’s legacy – from global icon Pele and his New York Cosmos opening the Kingdome against the hometown Sounders in NASL play in 1976 to continental and domestic championships being won at Lumen Field by the modern iteration of Sounders FC. Last summer’s Leagues Cup Final was a notable moment, where 69,314 partisan fans roared the Rave Green onto victory over international star Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates in a major final.
And yet, what we collectively witnessed on Monday stood apart as a unique moment on the world’s grandest sporting stage. There is simply nothing to compare with the FIFA World Cup, where each of the 104 matches in this tournament are viewed by hundreds of millions of people – and sometimes by more than one billion for the biggest matches in the tournament. As both a cultural and physical gateway to the international community on the Pacific Rim and a leading community on North America’s West Coast, Seattle earned this opportunity, and the region welcomed the world with open arms as it hosted the World Cup for the first time on Monday.
The Game Belongs to the People
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National sports reporter Kevin Baxter is no stranger to Western Washington, having covered many MLS contests and other sporting events in town for The LA Times over the years, and even his veteran eyes were impressed with Monday’s scenes ahead of the Belgium versus Egypt match.
“This is a fantastic environment. I walked a couple miles to the stadium this morning and it was a sea of red,” said Baxter. “Egyptians, Belgians, everybody taking pictures of each other sharing their experiences. Everybody on the street seemed to be having a good time … it was a proper football experience.”
Baxter’s observations rang true as Seattle’s resplendent weather on the shores of Puget Sound provided an idyllic backdrop for throngs of global soccer fans to congregate across the city.
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For players that have competed at the highest levels of international football, the atmosphere inside Seattle Stadium stood out. Youri Tielemans has plied his trade in England’s Premier League for the past seven years, recently helping Aston Villa win a European trophy before joining the Belgian National Team for this summer’s World Cup. The midfielder knows what top-level soccer environments look like. He and his international teammates are calling Seattle home for the summer – training daily at Sounders FC’s Providence Swedish Performance Center & Clubhouse – and he left Monday’s match with a strong impression of what he saw inside Seattle Stadium.
Said Tielemans, “Yeah it was good. Before the game, after the game and during the game you try to focus, but [the atmosphere] was really good, we had both sets of fans making noise, so it was great.”
Egyptian goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir agreed, stating after a strong performance that yielded his team a valuable point in Group G, “It’s a very good city, we like the city a lot, and we’re excited of course to play here in Seattle.”
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Seattle is a community that has soccer in its blood. From record-setting professional attendances to an unrivaled domestic scene at the youth and amateur levels, this is a region that is built for this moment. Elite international players like Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, Omar Marmoush and Jeremy Doku rewarded the nearly sold out crowd with unrivaled star power on Monday afternoon. To be able to showcase the city’s credentials to the world is gratifying, and Seattle is only getting started.
If Monday’s sights and sounds are anything to go by, the atmosphere for Seattle’s other five FIFA World Cup matches is going to be worthy of the globe’s biggest sporting stage. And the next contest is perhaps the crown jewel of the city’s slate of games: the United States Men’s National Team taking on the Australians in a high-stakes Group D encounter on Friday, June 19.
The Americans are flying high following a 4-1 win over Paraguay in Los Angeles to open the tournament, with the upstart Aussies knocking off European power Turkiye over the weekend in Vancouver. This is now one of the most anticipated matchups of the second round, and Seattle is once again ready to provide a second-to-none backdrop for such an occasion.
