From complimentary coffee and soft-drink refills, to an endless selection of goods, to gas stations as spacious as department stores, to enormous food servings, to superstores like Walmart, to central air conditioning, to offering a sincere welcome to visitors from around the world, America has impressed its friends from foreign lands.
In many respects, the World Cup Soccer Tournament has done more than any infomercial could have achieved in changing foreign “football” fans’ perception of this country as it prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary.
While we Americans may not all agree on the merits of living in these United States, the genuinely positive reactions of those thousands visiting this country for the first time belie all the dystopian stories they’ve been sold by their media outlets back home. First impressions can’t be easily orchestrated or manipulated, and the countless YouTube videos and those on other platforms certainly appear to have restored World Cup visitors’ perceptions of an America they’ve been told no longer existed. A recent Times of London article captured one British visitor’s changed view of the former colony.
“Americans, I need to apologise to you,” confessed a British woman called Skylar. “Before I came to this country, I believed everything negative I saw in the news. I saw things about how everyone was rude, how everyone tried to rip you off and how people just genuinely don’t get on. I have now been here over two weeks, and I can confirm that is not the truth.”
Skylar, we understand your initial trepidations about conditions on the other side of the pond.
Lately, due to policies emanating from the White House, American prestige has taken a hit.
It’s no coincidence that in the last few years, tourists from Canada to Japan have avoided the United States, due in part to this country’s stepped-up, sometimes overly aggressive immigration enforcement and punishing tariffs on imported goods.
But government policies don’t define everyday Americans, or how they’ll open their hearts to every contingent of World Cup fans traveling here to witness this every four-year event in person.
We need look no further than Boston’s embrace of the contagiously friendly folks from Scotland, replete with tartans, bagpipes and a seemingly unquenchable thirst for Sam Adams or any other beer within reach.
Their outrageously funny antics, especially the donning of every statue in Boston with a traffic cone, spoke to their mischievous, disarming nature.
The Scots even took their traveling show to Fenway Park to uplift the spirits of suffering Red Sox fans. Dressed in their signature tartans, they even sang along with the “Sweet Caroline” rendition belted out in the eighth inning of every home game.
The mayors of Boston and Glasgow exchanged letters, the first step in becoming sister cities.
While the Scottish team was eliminated in the opening round of the competition, their fans were second to none.
And usually reserved Boston’s warm reception proved to be the rule, not the exception.
It’s been the same case in every one of the other 10 U.S. venues hosting World Cup matches.
In Kansas, the city of Lawrence, which hosted Algeria in the group stages, adopted the African team with open arms. The local high-school band even mastered that country’s national anthem to welcome the players to their base camp.
In Dallas earlier this week, Norway’s top striker, Erling Haaland, posted a photo of himself in a Texas clothing shop wearing an all-American T-shirt that read: “You can kiss my Dallas” — shortly after leading his team to a 2-1 win over the Ivory Coast.
The downhome hospitality of Chattanooga, Tenn., made a lasting impression on Spain’s World Cup team during its stay in that city by the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Spanish players openly raved about their hosts’ Southern hospitality. Before leaving for Los Angeles on Tuesday to play Austria, they posted a group photo from a school field holding a banner simply reading: “Gracias, Chattanooga!”
Whether in Los Angeles, Seattle, Kansas City or other host cities, the welcome mat was laid out for our foreign visitors — both the teams and their throng of diehard fans.
While our foreign visitors marveled at the variety and size of food portions, they formed a special bond in their palate for ranch dressing.
Made primarily from buttermilk, vegetable oil and spices, it created such a sensation that travelers returning home were stuffing ranch bottles in their carry-on luggage.
It reached such a point that the Transportation Security Administration had to remind ranch hands that those bottles would be confiscated due to their excess volume.
Fondness for a particular salad dressing aside, our visitors apparently saw what many of our self-loathing citizens can’t or refuse to see — a country that’s still a global beacon of hope and possibilities.
World Cup visitors, we’d like to say thank-you for showing us why — despite our shortcomings — we’re still the envy of the civilized world.
Americans, please keep that in mind as you celebrate this nation’s 250th anniversary of the “democratic experiment.”
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