This summer’s World Cup is especially exciting for local soccer fans of the U.S. men’s team, when the squad will be playing on home turf for the first time in decades. And there are few fanbases that will have as much passion for their teams as the Boston chapter of the U.S. soccer supporters group American Outlaws.
Dorchester bar The Banshee is the chapter’s home base. Bar owner Ray Butler says staff already know not to take any vacation during the World Cup window.
“[We] really, really, really hope that USA are somehow playing on July Fourth,” Butler said. “That would be awesome, in the playoffs.”
American soccer fan will also get a rare treat: Games played in their time zones, compared to recent tournaments in Qatar and Russia. Mario David Zepeda, the creative director of AO Boston, says a big part of the excitement this year is having the U.S. men play World Cup matches on the home pitch.
“They’re not playing halfway around the world, they’re not playing in different time zones that you’ve gotta wake up at the crack of dawn, they’re playing [on] U.S. soil,” Zepeda said. “So, it does make it extra special.”
And the Banshee, in particular, is anticipating a line out the door.
“I would say that every group stage game for the men will be, I’m sure, at capacity prior to kickoff,” said Evan Cipriano, AO Boston’s secretary. “So I’d encourage people to get there early.”
Along with the Banshee, AO Boston is working with three other venues to host watch parties for the U.S. games: Parlor Sports in Somerville, Teddy’s on the Hill in Boston and Faces Brewing Co. in Malden.
But Cipriano himself isn’t planning to be local for the team’s opening round games. He bought two tickets to each of the three U.S. group stage matches on the West Coast — which put him out about $5,000. And that’s not even including travel, accommodations and food.
“It’ll be a very expensive vacation, but one I am looking forward to,” he said. “Lot of friends that will be doing the same, so it will be good to see people.”
Still, he acknowledges how ridiculous of a price that is, especially when he compares it to his World Cup experience in 2014.
“I think my entire trip to Brazil, match tickets included, and that was on a private charter that the American Outlaws had run to get people down to Brazil was about $5,000 for one person,” he said. “It’s crazy when you’re thinking: just match tickets alone is the cost of an entire World Cup trip.”
That’s a reflection of what Cipriano says might be the most “greed-driven” World Cup ever.
Add costs to concerns about everything from immigration enforcement to the United States being at war with Iran, whose team will be playing in the international tournament.
Cipriano went to the World Cup in Russia back in 2018 and looks back on that now as sportswashing. He says it feels somewhat similar now.
“Sad to say, but I think a lot of these world sporting events now, that’s what it comes down to,” he said. “Whether it’s the Olympics or a World Cup type of event, countries are using it as an opportunity to sell the world on a certain view of their country, even if it’s not necessarily reflective of their policies and their actions.”
But despite all that baggage, he’s still excited to cheer on the Yanks in person.
“To see your team play a World Cup match on home soil is just something that — like, in my mind, I can’t really comprehend what it will be like,” he said.
