The World Cup Is Bringing Out the Best in America Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. For two weeks, the World Cup has done something nothing else in America has managed to do lately. It has brought the entire world to our doorstep, and the entire world is falling in love with what they found. Trey is joined by Mark Donaldson — a native Scotsman, longtime ESPN broadcaster, and now an American citizen who has been living this World Cup from every angle imaginable. Native Scot. American by choice. And right now, the best person on earth to explain what is actually happening in cities across this country. The Tartan Army Takeover Scotland beat Haiti 1-0 in their opening match — their first World Cup win since 1990, only the fifth in their entire history. And the Scottish fans who made the trip did not just show up. They took over. Ten thousand of them descended on Boston and Providence, bagpipes and all. They packed Fenway Park for a Red Sox game mid-tournament and sang for nine straight innings without stopping. They drained bars dry across the city. They quadrupled the entire region's average St. Patrick's Day beer consumption — in the most Irish city in America, on a random Tuesday in June. And in the middle of all that chaos — zero arrests. Compare that to Scotland's trip to Germany for the Euros two years ago, where 200,000 fans traveled across three cities and also produced zero arrests. This isn't luck. It's who they are. Mark even points to something most people would never notice — city workers in Boston commenting on how thoroughly the Scots cleaned up after themselves. Tidy as they came. A Fresh Look at America Here's the part that hits hardest. Mark has lived in America since 2010. He remembers a time when this country was universally seen, by outsiders, as the best place in the world to be. That perception has shifted in recent years. But for two weeks this summer, something has changed. Fans from forty-eight different nations have arrived, and they are falling in love with this country in real time — the food, the energy, the openness, the sheer scale of everything. Quesadillas the size of your head. Biscuits and gravy. Chipotle treated like a religious experience. Mark's message is simple and it's the whole point of this conversation — don't let this be a two-week moment we look back on fondly. Let it be a wake-up call to keep building on what we clearly still have. The US Team Is Real Mark watched the United States' opening match at a neighbor's watch party, fully expecting to be polite about it. Instead, he says it might be the best first half of soccer he has ever seen — better than what he saw out of Germany. The U.S. is favorably positioned heading into the knockout rounds, and Mark believes a quarterfinal run is realistic if the team can replicate that level of play. The World Cup at Large Trey and Mark also get into the bigger tournament picture — Messi, still magic even though he no longer moves like he used to. Mbappé as the most dangerous player in the field right now, followed by Harry Kane and Erling Haaland. France as the favorite to win it all, given their strength and depth heading into the brutal heat and humidity that will define the knockout stage. A breakout teenager on Morocco's midfield. And one incredible story out of Cape Verde, where a player with Irish roots was scouted and recruited entirely through LinkedIn messages — and is now keeping clean sheets against Spain on the world's biggest stage. Why This Matters Strip away the trophy, the brackets, and the predictions, and what's left is the simplest part of the whole story. People from forty-eight countries showed up in America this summer with flags, instruments, and an unstoppable amount of joy — and for a little while, that joy was contagious. Sports does that. It always has. The World Cup is just proving it all over again, right here, right now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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