Lalas: USA '94 was groundbreaking for soccer — '26 needs to be even better

Alexi Lalas

Soccer Analyst

The 2026 World Cup starts in a year — it’ll be here before we know it.

This World Cup represents an opportunity and a responsibility for our country. A home World Cup is special. I’ve lived the power of what a World Cup can do to an individual, and I’ve also seen how it can fundamentally change a culture.

Alexi Lalas lines up the wall for the U.S. against Brazil at the 1994 World Cup. (Photo by Mark Leech/Getty Images)

My life changed forever after the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., but soccer in America also changed forever. To this day, I still meet people who point to 1994 as a seminal moment from their youth and a touchstone for when their love of the beautiful game was born and ignited.

A few years later in 1999, the women’s World Cup produced another legacy moment for the game in the U.S. The reverberations of those World Cup are still felt today.

Now we are barreling down the tracks headed for another World Cup in our country. The opportunity the World Cup represents is to once again harness that power and invite people into the soccer tent, hopefully igniting a love that lasts long after the final whistle.

The responsibility we have is to make sure we don’t screw it up, on or off the field. If we get it right, people will be left with a positive and memorable experience and impression of our country, seen through the lens of the World Cup.

The 2026 World Cup is the biggest in history. It has the potential to be the biggest cultural event in world history.

Soccer in America has grown and changed dramatically over the past 30-plus years. The World Cup is returning to an American soccer culture that is mature, educated, and discerning. But the opportunity for a positive and lasting impact on another generation is even greater.

The 2026 World Cup is the biggest in history. It has the potential to be the biggest cultural event in world history. Regardless of what happens at the 2026 World Cup, history will be written. It’s up to us to determine what that history looks like.

One year. I can’t wait.

Alexi Lalas is a soccer analyst for FOX Sports and host of “Alexi Lalas’ State of the Union Podcast.” He represented the USMNT at the 1994 FIFA World Cup and had a nine-year professional career. In 2006, he became the president of the LA Galaxy and helped bring David Beckham to Major League Soccer.