6 min readTHERE’S NO ONE one better qualified to explain what the World Cup means—and what it demands of you, the fan—than Roger Bennett. The British-born, New York-based founder and host of the Men in Blazers podcast has spent more than a decade building a cult following among American soccer fans, wielding equal parts wit, erudition, and fervor to convert the uninitiated. His podcast, launched in 2011, became the go-to guide for a generation of fans learning to love the beautiful game. His book, We Are the World (Cup): A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Sporting Event, is a fun but powerful read on why this tournament matters so much. His wish: “When the whistle goes, and the ball is kicked, may you experience that sense of anticipation, hope, and possibility. The feeling of being alive, of your heartbeat syncing with the rest of the world, watching transcendent, pure moments that can drive out darkness and let in light.” Heady stuff! With the 2026 World Cup kicking off on American soil across 16 cities—the first time the US has hosted since 1994—Bennett Zoomed with Men’s Health to break down what to watch, if USA can win, and why even the skeptics will be converted.
MEN’S HEALTH: Why does the World Cup matter, especially right now?
ROGER BENNETT: Look, the joy of the World Cup is its colossal heft. There’s nothing like it. Two hundred million people watch the Super Bowl. About five billion watch the World Cup. It’s the last true global mass broadcast—a billboard visible to outer space. What I’ve always loved about it is that the World Cup holds a mirror up to the society that surrounds it. We saw that in South Africa in 2010—Africa giddily announcing itself to the world, the shadow of Mandela so powerfully clinging to the tournament. And with this world in chaos, football is still that mirror. We may not always like what we see, but the tournament still delivers. Something switches on the second a ball is kicked. The world just flips, with cognitive dissonance from the rational to the emotional. The sport kicks in front and center—the theater, the narrative, the telenovela—acted out live, without a script. The World Cup becomes like a global eclipse, sweeping the entire planet.
MH: There’s a lot of pre-tournament anxiety—ticket prices, logistics, FIFA chaos. Should fans be worried?
RB: Every single World Cup runs into this. South Africa—there was so much talk about carjacking and crime. Don’t go, you’ll be killed getting to a game. Brazil—social unrest, political unrest, riots. People were warned not to go. It was the greatest party the world has ever seen. It happens every time. The second Messi takes the field, the second England enters with high hopes and bends itself in new and cruel and unpredictable ways—the world is mesmerized. This tournament will be fine.
MH: Which USA players should fans know?
ROGER BENNETT: These human beings are remarkable—their sacrifice, their stories, the way they represent the nation in a truly eclectic way. Tyler Adams, from Wappingers Falls, New York, plays in the Premier League for Bournemouth. In another world, he probably would have been a great cornerback. He lives to destroy, but he’s also deeply emotionally intelligent—you saw that in the run-up to the Iran game in 2022, when he was put on the spot with genuinely fraught geopolitical questions and carried himself like an ambassador for the nation. Then there’s Chris Richards, a 26-year-old defender from Alabama, from SEC country. To have someone from Alabama playing at the elite level of the Premier League for Crystal Palace is remarkable. He will be the face of this team—a joyous, soulful face. And then Folarin Balogun, a 24-year-old striker born in New York City, moved to London as a kid, came through Arsenal’s academy, plays for Monaco in France. He’s probably the most potent player we’ve got. He’s exploded this year with a goal-scoring spree of sheer ecstasy. For all of them, that one Landon Donovan–esque moment—that golden goal, that save, that tackle—could be life-changing. There has never been a World Cup like this one for US players in terms of the life before that moment and the life after it.
MH: Is this the strongest US team ever?
RB: The US has never had more players individually playing for bigger teams, in bigger games, in bigger moments in Europe. It’s the most accomplished group individually. The open question is that we didn’t have to qualify—we’ve just played friendlies, essentially NFL preseason games for the past couple of years. You don’t really test yourself that way. You find your way as a World Cup team in qualifying, when you’re playing steel-sharpening-steel opponents. We’ve had none of that. So we are probably one of the most intriguing stories going into this World Cup. Host nations are expected to make their nation sing. And we have no idea who we are or how we’re going to announce ourselves to the world. We won’t know until that opening game kicks off.
MH: What does success actually look like for the US?
RB: This tournament’s bigger than ever. The round of 16 is now the round of 32. We should be winning that game. Can we win a round of 16 game? Can we get to the quarterfinal? That’s where we find out our true weight class. The crazy thing about America is that when we do well—and by doing well I mean get out the group and put up a semi-decent fight in the first knockout round—it feels historic. Landon Donovan’s incredible goal against Algeria in 2010? That just got us out of the group. Tim Howard’s 15-save game against Belgium? That was in a defeat. America put a man on the moon. We invented the Cronut. Our women kick ass and take names. How is it our men have won the sum total of one World Cup knockout game in our entire history? Success is to do that, and then to do it again.
MH: What about fans who hate the diving and the playacting?
RB: Have they watched James Harden? SGA? Have they watched LeBron in the NBA playoffs? Have they seen what ‘roughing the passer’ has become in the NFL? Look, elite global football players feel pain, their molecules just absorb it in superhuman ways known only to the truly few. When you embrace that reality, you understand the game better. The dark arts of football are half the story in certain cultures. They’re not just part of the game, they’re adored. Think about 1986: Maradona’s hand nudged the ball into the net. Within minutes, he also picks up the ball deep in his own half and lacerated the entire English team for arguably the greatest goal ever scored. He knew he could beat the whole team if he wanted—he just chose to use his hand first to humiliate them. Then the branding, within seconds of the final whistle, when asked if he hand-balled it, he says: ‘A little bit the head of Diego, a little bit the hand of God.’ That’s genius-level branding.
MH: What soccer books should fans read to better understand the global game?
RB: Soccer in Sun and Shade by Uruguayan poet Eduardo Galeano—no one has written about football in a more humanly poetic way. He wrote that Diego Maradona dribbled as if the ball was stuck to his foot, and Lionel Messi plays as if the ball is actually lodged inside his sock. Reading that man allows you to truly understand everything. Then there’s A Life Too Short, by Ronald Reng—it’s about a German international goalkeeper who took his own life on the brink of a World Cup, under the stress and pressure and mental challenges the game can heap upon these men. It’s a reminder that for everything we’re about to witness—the circus, the turbulence, the human wonder—these guys are human. They feel things. And football is at its best when it transcends football and becomes about life. Third book? My own. We Are the World Cup. I’m contractually obligated.
MH: Final prediction: Who wins it?
RB: The heart says the United States of America. The head says, ‘What are you talking about, heart?’ Realistically, France or Spain. If you want an outsider, Norway. A young team qualifying for their first World Cup in a generation, with the equivalent of a young Shaquille O’Neal breaking backboards in Erling Haaland leading the line. That will be magical to witness. And God—the idea of England winning a World Cup in America, in its 250th year, is almost too hard to fathom. If it does happen, it will launch fireworks from orifices we did not know fireworks could be propelled from. It’s both an astonishingly powerful thought and an astonishingly horrific one.
Ben Court is the Executive Editor of Men's Health. He has a decade of experience writing and editing stories about peak performance, as it relates to health, nutrition, fitness, weight loss, and sex and relationships. He enjoys yoga, cycling, running, swimming, lifting, grilling, and napping.
