World Cup 2026

You won’t catch me in that kind of crowd, :winking_face_with_tongue: but this city does love soccer and it shows.
(We are enjoying much smaller watch parties. Lol)

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Wow! I’m excited for my son and his girlfriend as they are attending the game in Atlanta this evening. They looked so cute this morning decked out in their Morocco jerseys and hats as they headed into the city. Hope it’s a fun one!

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S & DIL attended a game in NYC. They said it was OK. Everyone was pretty chill and no one got very worked up as the outcome didn’t matter and probably wasn’t in doubt. They were happy to attend because it was convenient to where they live.

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And the real winner is……

Kraft!

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I have very much enjoyed all the Youtube clips about the international visitors experiencing American food at Buc-ees, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, 7-11. They can’t get over how big the drinks are or that the coffee refills are free.

They are spending a fortune and loving it.

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The Scots have made themselves hugely popular!

They are so funny! Freddy was hilarious but there are plenty of others.

Thrilled that South Africa made it to the knockouts - their first time and only the 7th African nation in World Cup history to do so.

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And ode to one of the smallest nations to complete.

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NJ? Which doesn’t seem to exist.

There are some cute, funny reels about the visitors returning to their country and being totally disappointed in the food at their restaurants - not tasty, serving to small, no free refills, etc. They all seem to definitely enjoy our culture. I would have loved to have been a young person in Boston while the Scots visited.

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Yes, there is some bitterness about this. The Garden State, where the stadium is 100% located, seems to have taken a backseat, maybe as far back as the trunk, to NYC, which offers a fine distraction between games.

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We just get the traffic and commuters not being able to commute on match days. Other than that?

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Let’s not forget their excitement and cravings for ranch dressing!
At first I didn’t understand why there was this wonderment about ranch dressing. I didn’t realize it wasn’t an international thing until my daughter explained it to me. Then, I realized that we tend to eat a lot of salads that automatically seemed to come with ranch dressing.
When I traveled internationally, and when I requested a salad, the wait staff paused, and looked at me as though I had asked for an impossible side dish.
Our country does tend to have it a lot with salad, chicken wings, french fries, and vegetables.

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Yep! As noted! World Cup 2026 - #124 by jym626

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My husband was perplexed at the ranch dressing commercials. Personally I can’t eat the bottled ranch. When the kids were young I would buy the packet that used buttermilk.

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I know! I saw that earlier and I appreciated your post!

I just couldn’t grasp the idea that it was a novelty in European and Asian countries.
Based on our culinary exposure here in the states I noticed that South American cuisine tends to have multiple similar sauces and salsa flavors.

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I still don’t like the bottled ranch, but if there isn’t a choice, then I take the bottled ranch.

I found that the local restaurants tend to make up their own fresh batches of ranch dressing. Even at the local Chili’s :hot_pepper:, the ranch dressing is chilled well.

I buy the powdered Hidden Valley version at Costco and use fresh milk and Mayo when I’m making salads for my family.

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Matt Turner is a garbage keeper. He completely lost his mojo during his sojourn in England

Wow, goal by​:soccer_ball:Türkiye. Stunning.

I guess there are some good lessons for the Americans to learn from this, can’t sleep on anybody.

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That’s a real kiss-your-sister result. Harumph.

The US team really didn’t play to win as they would finish top of their group no matter the score. They rested lots of players and did not play the ones who had a yellow card. (If they got another yellow card they wouldn’t be able to play in the knock outs). It sucks for the fans to have paid all that money for a loss but the strategy was corrrct.

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