{"id":499,"date":"2026-07-06T00:44:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2026-07-06T00:44:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:44:47","slug":"hope-you-kick-mexicos-ass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHope you kick Mexico\u2019s ass\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cHope<\/div>

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Henry Winter\u2019s World Cup Diary, Day 22<\/h2>\n

<\/a>Subscribe to World Soccer<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Random chat 1
<\/strong>Colombia fan heading to Arrowhead Stadium for Ghana game in Kansas City. He was wearing his country\u2019s latest yellow shirt with \u201cVALDERRAMA\u201d proudly printed on the back. I name-dropped that I\u2019d watched the great Carlos in the epic Cameroon game in Naples at Italia \u201990. I don\u2019t know whether he completely understood my faulty, almost Fawlty Spanish but he put his hands to his head and waved them about, signalling that mighty mop and excitedly saying \u201cValderrama\u201d. Naming footballers is an international language par excellence.<\/p>\n

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Random chat 2<\/strong>
US Army Air Force veteran (29 years\u2019 service, including being based at Lakenheath; retired last year) heading to Houston. He heard my accent, and asked: \u201cHow do people in the UK view the US?\u201d I felt it was a bit arrogant to speak on behalf of 69m people anyway, and knowing the volatile nature of politics here, I took the diplomatic route. People don\u2019t judge a country simply on a political leader, popular or unpopular, I ventured. The World Cup provides a timely opportunity for better awareness, understanding and togetherness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the themes of this World Cup, I told the veteran, was the wonderful interaction between locals and visitors. People get along. He mentioned the Tartan Army in Boston and the England fans at the Atlanta Braves baseball. He absolutely loved that a bunch of strangers and newcomers to baseball turned up to a ball-park with their flags \u2013 Chelsea, Birmingham, Arsenal and Southampton \u2013 and chanted the name of one Braves player, Mike Harris II. \u201cWalking in a Harris wonderland\u201d etc.\u00a0That footage went viral, further endearing the merry visiting masses from around the world to the locals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Random chat 3
<\/strong>Passionate USMNT fan, 49. \u201cHope you kick Mexico\u2019s ass\u201d. We\u2019ll try, but why? He explained the long soccer rivalry between the countries, and how much he wanted England to win at the Azteca. Not quite Anglo-Scottish level of rivalry but he was definitely \u201crooting\u201d for England, especially when I expressed some sympathy for Folarin Balogun. What particularly rankled the fan was that other players, including Lionel Messi, escaped sanction for a similar accidental foul. \u201cIt\u2019ll just stir our players up more,\u201d he predicted. Belgium up next. Hope USMNT win. Tournaments need hosts doing well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Non-random chat
<\/strong>Marcus Rashford and Morgan Rogers stopped by the side of the training pitch at Swope Soccer Village to look forward to the Azteca and the ball moving more at altitude. Would they be tempted to shoot even more?\u00a0Rashford:\u00a0\u201cFor sure! If we get that opportunity, we have to test the keeper.\u201d Time for a Rashford special knuckleball free-kick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And Rogers: \u201cWe try and shoot anyway, whether it is high or low! If it flies quicker then all the better.\u201d Today\u2019s training session here in Mexico City will be even more important for Jordan Pickford to get to grips with the ball\u2019s flightier movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Random chats 4
<\/strong>US mail man, 71, total model of Cliff Clavin from Cheers\u2019 vintage, delivering mail to Parks and Recs department, Kansas City, near England training camp. I\u2019d stopped to look at a nearby Civil War battlefield. Kansas Cliff pulled up and for five minutes painted a vivid picture of the scene where Confederate artillery was over-run by a Union charge (Pratt\u2019s Artillery, October, 1864, for the historians). \u201cThat was when we were fighting each other rather than fighting you!\u201d Anyway, Happy 250th<\/sup>\u00a0Birthday this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Random chat 5
<\/strong>Touring female soccer player (defender, occasionally midfield), Carroll High School, Texas. Very honest about technical standards, lot of catching up to do, but believed the World Cup would encourage even more young Americans to take up the sport. Good. World Cup legacy.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to World Soccer<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Winter\u2019s World Cup Diary, Day 22 Subscribe to World Soccer Random chat 1Colombia fan heading to Arrowhead Stadium for Ghana game in Kansas City. He was wearing his country\u2019s latest yellow shirt with \u201cVALDERRAMA\u201d proudly printed on the back. I name-dropped that I\u2019d watched the great Carlos in the epic Cameroon game in Naples…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.worldsoccer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2283534993.jpg?w=5175","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1070,1067,1068,1069],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-ass","tag-hope","tag-kick","tag-mexicos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}