In New York, the World Cup was struggling to register on Friday night as the United States began their campaign. The people packed into Manhattan seemed to have their attention elsewhere, even with screens showing Mexico 2-0 South Africa nearby.
That matters because the tournament has arrived at the same moment New York is busy with its own sports appetite and street-level distractions. Midtown was described as Knicks country, and one win remained for the Knicks from the title against Victor Wembanyama’s San Antonio Spurs at 3-1, a reminder of how quickly local basketball can crowd out a global event.
On the Lincoln Center plaza at Broadway and Colombus Avenue, children were transfixed by freestyle tricks while most people nearby barely paused to watch Mexico and South Africa. A few Mexico supporters watched intently, but the crowd was thin enough that the match felt like background noise. Stella, a 40-year-old Mexican American street vendor near Sesame Street, followed the game on her phone, the kind of small-screen attention that said more about the night than any stadium highlight could.
Across the same stretch, Aaron, a dreadlocked taxi driver and Knicks fan, wanted to talk basketball instead. About 30 Brazil fans made music on the steps and looked ahead to Saturday night against Morocco at midnight in New Jersey, where Brito said they believed in a sixth star. Even that gathering did not match what was happening a short distance away: a nearby protest with a huge inflatable Elon Musk and criticism of Grok drew the biggest crowd, a sharper signal than any soccer screen that New York had other priorities.
Volunteer Randy put it bluntly, saying bigger issues trumped what he called Trump’s World Cup, and that a month-long tournament would change little. For now, the United States face Paraguay in Los Angeles at three am, and that may be the clearest test of whether the World Cup can break through in Manhattan or remain one more event playing in the background of a city looking elsewhere.
