An all-time World Cup home field advantage awaits the USMNT in soccer-crazed Seattle

SEATTLE — Like any sport, soccer is a game of players, tactics, skills, and decisions. But when it comes to emotions, no sport is like the world’s most famous one.

Not for nothing did soccer resist the long march of analytics far longer than increasingly-global basketball, baseball, ice hockey, gridiron football, and others. (Americans might not know cricket, for example, but that bat-and-ball game has its own volume of statistics.)

So, yes, we can talk about player matchups in Friday’s U.S.-Australia showdown for first place in Group D (3 p.m., Fox29, Telemundo 62). We can talk about the Socceroos’ impressive striker Nestory Irankunda and 6-foot-6 centerback Harry Souttar. And we can certainly talk about whether Christian Pulisic will shake off his calf strain in time.

But it’s impossible to avoid this moment’s romantic side. The Emerald City is rich with a half-century of soccer history, from the NASL’s Sounders to the MLS version, always drawing big and passionate crowds. In recent years, the NWSL’s Reign have joined them, with their own robust fan base watching stars of the women’s game.

For all that time — from hosting Pelé at the Kingdome to hosting Lionel Messi at Lumen Field, from Bobby Moore to Clint Dempsey, from Michelle Akers to Megan Rapinoe — Seattle’s soccer tapestry has missed one piece.

Until this year, it had never hosted a World Cup.

» READ MORE: Christian Pulisic’s calf injury is the USMNT’s biggest story at the World Cup. Here’s what to know.

Now, at last, that hole is filled, and with style. Since the day in early 2024 when FIFA announced the U.S. would play a group game here, Seattle has been counting down to this moment, and so have fans across the country.

A game in this city, with its stage towering over the south side of downtown, is a joy any time. But a World Cup game here is on American soccer’s bucket list. So it’s natural that U.S. and Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan, in his 12th season with the only club of his career, has led the welcome committee for the squad.

“I’ve told them that the city is ready, that the city is energized,” he said before Thursday’s practice at the University of Washington, his alma mater — with its own famed sports theaters in football’s Husky Stadium and basketball’s Palestra-like Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

“We haven’t had a game here in a long time, and we’ve been desperate to host a World Cup game, a U.S. men’s national team game,” Roldan added. “So they’re going to feel the crowd, feel the energy, and it’s about feeding off it.”

» READ MORE: Australia is up next in the USMNT’s World Cup run. Here’s how we think this one will shake out.

He felt it even more as he set foot on his old college field, with glittering Lake Washington a stone’s throw away and Mount Rainier towering beyond. On the same day that Penn product Duke Lacroix returned to his alma mater in Philadelphia ahead of Haiti’s clash with Brazil on Friday, a similar scene unfolded thousands of miles west.

“I’m thankful to have this full circle moment,” Roldan said. “I don’t think people realize how special it is for me to be here and enjoying this experience with the men’s national team.”

Come lunchtime, a walk through downtown showed what awaits. Fans in U.S. jerseys were all over, from Pike Place Market (Seattle’s version of Reading Terminal) to the glistening waterfront.

Fox’s studio show set up shop on one of the piers, with the ferries crossing Puget Sound as one backdrop and a boisterous crowd as another.

» READ MORE: A USMNT history lesson is a reminder: The win over Paraguay was big, but it was only one game

It’s a different vibe from sprawling Los Angeles, and they’ll tell you that here as much as a visitor from out east naturally senses it.

Everything will come together at noon local time on Friday, when a capacity crowd of just under 67,000 will roar the U.S. team onto the field.

The players are excited to experience it, especially those who haven’t before. Because the stadium usually has artificial turf, the U.S. men haven’t been here since the 2016 Copa América Centenario, when grass was installed like it has been this summer. (The World Cup’s grass also helped bring the women’s team here in April, ending a nine-year drought.)

“I’ve obviously spoken to ‘Roldy’ and other people who’ve said how much of a soccer culture Seattle has, and I’m really looking forward to experiencing that firsthand,” defender Antonee Robinson said. “The first game that was played in that stadium looked amazing. So I’m looking forward to being a part of it, too.”

» READ MORE: The USMNT-Paraguay game was the most-watched soccer broadcast in U.S. history

Roldan isn’t expected to start, and he knows it. But if he gets on the field as a substitute, the roar that rises will no doubt be as great as a U.S. goal.

“I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it,” he said. “This is a place that I call home, and I’ve called home for a while. … I’ve given my heart and soul to this club. To be able to see the field would be a dream come true, and I think it would be special not only for me, but I think for the city of Seattle as well.”

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