It’s been 2,921 days since the U.S., Canada, and Mexico secured their joint bid to host the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup (WC) and now, we’re mere hours away from the No. 17 USMNT kicking off against No. 41 Paraguay tonight at 9 p.m. ET. Here’s everything you need to know before the Stars and Stripes begin their campaign to make it out of Group D.

The first-ever FIFA men’s World Cup (WC) game hosted in Canada kicks off today at 3 p.m. ET at Toronto Stadium, with the home team No. 30 CanMNT taking on No. 64 Bosnia and Herzegovina in their 2026 WC opener. Here’s everything you need to know before Les Rouges compete for their first WC win.

The men’s FIFA World Cup is right around the corner, and the U.S. is hosting the global soccer tournament (alongside Canada and Mexico) for the first time in 32 years. A lot has changed since then — for starters, the sport’s fanbase is more diverse than ever, especially in younger demographics. Let’s explore soccer’s changing audience and how this tourney is an unbeatable opportunity for brands to reach and engage diverse audiences.

FIFA men’s World Cup tickets are expensive: Fans know it, Gotham FC knows it, and NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani knows it. So in an initiative to make local soccer more affordable, the NWSL club teamed up with Mamdani to sell 1K tickets for its May 9th home game for $5 each, and they sold out in under an hour — and Gotham’s working to offer another 500 more at this price.

On Tuesday, the NWSL awarded its 18th franchise to Columbus, Ohio for a record $205M expansion fee, up from Atlanta’s $165M fee in 2025. NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman cited the region’s affinity for soccer as a key factor, but so was the money the ownership group put down: $300M between the expansion fee and a new bespoke training facility.

On Monday, Mesirow Capital Markets — an independent, employee-owned financial services firm — arranged a $40M private placement (or private bond financing plan) for Denver Summit FC, the Denver-based NWSL expansion club set to break attendance records at its home opener this weekend.

The Bhathals are changing how the women’s sports game is played, from building the first-ever dual WNBA and NWSL practice facility to creating the first local channel dedicated to women’s sports. That synergy is helping the teams become a major draw for high-profile brand deals. This week, we spoke with Bhathal Merage in a rare interview ahead of her appearance at the Power Play Sports Sponsorship Accelerator about the benefits of owning both teams, both from an ownership and sponsorship perspective. As she put it, “one plus one equals five.” The math is mathin’.

NWSL opening weekend was a downright party — and not just the birthday kind. From the two expansion squads making their heart-pumping debuts to our favorite golazo of the season thus far, here are the headlines to know with Matchweek one in the books.

In 2025, everyone wanted in on the NWSL. Average crowds exceeded 10K for the third straight year, including a record 40K at San Francisco’s Oracle Park, while season viewership rose 22% YoY (especially among young women).