KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
—
Kansas City's World Cup summer rolled on Wednesday with the debut of Sporting Kansas City's Soccer Capital Summer series, which drew soccer fans from around the world to Sporting Park.
Portugal fans in Christiano Ronaldo jerseys, England fans eager for the Three Lions to get off to a good start and, of course, Argentina fans — still riding high after Lionel Messi's record-setting hat trick Tuesday during the first of Kansas City's six World Cup games.
Colby, a young soccer player from Kansas City, said the energy has been contagious.
"I've been trying to watch almost all the games with my dad," he said.
The soccer vibe in Kansas City came as no surprise to Martin Love, who traveled to Sporting Park from Southampton, England.
"Absolutely not, having seen Ted Lasso," he said.
Love found his way to Sporting Park with friends he met on a cruise to Norway a few years ago. He visited Kansas City last summer.
"It just seemed really cool and natural to come back out to experience the World Cup," Love said.
Sporting Park also drew a group of bicyclists from Argentina — Silvio Gatti and his Todo a Pedal teammates, who biked all the way from Córdoba, Argentina, to Kansas City and will next head to Dallas.
"Our days here in Kansas, the people are so, so good," Gatti said.
The trip — Gatti did something similar with teammates Leandro Blanco and Lucas Ledesma four years ago in Qatar — started in April and may roll on for another month, but it will be hard to top seeing Messi's hat trick in Kansas City.
"We love Messi,” Gatti said. “That was one day that we're gonna remember always.”
Rhett Dubiel, an England fan who lives in Kansas City, said the city's embrace of the tournament has left an impression.
"It's kind of just cool to see how the city's embraced both them (England) and all the other teams that are in the area too," Dubiel said.
His wife, Holly Dubiel, agreed — and said the moment has even stirred some emotion.
"We're from Lawrence too, we lived there for a long time, so it made me tear up a little bit to see how much Lawrence came out for Algeria," Holly Dubiel said.
For many fans, the accessibility of a home World Cup has made the experience all the more special.
"Honestly, pretty exciting," Knox said, “because you can actually go to it, and we don't have to fly to a different country."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
—
