Has the World Cup arrived yet? In the US, it depends on who you ask

O rganizationally speaking, the 2026 World Cup began on 13 June 2018, when then-Fifa general secretary Fatma Samoura sternly instructed the delegates to cast their vote in a cavernous conference hall in Moscow. Yet mere days away from the tournament’s kickoff in Mexico City, it doesn’t really feel like the thing is here yet. At least, not in the US. And not in New York, the host city for the final. It can be oddly difficult to tell when and where a World Cup has well and truly started. It’s not when the draw takes place; there’s too much winter left, too much club soccer to be played. It also isn’t the opening match, or the preceding ceremony; if anything, those seem late. The thing exists tangibly in the weeks and months before that, as the world prepares and positions itself for the impending tournament. Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie, who will probably make up much of the United States men’s national team midfield this summer, were 19 when their home country was named as a co-host. That’s when they knew that their nation, for which both men had made their senior debuts on the same day seven months earlier, had qualified automatically as one of the three co-hosts. “For me, it started to feel real probably after [this past] season finished, because we had a lot of pressure at our club level,” said McKennie. “So I wanted to just finish my season off with Juventus and then, after that … I think it’ll start to hit me more. …