Local Soccer Players Excited for World Cup

The U.S., Canada, and Mexico won the bid to host the 2026 World Cup

FARGO, N.D. — The World Cup kicks off tomorrow, and local soccer players are getting excited for the big tournament.

They all have their favorite part of the sport.

“Tricking out the players and seeing how they react and scoring goals,” Emmi Dorfmeister, 11, said.

“Scoring goals and defending,” Anna Dorfmeister, 8, said.

“I love to shoot goals and just play around with the ball,” Kierstin Windingland, 8, said.

Even though the World Cup will be held in Russia this year, local players are still excited to watch it.

“I’m going watch it with my dad we’re going to and have popcorn and everything. I’m going to play soccer today because I want to start doing what I love to do,” Fabi Perez, a soccer player at Moorhead High School, said.

Even though U.S. won’t be playing in this year’s world cup, some kids are still rooting for other countries like Germany.

“We’re from Germany,” Emmi said.

Today, it was announced the United States, Canada, and Mexico won the bid to host the World Cup in 2026.

“Soccer’s not huge in the U.S., but I think having such a big competition held in the U.S. would help drive up the numbers we have and people playing soccer, and just the support we have behind our national team, hopefully they make the 2026 one,” Ellie Schneider, an NDSU soccer player said.

No matter where the tournament is held, soccer players of all ages can be inspired by it.

“When I watch players from Latin America, they inspire me to be better because Latinos— we’re good at soccer, so I want to show the world we’re the best,” Perez said.

And if any of these players ever got to score the winning World Cup goal?

“I’d celebrate by jumping the air and yelling,” Anna said.

“I would celebrate by cheering that I scored a goal and [it’s] a really important goal. And we just won the World Cup so I’d be really happy and cheering,” Emmi said.

“I’d probably slide or jump… find all my teammates and we celebrate together,” Schneider said.

You can see the first game of the tournament, which is Saudi Arabia versus Russia Thursday morning at 9 o’clock on KVRR.