Marcus Cranston is a retired U.S. Air Force doctor who lives in Las Vegas. In U.S. soccer circles, he goes by another name: Eagleman. At a recent tailgate ahead of a U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) game, he arrives wearing his trademark American eagle outfit. Fans flock to take selfies with him and his wife, Lila, who is dressed as Wonder Woman. But they’re not the only superfans dressed to impress. There’s Uncle Sam in his striped pants. And hundreds of fans are clad in red, white, and blue. Why We Wrote This Star-spangled superfans hope their raucous support might give U.S. soccer a home-field advantage. Their stars-and-stripes bandannas are both practical accessories for the sunny afternoon in Atlanta and a shoutout to the organizers of this gathering: the American Outlaws. The soccer supporters group has 25,000 paid members in more than 200 chapters. Started in 2007 by two college students in Nebraska, its Wild West name still references the defiance central to being an American soccer superfan. “We’re trying all we can to take over a little piece of the soccer fandom in the world, so we’re a little bit outlaws,” says Mr. Cranston. Indeed, Eagleman and his comrades are rebels standing against the U.S. sports establishment. They are also taking on the giants of world soccer and their supporter armies. And with the FIFA World Cup starting June 11, jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, they are fighting to do what many in the game believe is impossible: give the U.S. team a crowd-fueled, home-field advantage. American Outlaws members Eagleman and Wonder Woman, from Las Vegas, are interviewed outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, March 31, 2026. Lords of the pitch Held every four years, the monthlong World Cup tournament is the most-watched sporting event in the world. This is the first time since 1994 that a U.S. team will play a World Cup on home soil. But in a nation of immigrants, many from countries where soccer, better known as football, is a way of life, the U.S. national team can’t always count on home-field support. Luis Ibarra, a police officer and American Outlaws member from Amarillo, Texas, traveled to Houston last summer to watch the U.S. take on Mexico in a Gold Cup final. Mexico won the game 2-1. “It was probably only our section in the whole stadium going for the U.S.,” says Mr. Ibarra. “Which is usually like that in most games, to be honest.” That isn’t going to stop Eagleman from trying. He joins a circle for warmup chants for the upcoming match against Portugal. At the center is Phil Labas, a bald, hulking Outlaw from Chicago who is one of tonight’s capos. Mr. Labas passes out cards with printed lyrics. “This is a new one,” he bellows. American Outlaws member Luis Ibarra from Amarillo, Texas, enjoys the tailgate party. The group lines up for an all-singing, all-dancing parade to the stadium gates, where they pause on a partly paved bridge. “Jump for the USA! Jump for the USA! Olé, olé!” And they jump. Three hundred soccer fans pogo in unison and the bridge, somewhat alarmingly, vibrates with them. In a sports-saturated country that valorizes success, the USMNT faces a chicken-or-egg quandary. It needs all the superfans it can muster to cheer its players on to victory. But first, it would help to win big games to convert more casual fans into soccer superfans. “We need the people,” says Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentinian coach hired in 2024 to lead the USMNT into the World Cup. “We need the fans. The fans have one year to realize how important are the fans in soccer.” Roar of the underdogs The last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994, soccer had a tenuous foothold outside of immigrant communities. The United States had no professional league, and aficionados who wanted to follow leagues in other countries couldn’t watch live games. When U.S. sports channels showed soccer clips, it was usually to get a rise out of the antics of players. Members of the soccer superfan group American Outlaws cheer before a match between the U.S. and Portugal, March 31, 2026, ahead of the FIFA World Cup. The tournament, which begins June 11, will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But Major League Soccer has grown from 10 teams in 1996 to 30 teams, which mostly play in dedicated soccer stadiums. A generation of Americans has grown up watching international games on streaming platforms. Youth soccer has boomed around the country and has fed growing interest in college and club games. While soccer ranks fourth behind football, basketball, and baseball as a spectator sport in the U.S., its audience skews young: 38% of adults ages 25 to 34 are interested in soccer, compared with 14% of people over age 55. The last World Cup final, in 2022, in which Argentina – led by Lionel Messi – lifted the trophy, was the most-watched soccer game ever in the U.S., with nearly 27 million viewers. Mr. Messi now plays for Inter Miami, a top MLS club. This year’s World Cup expands its format from 32 to 48 teams that play in a group stage, from which the top teams proceed to a series of playoffs. The final will be played July 19 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Only the most starry-eyed boosters expect the USMNT to make it to that final; being a fan of the U.S. men’s soccer means rooting for the underdog and not minding defeats. (For the U.S. Women’s National Team, the opposite is true: It has won four World Cups, most recently in 2019.) Dale Zanine-Imagn Images/Npstrans/United States U.S. Mens National Team/Toppic/AP U.S. forward Brenden Aaronson (11) and Portugal midfielder Matheus Nunes (6) fight for the ball during an international friendly in Atlanta, March 31, 2026. When American sports fans ask Travis Thomas, the USMNT leadership and team dynamics coach at the last World Cup, how long before the men’s team lifts the trophy, assuming that it’s just a matter of time, he replies, “Maybe never.” He points out that only eight countries have won the World Cup since it was first held in 1930. That isn’t what they expect to hear, he says. “The American bravado is that we should be good at everything.” Mr. Thomas no longer works for the team but still coaches individual players. He says Mr. Pochettino, the American team coach, is right to urge fans to show up. “Home-team advantage is always giving you that extra boost. … I don’t think you’re going to run into a player that tries to say it doesn’t give him a boost.” Chris Reid, who runs the Outlaws chapter in Boston, still remembers watching the USMNT play Poland in Chicago. “It was probably 80% Poland supporters,” he says. When the U.S. played South Korea last year in Harrison, New Jersey, the stadium was a sea of South Korean fans in face paint singing K-pop-derived chants. Millions of visiting fans are expected at the World Cup. Many of the soccer fans attending the match between the U.S. and Portugal boast patriotic footwear. Some fans of the U.S. Men’s National Team who attended the U.S.-Portugal match made a point of dressing in red, white, and blue. Superfans say they’re used to attending games in the U.S. where many fans cheer for other nations. This fervor and intensity, which Mr. Pochettino, the USMNT manager, so envies, is what hooked Mr. Reid, who’s attended 53 U.S. national games, including in Mexico and El Salvador. “It’s the atmosphere. The passion of the fans, the passion they create in the stadium,” he says. Wavers of the Red, White, and Blue Elliott Montalvan grew up watching soccer with his Ecuador-born father. During the World Cup, he saw his neighbors in New York pull on jerseys from Brazil and Mexico, and cheer for their teams at bars and restaurants. Today, he’s a die-hard U.S. soccer fan, something his late father came to appreciate. “He told me, ‘I came to this country to give my kids a better opportunity. Don’t be afraid to wear the U.S. jersey,’” says Mr. Montalvan. He remembers watching a televised game between the U.S. and Ecuador with his father, who wore his Ecuadorian jersey while Mr. Montalvan wore his USMNT jersey. Before the game, the two took turns to separately stand and sing the national anthems. “That was my father’s generation. You’re going to follow [the country] you came from,” he says. Mr. Montalvan joined an American Outlaws chapter and watched games with other members, but it didn’t gel with the soccer milieu he was raised in. When he heard about Barra 76, a new U.S. supporters group set up by Spanish-speaking Latinos, he wanted in. Barra 76 is much smaller than the Outlaws. Both are recognized as official supporter groups by U.S. Soccer, though, allowing members to buy discounted tickets and bring their banners into stadiums. Barra 76 doesn’t attend every USMNT game, but when the group does, it brings its culture and intensity, says Mr. Montalvan, a paramedic who heads its chapter in New York City. He adds, “I’m never afraid to step to people and say, ‘This [Ecuador] is where I came from. I’m here supporting the USA, but we’re all diverse here.’” The Outlaws were not the first fan group. American Outlaws member “Capo” Phil Labas, from Chicago, leads the cheers at a tailgate party before the soccer match between the U.S. and Portugal, March 31, 2026, in Atlanta. Before them, there was Sam’s Army, a group started in 1995 by a high school teacher from Buffalo, New York. Back then, soccer was even more of an oddity, says John Sousa, a teacher and soccer coach from Massachusetts. He used to mail scarves to members to bring to games so they could recognize each other. “Sam’s Army was a way for fans to get together and party,” he chuckles. Since then, the torch has passed to the American Outlaws. It costs $30 a year to join, which includes a T-shirt. Different chapters tweak the logo with a local icon: a peach for Atlanta, a bridge for Jacksonville, Florida. In Atlanta, where the U.S. was playing Portugal in a doubleheader just days after a match against Belgium, fans from at least 50 chapters turned out to cheer. These fans don’t always get much respect from their rivals in historic soccer nations who dismiss American fandom as cosplay. To earn respect, they’re dialing up the sort of raucous soccer partisanship that gets credibility in this world. “I don’t want to go into a game where they look at us and say, ‘Oh, how cute,’” says Mr. Montalvan. “Hopefully. they’ll start to see that we mean business.” That even means putting a stake in the sport’s American name. During the 2022 World Cup, when the U.S. played England, the American Outlaws hung banners that read: “CALL IT SOCCER.” American Outlaws members head toward Mercedes-Benz Stadium before the soccer match between the U.S. and Portugal in Atlanta, March 31, 2026. The soccer supporters group was started in 2007 by two college students in Nebraska. “I wanted at least one goal” At the Portugal game, the U.S. supporters section is packed and loud. A row of six drums the size of tractor tires halfway up keeps the beat going for the chants, and most fans are on their feet for the entire game. Other sections of the stadium, which holds nearly 73,000 attendees, are a sea of red Portugal jerseys, mostly those of superstar striker Cristiano Ronaldo. Families of Portuguese descent have traveled to Atlanta from across the country for the game. In the first half, the USMNT goes toe-to-toe with Portugal, but it’s the visitors who score first, a lightning-fast strike on the goal below the U.S. supporters. Cheers erupt around the stadium. In the second half, Portugal dominates and scores a second goal, and this time the whooping is much louder. The game ends 2-0 to Portugal. American Outlaws member Jenna Pepmiller cheers in the stands. It’s the second defeat of the doubleheader, after Belgium won 5-2. Both Belgium and Portugal are favored to do well at the World Cup, and the U.S. might encounter them in the playoffs. But the score line doesn’t seem to faze the Outlaws, who keep cheering until the end. Mr. Labas, the capo, has missed most of the game because he faces away from the field. Mr. Ibarra and his two friends from Amarillo, Texas, who drove 18 hours to Atlanta, are still on their feet, American flags wrapped around their shoulders. Eagleman sits a few rows away, catching his breath. “It was a fun time,” says Jenna Pepmiller, one of the Atlanta Outlaws. “There’s so many people showing up on a Tuesday night.” But, she adds, “I wanted more. I wanted at least one goal.” Mr. Sousa no longer follows the U.S. team around. Now retired, he lives in Tampa, but he flew to Atlanta to watch the game – in the Portugal section. His family immigrated in 1966 from the Azores, he explains. He still roots for the U.S. team when it’s not playing Portugal and even made a banner for the game that combines both teams’ flags. Mr. Sousa was delighted to see roving supporters cheering on the USMNT, as he once did in Sam’s Army. He’s also traveled to Brazil and Argentina to watch their home games, and the intensity of the crowds and their identification with those teams has stayed with him. Those fans aren’t casual sports watchers. They’re soccer diehards, and nothing else counts. “We can’t match that. We never will. Because that’s all they’ve got,” he says. Post navigation ক্রমবর্ধমান AI ব্যয়ের মধ্যে টেকনোলজিকে উদ্বিগ্ন করে ক্রমবর্ধমান সুদের হার হিসাবে স্টকগুলি ডুবে গেছে পুতিন জেলেনস্কির মুখোমুখি আলোচনার আহ্বান প্রত্যাখ্যান করেছেন