The Summer of Stars is coming to America in 2024

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

With the largest World Cup in football historical past now simply two cut calendar years away, the summer time of 2024 do business in the easiest get dressed practice session.

This June and July, 3 of the planet’s six FIFA-designated areas will align within the mode of the European Championship and the second one expanded Copa América in 8 years — one that can deliver flow International Cup-holders Argentina, file five-time champions Brazil and 8 alternative South American groups to the US to compete with the hosts, Mexico’s fanatically supported El Tri plus 4 extra of North and Central The us and the Caribbean’s best possible. 

All of it begins when the Euros kick off on June 14. Over simply 20 years, the pretty recreation’s second-largest global event has long past from a distinct segment pay-per-view product within the U.S. to a quadrennial staple at the American sports activities calendar. 

“Not a lot of big sporting events are going on in the U.S. in the summer, and soccer kind of takes center stage,” former U.S. midfielder and flow FOX Sports activities football analyst Stuart Holden mentioned in a telephone interview this life. “The Euros kind of feels like a mini World Cup.”

This past’s match guarantees to be the highest-profile but. Host Germany boasts extra immense stadiums than any alternative nation at the continent; simply one of the vital 10 decided on (in 10 host towns) seats fewer than 49,000, all however making sure that Euro 2024 will collapse the file 2,427,303 fanatics who attended France 2016 8 years again.

Bayern Munich’s glowing Allianz Enviornment will degree the opener between Die Mannschaft and Scotland. The historical Olympiastadion in Berlin is a becoming playground for the general. And for the ones staring at at house, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate will serve a backdrop each bit as iconic because the Eiffel Tower or Sydney Opera Space have been all the way through the utmost two Ladies’s International Cups. 

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All ocular might be at the Euros for a complete life earlier than Copa América joins it as an equivalent underneath the worldwide highlight. On June 20, only a few hours upcoming Denmark and co-favorite England meet in Frankfurt and up to date champions Spain (2008, 2012) and Italy (2020) sq. off in in all probability essentially the most awaited match of the gang degree in Germany, Lionel Messi and his Albiceleste seen the Copa at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in opposition to both Canada or Trinidad and Tobago. On June 24, the blended Copa/Euro time table options contests involving Brazil, Italy and Spain — nations with 10 International Cup titles between the two of them.

If 4 video games throughout each tourneys in a single future might be a deal with for football fans, the lineup on June 25 and 26 is undoubtedly heaven-sent. Deny fewer than a quantity Euro and Copa fits might be performed all the way through that unmarried 48-hour length, with Messi’s Argentina, Harry Kane’s England and Kylian Mbappé’s France all in motion at the twenty fifth.

Factoring in stoppage hour, it implies that greater than part of each and every future — 12 hours-plus — might be full of high-stakes, world-class, must-see football. And naturally, there’s an added perk for supporters within the U.S., with the house crew hoping to achieve a Copa ultimate for the primary hour upcoming making the semis in 1995 and 2016. 

“That’s the beauty of the Copa when it’s in this format,” mentioned Holden, who may just get started his summer time on the Euros earlier than coming house to name the USMNT’s crew degree fits. “The U.S., Mexico and Canada are obviously familiar teams to people on this side of planet, but then you’re mixing in powerful and historic soccer nations, and genuine superstars. It’s a recipe for people to jump on the bandwagon and get excited about it.

“However up to we adore visible those weighty groups come right here,” Holden added, “I don’t suppose anything else is extra noteceable than visible the U.S. crew do smartly.”

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That imagination-capturing momentum should grow as the summer wears on. While the frequency of games will dwindle as teams get eliminated in the knockout rounds, the stakes will grow exponentially. Four do-or-die quarterfinals are set for July 6, two in each tourney, with a Euro and a Copa semi slated for both July 9 and 10. July 14 will see the new champions of both Europe and the Americas on the same day for the first time ever, with Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium the pick for the Copa decider. 

Eighty-three games in all will have been played by the time the Summer of Stars is done. That’s not quite as many as the 104 we’ll see at the first 48-nation World Cup in 2026, but it will still be an unprecedented celebration of the people’s favorite sport — and a fitting tune up for what’s to come two years later in cities across North America. 

Yet as much as that hotly anticipated World Cup is already starting to appear on the horizon, this summer’s festivities will stand on their own.

The world’s game has never been in a better place in the U.S., which is also set to host the first 32-team FIFA Club World Cup next year. With an ever-growing MLS now fronted by Messi himself and massive NFL arenas from coast to coast ready to be temporarily converted into first-class soccer cathedrals, the country is ready to become the game’s epicenter over the next 30-odd months. 

That journey starts on parallel tracks this June – first with the controlled intensity of the Euros, then with Copa matches that can be more street fights than fútbol – though the quality on display is every bit as high as on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

“The Eu groups play games each and every alternative so steadily you get those fast moving, tactical video games,” Holden said. “Later you will have the utmost Copa The us ultimate between Brazil and Argentina, which was once mainly a massacre for 90 mins.”

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This summer time may be the utmost hour we see dwelling legends like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luka Modrić suit up in their countries’ colors. Messi will turn 37 during the first week of the Copa. Modrić and Ronaldo are already 38, with the latter celebrating another birthday next month.

Two years in international soccer is an eternity. But the Summer of Stars will be here before we can blink, and it will be glorious. For five weeks, what happens in games played at the highest level will be on everyone’s screens and on everyone’s lips in every other corner of the globe – not least right here at home. 

“You’re getting a possibility over the then couple of years to peer and contact authentic, aggressive high-end football,” Holden said. “If you’ll observe this and no longer get interested by the 2026 International Cup, I’m no longer positive you will have a pulse.”

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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