Suspect, 19, still at large after officer dies in hospital having been shot while searching an apartment
A Toronto police officer has been shot dead as police raided an apartment allegedly linked to the March attack on the US consulate, the city’s police chief, Myron Demkiw, said.
Demkiw said 43-year-old constable Marc Pinizzotto was shot while conducting an early-morning search warrant in the north-west of the city and later died at a hospital.
El Mundial de fútbol de EE UU, Canadá y México comienza este 11 de junio con una participación récord de equipos en competición. Consulte en este interactivo la información clave de todas las selecciones y el pronóstico de los expertos de EL PAÍS sobre su desempeño en la fase de grupos.
Redacción:
Daniel Arribas, J. M. Benítez, Lorenzo Calonge, Diego Fonseca Rodríguez, Borja Hermoso, Juan I. Irigoyen, Ladislao J. Moñino, Xavi Sancho y Diego Torres.
Mexico and Canada have faced significant recent tension in their relations with the United States. But in their historic World Cup bid, the three countries promoted teamwork.
Mexico City’s iconic stadium will host the opener for a record third time, after undergoing a near $200 million makeover for this World Cup and increasing its capacity to 87,500 seats.
FIFA World Cup 2026 trophy. Credit: TravelQueen11 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup officially kicks off across North America, a long-standing question resurfaces on the global stage: Do Americans actually care about soccer?
While traditional sports still rule the airwaves, a massive generational and demographic shift is actively rewriting the American sports landscape.
Generational and ethnic shift for soccer
Historically, soccer in the United States has struggled to compete with the domestic dominance of the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball. That skepticism persists among older demographics. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, 66% of American adults state they are “not too” or “not at all” likely to follow the tournament. Broadly speaking, a separate YouGov poll confirms that 54% of the overall adult population maintains zero interest in the sport. For a large share of traditional sports fans over fifty, the tournament remains an afterthought.
However, statistics show that there is a soccer boom among younger individuals. The game is rapidly becoming the sport of choice for the next generation of American consumers. YouGov data reveals that an average of 23% of Americans aged 18 to 34 now identify as avid soccer viewers. More telling is the fact that over 56% of all active soccer fans in the United States are currently under the age of 35.
This generational momentum is heavily reinforced by cultural shifts. Comprehensive market data from Numerator indicates that enthusiasm for this year’s tournament is highest among multicultural communities, with 54% of Hispanic Americans and 51% of Asian Americans planning to actively tune in to the month-long event.
Furthermore, the reality of the United States co-hosting the expanded 48-team tournament alongside Canada and Mexico has created a “host nation surge.” Overall consumer intent to watch has nearly doubled compared to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with 32% of all US citizens now planning to watch the matches. This enthusiasm is heavily concentrated around the eleven American host cities, including Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York/New Jersey, and Philadelphia, where consumer interest jumps to 42%.
Despite this undeniable wave of momentum, soccer is not quite ready to dethrone America’s biggest sporting events. When stacked against domestic mainstays, the World Cup still plays catch-up. Consumer data tracking viewership intent shows that while 32% of Americans plan to watch the World Cup, 58% plan to watch the Winter Olympics, and a staggering 69% will tune into the NFL’s Super Bowl.
Will the Americans pack the stadiums for the World Cup?
Will the MetLife stadium be packed with soccer fans? Credit: SachinDaluja, CC2/Wikipedia
However, as the world’s biggest tournament returns to US soil for the first time in thirty-two years, it faces an entirely different landscape strained by corporate economics.
The 1994 World Cup in the US was a staggering, record-breaking success. It drew 3.59 million fans across 52 matches, averaging nearly 69,000 attendees per game. It remains the most attended World Cup in history.
However, speculation about whether Americans will pack stadiums like they did in 1994 has hit an unexpected snag: FIFA’s aggressive corporate pricing model. During the 1994 tournament, group-stage tickets were relatively accessible, ranging from $25 to $75. By stark contrast, FIFA’s 2026 individual match tickets see first-round seats averaging around $400, with opening match tickets starting at $560 and category-one seats scaling up to $2,735. For the United States’ highly anticipated matches, primary, and resale prices have left ordinary local families facing severe sticker shock, with select group-stage tickets soaring past $1,100.
Because FIFA now tightly controls its own resale marketplace to harvest transactional fees, prices fluctuate based on demand like airline tickets. While major marquee matches and the knockout rounds are completely sold out, ordinary American supporters have openly complained about being priced out of lesser group-stage fixtures, leaving thousands of tickets sitting on primary resale portals on the eve of kickoff.
Ultimately, the 2026 World Cup catches the United States at a historic sporting crossroads. Driven by a younger, more diverse fanbase, soccer is no longer a niche novelty in America. The interest is real, deep, and fully integrated into the culture. But while the stadium atmospheres will be electric, any empty seats seen during the opening weeks shouldn’t be blamed on an “indifferent American public”—rather, blame a modern corporate strategy that misjudged the wallet of the everyday fan.
El secretario de Guerra estadounidense, Pete Hegseth, visitó la base naval en la Bahía de Guantánamo y lanzó la advertencia más directa hasta ahora contra La Habana, en medio de una ofensiva diplomática y militar de la Administración Trump sobre la isla. El Gobierno cubano respondió que cualquier acción militar derivaría en un "baño de sangre".
En una de sus sentencias más míticas, el uruguayo Eduardo Galeano escribe: “El fútbol es la única religión que no tiene ateos”. Si los hubiera, estarían en Estados Unidos, uno de los pocos países que se resisten a la universalidad del balompié como fenómeno. Allá donde triunfan el fútbol americano, el baloncesto o el béisbol, los que aglutinan el grueso de espectadores y de inversión, el soccer comienza, sin embargo, a ser uno de los deportes más practicados. Por algo se empieza. No es raro pues que Estados Unidos lleve años preparándose para acoger, junto con México y Canadá, la Copa del Mundo de la FIFA de este verano.
El seleccionador de Canadá, Jesse Marsch (52 años), es uno de esos apóstoles de la iglesia futbolística de Ralf Rangnick, el influyente técnico alemán (hoy al frente de Austria) que creó escuela con la idea del gegenpressing, la presión atosigante al rival para recuperar el balón lo antes posible. La primera vez que Marsch y Rangnick se encontraron, la cosa acabó en una conversación tan acalorada sobre los conceptos del juego que casi pareció una discusión. Aquella charla, en realidad, era una entrevista de trabajo. Jesse optaba al puesto de entrenador del New York, equipo que pertenecía a la factoría Red Bull, donde Ralf cortaba el bacalao, así que este estadounidense se marchó del encuentro con la idea de que nunca sería el elegido. Pero a los 15 minutos recibió una llamada y un mensaje: “Ralf quedó encantado contigo”.
President Trump on Wednesday said he may not renew the free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico six years after he implemented it in his first term to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “Well, I’m not looking to renew it,” Trump told reporters in regard to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement…
President Trump on Wednesday said he may not renew the free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico six years after he implemented it in his first term to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “Well, I’m not looking to renew it,” Trump told reporters in regard to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement…
High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik said at the Global Energy Show in Calgary that officials from the two countries are meeting regularly to discuss Canadian energy opportunities.
High Commissioner Dinesh Patnaik said at the Global Energy Show in Calgary that officials from the two countries are meeting regularly to discuss Canadian energy opportunities.
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