USMNT’s intersection with ‘Country Roads’: How the song became a World Cup anthem
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USMNT fans serenade the players after a World Cup Group D win over Australia Jane Gershovich / ISI Photos / Getty Images
USMNT’s intersection with ‘Country Roads’: How the song became a World Cup anthem
By Henry BushnellJune 24, 2026 7:00 am EDT UpdatedIRVINE, Calif. — On a dreamy Friday afternoon in Seattle, with the United States inching toward World Cup history, Amy Hopfinger sat amongst 60,000 merry fans, heard them sing and sensed opportunity.
She was witnessing a generational moment for American soccer, a 2-0 win over Australia that would take the U.S. men’s national team into uncharted territory. And for two days prior, as FIFA’s World Cup chief strategy officer, she’d been stewing on how to turn moments like this into indelible ones that would resonate with millions of people.
So she sent some texts. She searched for a song that could unite U.S. players with their fans and their nation. She directed FIFA’s head of event production, Lance Brass, to queue up two American classics.
And at precisely 2:08 p.m. local time, as players waltzed around Lumen Field, as fans swayed side to side, belting out the chorus, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” became their unofficial World Cup anthem.
The @USMNT faithful serenade their team with "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in Seattle 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/XI3Q3EkxhK
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 19, 2026
It struck a chord with players.
“Part of being American is knowing ‘Country Roads’,” defender Chris Richards said that afternoon. “We’re all singing it together.”
Fans latched on too, humming the tune, playing the video — of players and supporters soaking up the scene — on repeat ever since.
Immediately after the match, Spotify saw a 74% increase in streams of the song, a company spokesman told The Athletic.
Google searches for “Country Roads” also spiked on Friday afternoon, and have remained higher than usual levels.
A few days later, Fox’s Jenny Taft reported that the song was rolling from the office of U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino.
It was a “moment that certainly cut through, and then some,” U.S. Soccer CEO JT Batson tells The Athletic.
So how’d it come to be?
Sebastian Berhalter and Christian Pulisic look into the crowd during the postgame festivities after beating Australia in the World Cup (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)The version of the story that U.S. Soccer distributed to reporters on Monday was only partially accurate.
Prior to the tournament, FIFA, the global soccer governing body that runs the World Cup, had asked teams to submit playlists of songs that would be played during warmups, after goals and after wins.
When U.S. Soccer’s video team traveled across the U.S. and Europe to shoot their “26 Stories to ’26” series, they asked players for recommendations. After also discussing with staffers, U.S. Soccer submitted some preferred options. And “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Hopfinger tells The Athletic, “wasn’t one of their original submissions.”
Hopfinger, though, felt some ownership of the moment.
Prior to becoming FIFA’s first 2026 World Cup-specific hire, she’d spent nearly 18 years at U.S. Soccer, eventually as the VP of events. She’d made memorable music decisions for USMNT games before. She also had plenty of connections at the federation.
For the past four years, and especially this month, her focus has been much broader. But after experiencing England’s 4-2 win over Croatia last week, and after seeing two dozen players stare up into the crowd and sing along to “Wonderwall,” she “started going back and forth” with Brass, the World Cup’s event production lead, “talking about what other games, and what other songs, might create those moments,” Hopfinger recalls.
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For some teams and fans, she knew, no stadium loudspeakers are necessary. “A lot of it is more organic,” Hopfinger explains. “Argentinean fans have their song. They don’t need us to pump in ‘Country Roads.’”
But in U.S. sports — college football especially — popular songs that connect athletes with fans can create incredibly special scenes.
“So, I started crowdsourcing different songs,” Hopfinger says.
And on Friday, shortly after the second-half hydration break at Lumen Field, as the U.S. closed out another landmark victory, she texted Brass: “This is it. This is the game. This is where we’re gonna do this.”
She also texted with U.S. Soccer’s press officer, looking for the perfect song to meet the moment. The press officer, her longtime friend and former colleague, mentioned “Sweet Caroline,” unaware that England had already used it too. “I jokingly texted him that I had overruled him,” Hopfinger says with a laugh. She and Brass settled on two tunes: “Livin’ on a Prayer,” which had been played during the hydration break; and then “Country Roads.”
The former, Bon Jovi’s 1986 hit, had some fans singing along, but players were distracted. They were shaking hands with Australian opponents, then huddling tight for defender Mark McKenzie’s postgame prayer.
The latter, “Country Roads,” began just as the huddle broke, and “that’s a song everyone knows,” midfielder Alejandro Zendejas would later say.
It gradually swept up tens of thousands of fans who stuck around to savor the victory. Some players joined in. Sebastian Berhalter, in particular, loved it.
Christian Pulisic is all smiles after @USMNT win over Australia pic.twitter.com/37LEoRc7HN
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 19, 2026
The song, first released by John Denver in 1971, was hardly unique to the USMNT or the moment. Over the years, it has been adopted or adapted by sports teams across the globe. Perhaps most famously, Manchester United supporters sing their own version. The University of West Virginia’s sports teams swear by it. The Brisbane Lions, an Australian rules football team, have used it. “That song’s popular all over the world,” U.S. striker Folarin Balogun, who grew up in London, said this week.
But at its core, it’s “a very American song,” as U.S. defender Auston Trusty said Friday.
It’s a song about belonging, about comfort, about home.
“It is very symbolic of America,” wingback Max Arfsten said this week, and even if it hasn’t caught on among players at their base camp, it did exactly what Hopfinger envisioned.
“To see the guys enjoying themselves, and singing along with it,” U.S. captain Tim Ream said with almost-misty eyes, “it’s one of those moments where you look up and you’re like: ‘Is this real life?’”
The answer, of course, is yes, it is. And the hope is that Friday’s postgame moment will be the first of many.
Hopfinger, when asked if the song would return for subsequent U.S. victories — perhaps in a low-stakes group finale Thursday against Turkey, or in the round of 32 on July 1 — implicitly confirmed the obvious.
“Oh,” she said, as if it were a ridiculous question, “I don’t think you break that streak now. Come on.”
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