By Jack Schwed
Not only is the United States hosting the massive sporting event for the first time in decades, but just 30 miles south of Wayland, in Foxborough, is Gillette Stadium, which is slated to host seven games, including a quarterfinal.
That is, if you are willing to spend several hundred, or even thousand, dollars on tickets. Or, by a stroke of good luck, you might have been able to avoid the resale prices through the lottery system.
Such was the case for Wayland Youth Soccer Coach Martin Chapman.
Chapman was born in London, England, and after moving between various countries, settled in Wayland in 2012. While he enjoys supporting his team from afar in the early mornings, he said it doesn’t always feel the same as watching games in the evening at a pub with friends back in his home country.
“Moving here was kind of strange at the beginning, because, in the states, soccer is not the main sport,” he said. “It’s probably not even in the top five.”
Then came an opportunity to watch his beloved national team play up close — FIFA announced the World Cup would host games in Massachusetts.
“There’s a lot of choice of cities that could have hosted the games, so I think it worked out great for me and for other soccer fans around here that Boston was one of the cities selected,” he said. “And they have quite a few games.”
Chapman said he acquired tickets to four games through the blind lottery system, in which one can purchase tickets based on the dates and locations of games before the team matchups are revealed.
Months later, it was announced that one of the games he selected would include the England national team in the matchup, he said.
Chapman said it is “within reach” in the U.S. to go see the top players in sports like American football, but said that was not the case with soccer until now.
“Having the World Cup here, you’re having the best players play in your backyard,” he said.
Kenneth Baker, a Wayland Youth Soccer coach from Dunfermline, Scotland, who moved to Wayland in 2014, experienced similar luck. He and his friend bought 10 tickets through the blind lottery, one of which ended up featuring the Scotland national team, he said.
The opportunity to see them play is particularly special to him, not just because the game will take place in Boston, but because the team hasn’t qualified for the men’s World Cup in over 25 years, he said.
“We committed to buying tickets way before we knew Scotland would be here, so it’s been really fortunate to get those tickets,” he said.
Baker said he has been a fan of soccer since his childhood, when his grandfather would take him to games in which the Edinburgh-based team Heart of Midlothian F.C. was playing. It was around this time that he also became a fan of the Scotland national team, he said.
“I’ll admit it, it’s immense. When you sing a national anthem, it’s great,” he said about following a team tied to his nationality. “The problem with being a Scotland fan is we don’t often win. We’re not a great team, and so there’s a lot of disappointment, but there’s still a lot of pride in the team.”
Despite Scotland’s lack of success in the past, he said he is hopeful for its game against the Haiti national team at Gillette Stadium on June 13, which he will be attending.
Jorge Fuentes, a Framingham resident and Wayland Youth Soccer coach who moved from Colombia in 2000, is also seeing his national team play in the World Cup. However, he is going to three of its games, each in a separate location: Mexico City, Guadalajara and Miami.
This is because he instead purchased the “Follow My Team” bundle, which includes tickets to three games in the opening round, all featuring the same team in the matchups.
Kyle Mabe, a 23-year-old Wayland resident and lifelong soccer player, said he and his family purchased tickets to the World Cup game at Gillette Stadium, where Haiti will compete against Scotland, though he said their way of doing so was not “traditional.”
Mabe said he obtained the tickets through a process called Right-To-Ticket, in which one can convert an official FIFA digital collectible into a ticket, if done within a specific timeframe.
For someone living in the United States, he said, the World Cup being so accessible this year is very significant.
“It’s really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to go, even if it’s a game that’s not really too exciting, or a team that you want to see, it’s still a chance to be part of something special,” he said.
For Fuentes, Baker and Chapman, this year’s World Cup is a rare opportunity for them to see their home country compete on the international stage. But even when the festivities are over, and Massachusetts is no longer a soccer hotspot, not all is lost for them, because they have each other.
“Talking to my friends at work, they’re like, ‘Oh, so what is happening?’ And they kind of have an idea, but they’re not invested in it,” Fuentes said. “So, it’s definitely great and super fun to talk with people that have the same passion.”
For example, Fuentes said he was on the phone with Baker a few weeks ago and watched along as Baker’s favorite team was playing in the finals. Even though he was unfamiliar with the team, Fuentes said, having someone to get invested in the sport with was enjoyable.
What initially brought the three of them together was the fact that they were all coaches for WAYS while their kids were in the program. Fuentes said they shared the goal of inspiring the next generation by passing down their passion for the sport.
Brian Thornfeldt, president of WAYS, said young soccer players representing their heritage through a national team in the World Cup highlights the global and interconnected nature of the sport, which he said is particularly valuable to kids in younger grades who may not have thought about the rest of the world yet.
“What we would want to promote from Wayland [Youth] Soccer is that we are a community. We all come from different places,” he said. “Often, in life, things like sports unite us and really become a very common interest in the world, and we can all kind of relate to soccer as a sport in that way.”
