World Cup teams enjoyed Texas while training in Frisco, Mansfield

For a few weeks this summer, Frisco and Mansfield became home away from home for two World Cup teams. Even though Sweden and Czechia exited the tournament early, local officials say the international attention will have lasting benefits.

Between training sessions and matches across North America, the teams embraced Texas, from a Fort Worth rodeo and barbecue to throwing an American football during a private tour of the Dallas Cowboys headquarters.

Local businesses and residents, ncluding many first-time World Cup fans, found themselves rooting for their adopted home teams.

Here are some of the connections that could outlive the tournament:

Frisco, which brands itself as “Sports City USA,” has been steadily building its soccer identity. Toyota Stadium, where Sweden trained, has been home to FC Dallas, the Major League Soccer team, since 2005. Lionel Messi played there in 2023. The suburb’s National Soccer Hall of Fame museum, opened in 2018, also draws fans of the sport from around the world.

Nick Shafer, vice president of stadium operations at FC Dallas and Toyota Stadium, said hosting Sweden, even as the stadium was undergoing construction, was relatively easy because his staff is accustomed to large events. Shafer said the experience would help raise Frisco’s profile as it vies to host games for the 2031 Women’s World Cup. 

The opportunity was bigger for Mansfield. 

Texas Health Mansfield Stadium had been open only a matter of days before Czechia held its first practice there. The venue is home to a third division soccer team and, in November, it will host the U.S. women’s national team for qualifying matches for the World Cup and the Olympics. 

Scott Norton, general manager for the stadium, said hosting Czechia “definitely helped us get on the map.”

Amid a hectic travel schedule, the Czech team made time to sample local favorites, including Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth and Hurtado’s Barbecue in Mansfield, and they caught a Texas Rangers game. 

Norton said the players embraced Texas.

“They ate up Texas. They literally said they considered it their second home,” Norton said. 

Before the team returned to Czechia, Norton and his team presented coach Miroslav Koubek with blue and white Lucchese boots,decorated with his initials and the lion from the nation’s coat of arms.  

Players got Texas-themed gifts too. 

After a practice session, Norton’s team set up a “branding bar” outside the locker room. A Fort Worth artist used a small torch to customize leather luggage tags with symbols, such as the Texas flag and a bison. 

When the Swedish team stepped off the bus at the Westin Dallas Stonebriar in Frisco in early June, members of the Dallas Cowboys’ hip-hop dance troupe and drumline gave them an upbeat welcome. 

Otherwise, the reception was intentionally low-key after team officials told Frisco they wanted players focused on the tournament.
“To respect their wishes, we were careful with how the word got out,” said Josh Dill, assistant executive director of Frisco’s tourism arm. “We didn’t want to create mass hysteria.” 

In addition to playing a little American football at The Star, 12 members of the team got special permission to play golf at PGA Frisco’s exclusive Fields Ranch East course, where the PGA Championship will be held next year. 

Frisco City Council member Ann Anderson wore a blue T-shirt with a graphic of a soccer ball in a yellow cowboy hat and the words “Hej Y’all,” a nod to the Swedish greeting, to welcome the team at their hotel. 

Anderson said she and other residents didn’t interact with the team beyond the single practice session open to the public, a FIFA requirement. But she said that many of her constituents, including some tuning in to the World Cup for the first time, were rooting for their “home team.”

Local businesses displayed Swedish flags. Blue Goose Cantina, a Tex-Mex restaurant owned by a fourth-generation Swedish American, printed a translated version of their menu for visiting Swedish fans and sold a special blue Swedish margarita during the tournament. 

North Texas already is home to several Swedish companies, such as Ericsson in Plano. 

Dill said he is hopeful that Frisco serving as a World Cup base camp will “pay dividends” as Swedish visitors return for business or tourism.

While Czechia trained in Mansfield, the team stayed about 20 miles away at the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel, where staff converted some guest rooms into “recovery rooms” for massages and ice baths. 

They also converted a meeting room into a “heat room” set at 95 degrees Fahrenheit where players pedaled on stationary bikes to prepare for their two matches in Mexico, where stadiums were not air conditioned, said Daniel O’Connor, the hotel’s general manager.

Although the team stayed in Fort Worth, Mansfield embraced its role as host. 

An open practice drew several Czech Americans and the city hosted “Czech Out Mansfield,” an outdoor festival featuring Eastern European smoked meats and marionette doll performances, a Czech tradition. 

Texas has long been a hub for Czech culture in America, from kolaches to the annual National Polka Festival in Ennis. 

After hosting Czechia for the World Cup, Tim Roberts, tourism manager for the city of Mansfield, said it will now “enter the pantheon” of Texas cities associated with Czech culture, alongside West, Ennis and Praha.

The cultural exchange went both ways. Roberts said the Czech team enjoyed immersing themselves in Texas’ “cowboy culture.”

“I’m sure they wish they could have pulled off a win or two,” Roberts said. “But they seemed to enjoy the Western experience in the D-FW area.”