La Albiceleste were playing upstart Switzerland<\/a> at Arrowhead Stadium in their quest for back-to-back championships.<\/p>\nThe fourth season of the comedy-drama, which has been on hiatus since May 31, 2023, is due to premiere on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs much as we\u2019ve loved football before we got started, I\u2019ve grown to love it more as we got more immersed in the soccer culture,\u201d said Sudeikis, who grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and still has a deep affinity for the city.<\/p>\n
![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WCup_Kansas_City_Ted_Lasso_Soccer_7_9_8-1.jpg\")
FILE \u2013 Jason Sudeikis arrives at the season three premiere of \u201cTed Lasso\u201d on March 7, 2023, at Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss\/Invision\/AP, File)<\/p>\n
In fact, many of the scenes in the new season of \u201cTed Lasso\u201d were shot around Kansas City.<\/p>\n
That includes riverfront CPKC Stadium, the home of the National Women\u2019s Soccer League club Kansas City Current. It\u2019s the first of its size built specifically for a women\u2019s professional club, and a fitting locale for several thousand people to attend a watch party, given that the new season of \u201cTed Lasso\u201d will focus on the newly formed AFC Richmond women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
It was a concept that the character Keeley Jones \u2014 played by the award-winning Juno Temple \u2014 subtly pitched at the end of the third season, when it was still unclear whether \u201cTed Lasso\u201d would return for another run.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like a perfect moment to be talking about women\u2019s football, and representing it \u2014 not that I play, obviously,\u201d said Temple, who sported a teal Kansas City Current jersey Saturday. \u201cSo that\u2019s first and foremost. I hope that\u2019s something people really treasure. And I also hope people enjoy the journey each of the characters are going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Actors](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Switzerland_Argentina_WCup_Soccer_79337.jpg\")
Actors Jason Sudeikis, second right, who plays Ted Lasso, and Brendan Hunt, center, who plays Coach Beard on the series Ted Lasso, lead the crowd in cheers before the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Switzerland and Argentina in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, July 11, 2026. (AP Photo\/Reed Hoffmann)<\/p>\n
As for the World Cup, the cast hopes fans of the show have become fans of the game over the years. That has certainly been the case in the Sudeikis household; he played a little soccer as a kid before realizing basketball was more his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve certainly heard from some people that didn\u2019t care about soccer at all until they started to watch \u2018Ted Lasso,\u2019\u201d said Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard and is one of the show\u2019s writers, and who reflected on the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs opposed to 1994 when we had the World Cup and people knew even less about soccer, including me, people were ready for it,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cYes, the world has come with this great energy, but we were more ready to be aware of their presence, and reciprocate energy. And we\u2019re not as far behind as far as the sport\u2019s popularity as it\u2019s made out to be, and this World Cup is showing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that Argentina and Switzerland were playing a World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday night? In Kansas City?<\/p>\n
\u201cLuck of the draw,\u201d Hunt said with a wry, bearded smile. \u201cThe actual show about to come out after the World Cup? I think someone manipulated that. Might have been a corporate choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) \u2014 Lionel Messi and reigning World Cup champion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[49239,50650,50649,50651,17,50648,13703],"class_list":["post-102877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-argentina-switzerland","tag-brendan-hunt","tag-jason-sudeikis","tag-juno-temple","tag-switzerland","tag-ted-lasso","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116914028865928395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}