{"id":630660,"date":"2026-03-04T03:18:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/630660\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T03:18:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:18:21","slug":"philly-celebrates-100-days-till-tournament-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/630660\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly celebrates 100 days till tournament kicks off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. The Billy Penn newsletter keeps you informed about everything Philly, with a quirky vibe of healthy skepticism and persistent optimism.\u00a0Join us and sign up today.<\/a><\/p>\n

The FIFA World Cup<\/a> is 100 days out and Philadelphia\u2019s host committee joined the global celebrations counting down to the first game on June 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham hosted the event and hyped up the crowd with \u201cE-A-G-L-E-S.\u201d chant to start things off. He then helped to teach some of the soccer chants that will be heard echoing around Lincoln Financial Field this summer.\u00a0 When Graham yelled \u201cAllez\u201d the crowd was instructed to shout \u201cLes Bleus\u201d back, to celebrate France\u2019s national soccer team. When he sang \u201col\u00e9, ol\u00e9, ol\u00e9, ol\u00e9\u201d the response was \u201cBrazil, Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Eagles great Brandon Graham and Meg Kane, host city executive for Philadelphia Soccer 2026,(center) lead a pep rally to fire up fans for the 2026 World Cup. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

Those two nations, both World Cup winners, highlighted the lineup of countries that will be playing at the Linc for the city\u2019s five group stage games, beginning on June 14. The city will round off its part in the tournament with a Round of 16 knockout stage game on the Fourth of July, coinciding with all of Philly\u2019s celebrations of the nation\u2019s 250th birthday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Overall, FIFA expects 6.5 million fans to travel across the globe for the festivities, which will take place in 16 cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n

Michelle Singer, the co-chair of the group planning Philly\u2019s part in the World Cup<\/a>, said that the tournament will not just be about the games and the soccer stars though. It will also be a chance to show the world what makes Philadelphia special.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Universal African Dance and Drum Ensemble perform at a pep rally marking 100 days to the World Cup held at the Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to show visiting soccer fans our unmistakable passion, our grit, our energy and we\u2019re going to make them feel home in Philadelphia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Attendees at the rally also got to write out their favorite \u201cPhan\u201d traditions on a chalk wall.<\/p>\n

\"\"Attendees at a pep rally marking 100 days to the World Cup write about their favorite Philly sports moments. (Emma Lee\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I say there is no better sports city in the United States, and maybe the world, I don\u2019t just believe it, I live it every day, and so do you,\u201d said Meg Kane, Philadelphia\u2019s host city executive. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what we need the world to feel this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Soccer 2026 also revealed its new \u201cHow do you Phan?\u201d hype video at Tuesday\u2019s rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tuesday also saw the global release of the tournament\u2019s poster, which was created by an artist from each of the three host nations: Carson Ting from Canada, Minerva\u202fGM from Mexico and U.S. artist Hank Willis Thomas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The official FIFA World Cup 2026 poster, designed by Carson Ting from Canada, Minerva\u202fGM from Mexico and Hank Willis Thomas from the U.S. (Courtesy of FIFA)<\/p>\n

Be sure to check out Billy Penn\u2019s guide to the World Cup games in Philly<\/a>, which offers a crash course in what teams and players you\u2019ll\u00a0 likely see this summer, how you can watch the games and which local soccer players could make the United States team for the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. The Billy Penn newsletter keeps you informed about everything Philly,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":630661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,69208,9150,2034,6061,73543,1448,2830,1311,221,62,199804,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,21490,105860],"class_list":["post-630660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-brandon-graham","tag-eagles","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-lincoln-financial-field","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-stateside-live","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116168747645405163","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}