Long Island World Cup fans relish the opportunity to cheer on their teams

The World Cup finally has arrived, and Long Islanders aren’t missing the opportunity to make the most of it.

Soccer has always been a part of Floral Park’s Michael McGuire’s life. McGuire, 63, is the son of a Scotland native, Andy McGuire, and started playing the sport when he was 4. He and his brother were ball boys for the New York Cosmos, working with legends such as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer. McGuire witnessed “the whole explosion” of soccer on the Island, and he played four years of high school soccer at Queens’ Archbishop Molloy under now-50-year coach Andrew Kostel.

McGuire previously went to two World Cups, the 1994 rendition in the U.S. and the most recent tournament in 2022 in Qatar, where he traveled with his daughter Cara and son James.

Safe to say, this year’s World Cup was not one he was going to miss.

McGuire is planning to go to Saturday’s Scotland vs. Haiti game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, with his son, his brother and six cousins from Scotland. He then is going with his son to Houston and will meet his daughter there for the Portugal vs. Congo DR game next Wednesday. After that, they’ll fly to Mexico City, where they don’t currently have tickets to a game but are looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere in the fan zones.

“I'm a sports fan, but the collegiality, the love of soccer and being among all these different nationalities, it's indescribable,” McGuire said. “There's just great camaraderie among soccer fans, and people being proud of their country and visiting another country, making that effort. It just breeds great affection … Even if you're not a big soccer fan, there's just a pride in your country and there's just great stories attached to it. I expect the atmosphere just to be tremendous.”

The World Cup began in Mexico City on Thursday afternoon when Mexico hosted South Africa. The U.S. begins its tournament at 9 p.m. Friday, when it will face Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. New York State is hosting watch parties at Stony Brook University for the U.S. game and Friday’s 3 p.m. game between Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first game at MetLife Stadium is at 6 p.m. Saturday, when Brazil will face Morocco.

McGuire has lifelong ties to soccer, but the World Cup also provides an opportunity for the sport’s newer fans.

Matt Tyrrel, 53, of Floral Park, became a fan around 2017. His children were playing soccer, and he remembered hearing parents yelling from the sidelines despite not knowing much about the sport. So he decided to start watching professional soccer to pick up the rules and quickly adopted Tottenham Hotspur F.C. – which was led by U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino at the time — of England’s Premier League.

He’ll be going with a friend to Philadelphia for the France vs. Iraq game on June 22.

“Being in the states is just crazy,” Tyrrel said. “Last World Cup, being at the Plattduetsche [Park restaurant in Franklin Square] was crazy. All the kids are running around with makeup on and stuff and flags. So this year, being here — and soccer keeps gaining popularity. It's impressive how so many people are playing soccer, watching soccer, following soccer. I’ll have people over my house. I’ll have like eight people.

“It used to be like nobody followed soccer, now everybody's into it. Everyone's got a team, a Premier League team. The excitement is just through the roof, and people are talking about it.”

Shawn Kelleher, 44, of Northport, has been a soccer fan for most of his life. As a kid, he went to New York City bars with his dad to watch English games. He also went to the 1994 World Cup at Giants Stadium: a 1-0 win for the Republic of Ireland over Italy that June 18.

“I still remember the goal, and the crowd going crazy,” he said.

Kelleher said he had been keeping tabs on FIFA for ticket information for two years, and now he’ll be attending a World Cup game with a family of his own. He is going to the England vs. Panama game at MetLife Stadium on June 27 with his wife and two children.

He doesn’t necessarily have a “dog in the fight,” but perhaps will have a slight lean to England as his daughter is a Marcus Rashford fan and his wife’s grandmother is English.

“I think it's going to be crazy,” he said. “I think there's gonna be 70,000 Englishmen and 10,000 Panamanians, and it's going to basically be an England home game, so it's going to be awesome. Especially if England need to win that game to advance, it's really going to be intense.”