Tim Howard, Thierry Henry weigh on how fans can influence World Cup

C. Isaiah Smalls II, Miami Herald on Apr 4, 2026

Published in Soccer

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MIAMI — The United States soccer scene looked a lot different the last time the country hosted the World Cup in 1994.

For one, the MLS had yet to kick off. Inter Miami star Lionel Messi had not transitioned to Barcelona’s youth team. And Christian Pulisic, America’s brightest star on the pitch, wasn’t even born.

With the World Cup months away, the United States has a unique opportunity to do something just six previous teams have done: win the tournament on home soil. It will be a tall task — countries like France, Brazil and Argentina certainly won’t make it easy — but the opportunity is there, especially with how much the game has grown in the more than three decades since America first hosted the international spectacle.

“It’s an impossible dream to dream,” legendary USA goalie Tim Howard said, calling the 2026 iteration “the biggest World Cup in history.” He then charged the fans with a mission. “The U.S. fans have a part to play: they can get behind the team. The team will be galvanized by that. Never in my three world cups did we feel support like the boys are going to feel this summer.”

Howard’s remarks came during American Airlines’ FIFA World Cup 2026 Aircraft Celebration in which the company revealed its new livery in honor of the international tournament. Seated next to the renowned goalie was French soccer star Thierry Henry, who was part of the last team that won the World Cup on its home soil: France in 1998. Similar to Howard, Henry discussed how belief played a major role during his country’s first World Cup victory.

“When the team can get people to believe that you can actually do what was impossible,” Henry said, referring to France’s two previous absences from the World Cup prior to 1998, “suddenly people started to believe we can do it.”

Added Henry: “When you reach that level of togetherness in the community then you can achieve stuff.”

While it’s important to note fan support, let’s not forget how stacked that France team was with Henry and legendary midfielder Zinedine Zidane. France’s Fabien Barthez also took the World Cup award for best goalkeeper.

“Being part of the history of the World Cup is unbelievable because I used to see it, dream about it and suddenly, you’re part of the dream,” Henry said. “It’s just something that you can’t really describe even now.”

Obviously, a USA victory would be a bit far-fetched. As of Friday, FIFA had the USA ranked 16th with far superior competitors like Argentina (No. 3), France (No. 1), Brazil (No. 6) and Spain (No. 2) in the lead. Even if the U.S. manages to sneak out group play — a high possibility considering they’re ranked higher than Paraguay (No. 40), Australia (No. 27) and Turkey (No. 22) — the knockout round could get mighty scary.

Still, as Henry said, anything can happen.

“The world stands still when the World Cup is around, and you just don’t know what’s going to happen all the time so you just have to be there [and] watch it,” Henry continued. “

Regardless of how the World Cup plays out, the U.S. has a unique opportunity to potentially equalize the playing field going forward. America remains the only country with a “pay-to-play” system that unfortunately tends to exclude lower-income families. If some of the money generated from the upcoming World Cup can be invested back into the community to remove some of those barriers to entry, the U.S.’s chances to compete on the international stage would improve dramatically.

“People within the American soccer circle want to be on the forefront of global football,” Howard said. “In order to do that, we have to put a lot of the dollars that are getting spent, that would be earned through this World Cup back into the grassroots to try and lift up and bolster what football can be.”

Added Howard: “The rest of the world has done that. We have a real opportunity to do it this time.”