2026 World Cup in Los Angeles
🇨🇦 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 In some sad news, there will be no Eat the World Los Angeles guide.
🇨🇦 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 2026 World Cup
📍 Southern California
🥤 Lots of Alcohol
📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles
EDITOR'S NOTE: Follow my travels around Southern California chasing 48 nations on my Instagram stories. I have set up a highlights reel so you can see everything you may have missed.This had all the makings of being the perfect year and somewhat of a culmination of all the World Cup guides I have ever put together. With this year’s event in Canada, México, and the United States, all kickoff times are manageable for restaurants and bars, and an expanded field of 48 nations would create an even bigger pool. The past two World Cups in Qatar and Russia made finding venues open for this type of enjoyment difficult, when time zones half a world away were hosting football matches.
Despite the best kickoff times since Brazil 2014, I have decided to put my guides on hold. Since my first in 2010, this has been a project I have looked forward to every four years, and put so much work into, even in the years in between. It is rough watching FIFA and the United States in such a money grab. They are always bad, but somehow it is miles worse this time around. Please spend your watch party money at non-affiliated places.
FIFA Peace prize? FIFA, bitch please. With the amount of countries our government has banned fans from, I cannot get fully behind this tournament either. And what are we supposed to do when ICE starts detaining the vendors who work outside of SoFi Stadium? I will of course be watching, but I will be with the communities in Los Angeles supporting their nations instead of spending dollars for the enrichment of war-mongering goons and police state fascists.
I spend a lot of time in the four years between World Cups with the football-watching communities of Los Angeles, and will of course be joining them for some matches. Yes, I know the event where all Southern Californian Cape Verdeans are going to be, and yes there will be food. Same for Haiti. You get the point. Even with the expanded field of 48, I have found all but five nations and I will probably be able to track those down for matchdays two or three if not before the tournament starts.
With prices these days, I also just cannot afford to go to everything like usual, but if you would like to know where I will be, please feel free to reach out. Unless you are one of those lazy aggregators who steals from me every four years. You can go away and publish your lame guide without my “help” this time.
If you want the most knowledgeable voice connected to the wide variety of football-loving communities in Southern California, please reach out and we can work on something. I would love to do individual match reports after watch parties, if that is something your publication would benefit from.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just like FIFA, I can be bought!
If 100 of my free subscribers (or new readers) see this and become paying members (just $30/year!) before México kicks the tournament off against South Africa on 11 June, I will immediately change my mind and publish the best guide in Los Angeles. And it will not lead to the enrichment of FIFA in any way, you have my word. Tell your friends! Or better yet, give them a paid yearly subscription!
🇨🇦 🇲🇽 🇺🇸
Can't tell you how disappointing it is to have waited my whole life for an opportunity to experience the World Cup in person only to have FIFA ruin it so badly. The idea that Sepp Blattter's replacement is somehow 10x worse than him is so damn depressing. Part of me hopes this world cup is an utter failure just so that Infantino loses his job
Just this morning I was talking to a friend about how I’m just not into the World Cup this year. You put into words my feelings.