A Micropolitics of Soccer Visibility: Sports and American Exceptionalism Through a Nashville Lens

This essay uses the occasion of the 2026 World Cup to investigate the ways “soccer” or football in the United States has reflected the ideology of US exceptionalism as well as a wide array of other ideological nodal points. By performing a microhistory of soccer as it was covered in the local news in Nasvhille, I bring into relief the ways our understanding of soccer today continues to be constrained by its ideological roots in terms of nationalism, gender, race, and class.