WATCH: USMNT serenaded with Country Roads after 2-0 win over Australia

Welcome to the show, USMNT. I am a graduate of THE West Virginia University and I have been singing “Country Roads” since the early 2000s when it was our thing and our thing only, belted out by 60,000 people in gold and blue at Mountaineer Field after every home win while the rest of the country had no idea what they were missing.

That song has been the soundtrack to some of the best moments of my life and watching an entire World Cup stadium full of American soccer fans belt it out after the USMNT beat Australia on Friday night was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in a sports setting.

I don’t have a single gatekeeping bone in my body about this because “Country Roads” belongs to everyone now and I’m happy to share it with the entire country. The song was always too good to stay locked up in Morgantown and seeing it become the anthem of the USMNT during a World Cup on home soil feels like the natural evolution of something that was destined to outgrow college football and become part of something bigger. West Virginia gave America its World Cup victory song and I couldn’t be more proud of that.

Country Roads Needs to Be the Permanent USMNT Anthem

The @USMNT faithful serenade their team with "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in Seattle 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/XI3Q3EkxhK

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 19, 2026

Shoutout to FOX for letting it play

The USMNT is serenaded by the crowd in Seattle with John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" after their 2-0 win over Australia.

USA is on to the Round of 32.
📽️: @FOXSports pic.twitter.com/FdT2xr3nD7

— Zack Hedrick (@zhedrickTV) June 19, 2026

USMNT beat the Aussies 2-0, lock up first place in Group D after Paraguay beats Turkey

I’m going to say what everyone is thinking. “Country Roads” after every win needs to replace every other chant the USMNT fanbase has been trying to make happen for the last two decades. No more “I Believe That We Will Win.”

That chant has been annoying since the day it was invented and it sounds like something a youth soccer league came up with during a team-building exercise at a Holiday Inn conference room. No more just spelling out letters while yelling because that’s not a chant, that’s a spelling bee with enthusiasm. No more trying to force European-style supporter culture onto American fans who don’t connect with it naturally.

“Country Roads” is the answer because it’s something that every single person in the stadium already knows by heart regardless of where they’re from, how old they are, or whether they’ve ever watched a soccer match before in their life.

When 70,000 people are singing the same song at the top of their lungs after an American victory at the World Cup, the sound that comes out of that stadium is the kind of thing that gives you chills and makes you want to run through a wall for your country. That’s what a national anthem moment is supposed to feel like and “Country Roads” delivered it in a way that no forced chant or manufactured supporter culture ever has.

I heard multiple places across the country started playing it right after the Australia match ended on Friday, which means the song is already spreading beyond the stadium and into the broader culture of this World Cup run.

When bars and watch parties and living rooms across America are spontaneously singing “Country Roads” after USMNT victories, you’ve got something real that can’t be manufactured or forced. It’s organic and it’s happening because the moment on Friday night was so perfect that the entire country felt it at the same time.

Reminder For The USMNT: That’s What Winning Should Feel Like

The feeling in that stadium after the final whistle, with tens of thousands of Americans singing John Denver at the top of their lungs while the players stood on the field soaking it in, is the feeling that every World Cup victory should produce. Not manufactured excitement from a marketing team or some shitty chant that someone on Twitter invented and tried to force into existence.

This is America, baby. That was a genuine, spontaneous, emotional moment where an entire stadium full of people from different states, different backgrounds, and different levels of soccer knowledge all connected through the same song at the same time.

That’s what American soccer culture should be built on going forward because authenticity can’t be faked and what happened Friday night was the most authentic moment the USMNT fanbase has ever produced.

Keep singing “Country Roads” after every win for the rest of this tournament and into every future tournament because this is the tradition now and it’s better than anything the USMNT has ever had.

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