Odes to Atlanta Soccer · Track 4 · middle

Mercedes Hosts the World

World Cup 2026 — Atlanta as a host city for the FIFA expansion tournament, Mercedes-Benz Stadium hosting 8 matches including a semifinal, the world arriving in the South for football, MARTA running World Cup specials, Centennial Park as the official fan zone, Atlanta's coming-out moment as a global football city. June 2026 already in the air.

Lyrics

June 2026.
It’s already in the air.
You can feel it on the asphalt off Centennial Park.
The world is turning its map to find us.

I remember June 16, 2022.
Mayor Andre Dickens on the broadcast, couldn't hide that city-wide smile.
Gianni Infantino said the words from Zurich, and the skyline just... lit up.
All those years showing up, seventy-two thousand strong for the Five Stripes.
All those Saturday afternoons in red and black.
It wasn't for nothing.
It was building this foundation.

So hang the flags from every overpass on 75 and 85.
Wrap the MARTA trains in every color that you know.
We're putting down the chalk lines for the whole wide world to play.
Mercedes hosts the world, and the American South is gonna show you how.
Yeah, the American South is gonna show you now.

Eight matches booked under the pinwheel roof.
A semifinal on a Tuesday night.
The halo board scrolling Portuguese and Spanish for the world to see.
That kettle corn smell rising with the humidity at six P.M.
The whole city, a living room, doors thrown wide open.
From Decatur to Downtown, we are ready.

This is for the kids kicking a ball against a brick wall in Home Park and East Point.
This is for the old-timers who remember the Atlanta Chiefs back in 1967.
This is the promise of that first Five Stripes match in 2017... finally made real, made global.
A global city, a football city.
Look what we built.
Look who's coming home to us now.

Mercedes hosts the world.
The world is at our front door.
June 2026.
ATL is ready.
We are ready.