FIFA World Cup: Kansas City Adopts Algerian National Team With Love

As the Algerian squad prepares to take on Champions, Argentina at the Kansas City stadium, they have found their home at Lawrence City. 40 miles from Kansas City, the Algerian team has borrowed the training spaces in Lawrence City to prepare for a long World Cup campaign.

What has now become the story of the tournament is how welcoming the citizens of Lawrence have been to the Algerian players. Caught sporting Algerian flags and even finding themselves outside the players’ hotel to show their support, the world and the Algerian squad were taken by surprise. Finding support on foreign ground that is similar in intensity to the support at home, Algeria has found new energy at the biggest stage.

Publicly supporting the nation of Algeria, Lawrence and its administration has adopted the green colours of Algeria among calls of support from the head coach. Vladimir Petkovic called on the neutrals in the area to turn up and support the green colours of Algeria against mighty champions Argentina but hardly expected the support from a whole town in the host nation they were competing against.

Members of the Desert Foxes were shooting at the Allen Fieldhouse by invitation as cheers and chants of “Rock Chalk Algeria” rang down the historic Mass Street. As 2000 + fans packed into the Rock Chalk Park to witness Algeria’s training session, the support and passion from the citizens of Lawrence is unmistakable.

Videos from the town of Lawrence have gone viral, showing emotions and support for Algeria, bringing to the fore the passion and commitment found from every fan at the marquee tournament. Uniting people and nations across the globe, the FIFA World Cup has already proven why it has always found popularity on the global stage.

(This article is written by Arnav Madhura, a student of Krea University, interning at Deccan Chronicle.)