The planet's biggest tournament is three hours down the 10 and the Coachella Valley has turned every bar, pool deck and casino floor into a stadium of its own.
When a late goal drops on a screen in downtown Palm Springs, you hear it before you see it: a roar rolling out an open bar door onto South Palm Canyon, the clatter of pint glasses, a flag waving over the crowd. For one summer, the desert has caught the fever. World Cup mania has reached the Coachella Valley, and the valley has thrown its doors wide open.
It helps that the planet's biggest party is practically next door. The U.S. men opened at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, barely three hours west on the 10, and this year's expanded tournament, 48 teams and a record 104 matches, has flooded the calendar with games. Best of all for West Coast fans, the North American time zones mean no setting an alarm for 3 a.m. the way Qatar and Russia once demanded. Most matches kick off between noon and 7 p.m., right in the sweet spot of a long desert afternoon.
And the valley has no shortage of places to take them in. Chief among them is Hair of the Dog, the English-style pub that has anchored downtown Palm Springs since 1973. Its walls are a permanent shrine to the sport: jerseys, scarves and national flags layered floor to ceiling. And it's one of the rare local spots that shows soccer year-round. During the World Cup it's been pouring pints in commemorative glasses across more than a dozen screens, the pool tables and dartboards surrendered to halftime debates over offside calls.
For something closer to a stadium experience, the 360 Sports Bar inside Agua Caliente Casino in Palm Springs has built watch parties around the marquee fixtures on its enormous wraparound screens, complete with games and giveaways, from the U.S. opener against Paraguay to the July 19 final. Out in Palm Desert, the 19th Hole, the self-proclaimed "original" bar dating to the 1960s, fills by kickoff. And the list runs on: The Village Pub's 29 screens, Smokin' Burgers' twin patios, Escena Grill's mountain-view cocktails, NYPD Pizza's New York slices. For something more low-key, there's Tryst Bar & Lounge, the laid-back dive just off Indian Canyon in the Arenas District jukebox going, darts and pinball in the back, drinks that won't dent your wallet, and the easy, unpretentious feel of a true neighborhood room (full disclosure: it's a Dispatch favorite). Wherever you land, you won't be watching alone.
What gives the desert's version of the tournament its particular charge is who's doing the cheering. The Coachella Valley is one of the most diverse corners of Southern California, and the World Cup has turned that diversity into a month-long block party. El Tri draws the biggest, loudest crowds green jerseys everywhere from Coachella to Cathedral City but you'll spot Argentina fans in sky-blue stripes, knots of supporters pulling for Brazil and Colombia, and a dozen smaller nations few expected to see represented in a desert sports bar. Strangers high-five over goals scored by countries they've never visited. Local fans have described the tournament as a kind of universal bridge proof that the beautiful game can pull an entire valley together. As Ted Lasso's irrepressible Mexican striker Dani Rojas liked to shout on the show, "Football is life!" For one summer in the desert, it genuinely is.
Then there's the uniquely Palm Springs way to do it: poolside. Resorts across the valley have leaned into the moment with cabana screenings and match-day specials, letting guests float through a knockout match with a cold drink in hand and the San Jacintos rising behind the screen. It's a reminder that the desert has always known how to turn an event into a getaway and that the World Cup, like Coachella before it, is good business for a town built on hospitality.
The timing only sharpens the buzz. The group stage wraps this weekend, and the bracket is about to tighten into the win-or-go-home rounds, where every match carries the weight of a season. Ted Lasso fans know the refrain "It's the hope that kills you" and the knockout stage is where that hope gets gloriously, agonizingly tested. Expect the bars to get louder, the flags to multiply, and the highs and lows to sharpen with each round on the march toward that July 19 final.
The desert spent February hosting the pros at the Coachella Valley Invitational, a preseason taste of what was coming. Now the real thing has arrived, beamed in from stadiums up and down the continent. The valley didn't land a match of its own, but you'd never know it from the noise pouring out of every open door this summer. The world came to play, and the desert showed up to celebrate.
