For the second straight World Cup match, America’s soccer stars struggled to keep up with a bizarre sped-up rendition of the pregame national anthem.
As is tradition before every fixture in the tournament – and, indeed, before every sporting event in America – the Star-Spangled Banner blared out around the Los Angeles Stadium.
But the faster, marching band version of the anthem left players and fans baffled, given its remarkable difference in speed compared with the usual pre-sporting event tune.
As the camera panned down the line of USMNT players, some were clearly out of time with the music, despite desperately trying to keep up and show their pride in playing for the national team.
A couple of the team’s stars opted instead to shut their eyes and take in the moment, instead of trying – and perhaps failing – to keep up with the music.
At sporting events, it is common for a singer to perform the anthem – which is exactly what happened ahead of the USA’s first match of the World Cup in LA.
United States players looked up at the screen as the sped-up anthem sparked much confusion
Rather than a live singer, the anthem was pre-recorded and played over the PA system
The following two games, though, have reverted to the World Cup norm, with the music alone being played over the speakers.
On X, one fan wrote: ‘That anthem was horrid out of the PA! S*** was like 10x normal speed! The fans and players had the correct tempo and it sounded horrid together! SMH!’
Another urged FIFA: ‘SLOW DOWN THE ANTHEM! SLOW IT DOWN!’, while a third wrote: ‘Anthem was played at 2x speed for some reason.’
For some, though, the sped-up anthem didn’t change the emotion of the moment, with popular sports host Kay Adams asking fans: ‘What’s the illness called when you cry a lil during every national anthem? What is that.’
When the game eventually began, it didn’t take long for even more emotion to pulse around the stadium, when the USA took an extremely early lead against Turkey.
Despite the US having already booked their place in the knockout stages as Group D winners, Auston Trusty fired his country ahead with the second-fastest World Cup goal in team history.
