{"id":2498340,"date":"2026-07-11T22:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2498340"},"modified":"2026-07-11T22:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:58:12","slug":"ted-lasso-stars-bring-world-cup-fever-to-kansas-city-as-argentina-faces-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/ted-lasso-stars-bring-world-cup-fever-to-kansas-city-as-argentina-faces-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Ted Lasso’ stars bring World Cup fever to Kansas City as Argentina faces Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.<\/strong> \u2013 Lionel Messi and reigning World Cup champion Argentina<\/a> playing for a semifinal spot in Ted Lasso’s hometown?<\/p>\n

You’d better BELIEVE he’s paying attention.<\/p>\n

The fictional coach of soccer club AFC Richmond \u2014 or rather, Jason Sudeikis, who plays the title character on the Apple TV series \u2014 was hosting a watch party at CPKC Stadium near downtown Kansas City on Saturday night, when La Albiceleste were playing upstart Switzerland at Arrowhead Stadium<\/a> in their quest for back-to-back championships.<\/p>\n

The fourth season of the comedy-drama, which has been on hiatus since May 31, 2023, is due to premiere on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we’ve loved football before we got started, I’ve grown to love it more as we got more immersed in the soccer culture,\u201d said Sudeikis, who grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and still has a deep affinity for the city.<\/p>\n

In fact, many of the scenes in the new season of \u201cTed Lasso\u201d were shot around Kansas City.<\/p>\n

That includes riverfront CPKC Stadium, the home of the National Women’s Soccer League club Kansas City Current. It’s the first of its size built specifically for a women’s professional club, and a fitting locale for several thousand people to attend a watch party, given that the new season of \u201cTed Lasso\u201d will focus on the newly formed AFC Richmond women’s team.<\/p>\n

It was a concept that the character Keeley Jones \u2014 played by the award-winning Juno Temple \u2014 subtly pitched at the end of the third season, when it was still unclear whether \u201cTed Lasso\u201d would return for another run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a perfect moment to be talking about women’s football, and representing it \u2014 not that I play, obviously,\u201d said Temple, who sported a teal Kansas City Current jersey Saturday. \u201cSo that’s first and foremost. I hope that’s something people really treasure. And I also hope people enjoy the journey each of the characters are going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the World Cup, the cast hopes fans of the show have become fans of the game over the years. That has certainly been the case in the Sudeikis household; he played a little soccer as a kid before realizing basketball was more his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve certainly heard from some people that didn’t care about soccer at all until they started to watch \u2018Ted Lasso,\u2019\u201d said Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard and is one of the show’s writers, and who reflected on the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs opposed to 1994 when we had the World Cup and people knew even less about soccer, including me, people were ready for it,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cYes, the world has come with this great energy, but we were more ready to be aware of their presence, and reciprocate energy. And we’re not as far behind as far as the sport’s popularity as it’s made out to be, and this World Cup is showing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that Argentina and Switzerland were playing a World Cup final on Saturday night? In Kansas City?<\/p>\n

\u201cLuck of the draw,\u201d Hunt said with a wry, bearded smile. \u201cThe actual show about to come out after the World Cup? I think someone manipulated that. Might have been a corporate choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.clickorlando.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2013 Lionel Messi and reigning World Cup champion Argentina playing for a semifinal spot in Ted Lasso’s hometown? You’d better BELIEVE he’s paying attention. The fictional coach of soccer club AFC Richmond \u2014 or rather, Jason Sudeikis, who plays the title character on the Apple TV series \u2014 was hosting a watch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2498341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[326181,21741,310574,359206,492019,360668,310509,21848],"class_list":["post-2498340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-brendan-hunt","tag-entertainment","tag-jason-sudeikis","tag-juno-temple","tag-keeley-jones","tag-lionel-messi","tag-richmond","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Ted-Lasso-stars-bring-World-Cup-fever-to-Kansas-City.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2498342,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498340\/revisions\/2498342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2498341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}