IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Go USA! Bored Americans Still Back the Home Team

Six in 10 Americans say they either have very little interest or no interest at all in the World Cup.
Get more newsLiveon

Here’s a yellow card warning for all of the anticipation of the United States’ World Cup match against Belgium this afternoon: Most Americans aren’t that excited, even if many of them are rooting on the home country.

Six-in-10 Americans – 61 percent – say they either have very little interest or no interest at all in the World Cup, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll.

That’s compared with only 22 percent who say they have a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of interest. Another 17 percent say they have “just some” interest.

Among those with interest in the World Cup – either a lot or a little – the poll shows it’s clear for whom respondents are rooting: Team USA.

Eighty-six percent say they’re backing the United States, 8 percent are rooting for another country and 6 percent don’t care.

The NBC/WSJ/Annenberg poll was conducted June 23-29 of 1,452 adults, and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.2 percentage points.

IN-DEPTH