Irvine will be the venue for a public training session of the American men's soccer team before the 2026 FIFA World Cup

IRVINE, California — Soccer fervor is spreading throughout Southern California as the city of Irvine prepares to welcome the American men's soccer team in its first public practice on Monday, June 8, ahead of the FIFA World Cup. The team will use Irvine's Great Park as its official training camp. "After evaluating the facilities, FIFA selected us, which put us on the list of options for countries to choose from, and over the last few years we've done tours with many other countries and interested parties, and earlier this year, in January, we were selected by the American men's soccer team," said Steven Stewart, Director of Community Services for Great Park Athletics. The public training session will give fans a rare chance to watch the team from close range as the players prepare for the World Cup, but is only available to those who have been able to win free tickets through a lottery system. "Unfortunately, the tickets are sold out at the moment, they're free but part of a lottery system. The community is really excited. I think there's a really good opportunity for people to see the team in Irvine. This would be a real legacy," Stewart added. "Unfortunately, you can't access the site or the park unless you're one of the ticket holders, but for a lucky few, they'll get the chance to see the team here and this is a unique opportunity." More than 30,000 people participated in the lottery, and only 5,000 were selected. "I looked to see if they were holding any public practices and coincidentally, I found out that the next day after entering the lottery, the tickets were closed," said James Beckner, a longtime fan of the American men's soccer team. As a SoCal resident, Beckner had the unusual idea of ​​searching the Internet, posting on forums and introducing himself hoping that someone with tickets would be willing to let him come along. "Anyone who's willing to, you know, kind of meet and get to know me at the stadium, I feel like they'd like to be friends too. I'm an easy-going person... based on my Reddit posts, I've been very open about, hey, I'm willing to buy you a beer and all that kind of stuff. It's been fun so far. Like I said, hopefully everything's going well and hopefully I can come in and watch the guys practice," Beckner added. Beckner also said he has a few leads, but nothing is solid yet. For Irvine, hosting a national team would put the city on the global football stage.