What Kansas Citians wanted to know about the World Cup
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Kansas City's Google searches during the World Cup told a different story from every other host city, new data shows.
Why it matters: The searches map how hosting the tournament reshaped KC's soccer interest in real time, down to which national teams locals typed into Google.
How it works: Google shared search data with Axios, comparing the metro to other U.S. host metros from January through mid-June to identify which topics locals searched for more often than fans in other host cities did.
Team trends
🇩🇿 KC searched Algeria's national team more than France's, the only host metro to do so.
- Algeria based its team in Lawrence, where the college town brushed up on Arabic and French and added halal menu options before the team played in Kansas City.
🇳🇱 The city also searched the Dutch more than Uruguay, again the only host metro to do so.
- The Netherlands' orange-clad fans staged the biggest World Cup march of any host city in the country, and the team played its group-stage match against Tunisia at Kansas City Stadium.
🏴 KC was the only host metro that searched England ahead of Spain, two of the sport's traditional powers. England ran its base camp in the metro, too.
🇦🇷 Argentina ranked as KC's second most-searched team, higher than in any other host metro shown, and the reigning champions played their match here.
Soccer searches
The Heartland out-searched every host metro on "rainbow kick," a flashy move where a player flicks the ball up and past an opponent's head.
- It was also the only metro that searched "defender" more than "forward," the position that usually gets the goals and the glory.
- Mexico, Argentina and Brazil were KC's three most-searched qualifying teams across those six months.
- Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi led the list of most-searched active players.
The bottom line: If the searches say anything, it's that KC spent six months genuinely curious about the world's game.