Megan Rapinoe stood in front of cameras and told the world there is no God – then laughed when Christians objected.
Now the men carrying the American flag at the 2026 World Cup are answering her – from the locker room, on camera, and in front of three billion people.
And what they're saying is something the left did not see coming.
The Men Who Replaced the Woke Mob
Rapinoe pressured young women on the national team into apologizing for their beliefs.
She got a Christian player essentially run off the women's squad for not being woke enough.
That era is over.
The men representing America at the 2026 World Cup – the first men's tournament on home soil since 1994 – are carrying Bibles into the locker room and daring anyone to say something about it.
Midfielder Cristian Roldan sat down with Sports Spectrum days before Team USA's opening match and said it plainly.
"Jesus is everything," Roldan said. "Because I think everything correlates with Jesus in the way we operate."
He then described years of churchgoing and Bible study with his current teammates.
That's not a carefully worded PR statement.
That's a man who actually believes it.
Bible Studies, Cross Necklaces and a Coach Who Prays
The story gets better.
https://twitter.com/FOXSports/status/2065659120129298827?s=20
Captain Christian Pulisic – the best American soccer player alive – declared "It's Bible time" on camera in his own Paramount+ documentary while sitting down with a friend to read scripture.
He wears a cross necklace his mother gave him because, as he told GQ, "it makes me feel like I have God with me all the time."
He posts Bible verses on Instagram.
He told interviewers that God "absolutely" plays a big role in his life.
Goalkeeper Matt Freese grew up going to Catholic Mass with his family, carried that faith into Harvard and straight to the World Cup.
When he joined the national team, he said he'd already met Pulisic in a Bible study.
Midfielder Weston McKennie's social media bio reads four words: "All glory to God."
Defender Chris Richards belongs to a ten-man scripture group at his club, Crystal Palace.
Defender Mark McKenzie carries a Bible into the locker room specifically to start conversations about faith.
"It helps me understand that the sport that I'm playing is not gonna last forever," McKenzie told Sports Spectrum. "But the work that I do as a disciple for the Lord – that's the real work that needs to be done."
He then quoted the Gospel of Matthew directly: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."
In a World Cup locker room.
On home soil.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino – a devout Catholic – is known for wearing a bracelet with a Catholic patron saint on the sideline.
The left noticed.
The Guardian ran a piece describing the "remarkable" number of USMNT players openly sharing their Christian faith.
Then it did what the left always does – accused them of enabling "Christian nationalists."
They can't help themselves.
What This Actually Means
The Guardian wants you to believe that Christian athletes talking openly about their faith is somehow dangerous.
https://twitter.com/TevinMacharia/status/2066353897514344652?s=20
What's actually dangerous is what we just spent the previous decade watching.
Rapinoe and the women's team made American soccer a platform for every radical idea the left could dream up – transgender ideology, anti-Trump politics, kneeling protests, lectures about identity from women who couldn't beat a high school boys team.
The result was a national team nobody wanted to watch and a sport that became culturally toxic for half the country.
These men are doing the opposite.
They're playing for something real, winning – they opened the tournament with a 4-1 demolition of Paraguay – and they're not ashamed of where their strength comes from.
You don't have to care about soccer to care about that.
Christians watching this World Cup already know what they're seeing.
It's a team that looks like them, believes what they believe, and refuses to apologize for it.
The harvest is plentiful.
These men are in the field.
Sources:
- Sports Spectrum, "Cristian Roldan: Jesus is Everything," Sports Spectrum, June 12, 2026.
- Deseret News Staff, "2026 World Cup: What 6 U.S. stars have said about their faith," Deseret News, June 12, 2026.
- Mark Harris, "Leftists Melt Down After Christian Soccer Player Despised by Megan Rapinoe Is Named to Olympic Roster," OutKick, June 29, 2024.
- OutKick Staff, "Megan Rapinoe the Narcissist Mocks Christians Again," OutKick, February 14, 2024.
- Tim Bechervaise, "World Cup 2026: The Christian footballers bringing faith to football's grandest stage," Premier Christianity, June 10, 2026.