How 'Country Roads' became the soundtrack of the US team's World Cup run

It's become one of the enduring scenes of the U.S. team during this World Cup: jubilant U.S. players joining tens of thousands of fans in singing John Denver's “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at the end of their matches.

Even coach Mauricio Pochettino, who was born in Argentina and lives in Spain, got in on the act after Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina, belting out the words to Denver's anthem as he hugged his players and staff members.

“Country Roads” cowriter Bill Danoff told The Associated Press that he's honored that the U.S. team has embraced the song, and that Denver, who died in a plane crash in 1997, would have relished watching the most recent match.

“It was such an exciting game — they were down a player with a red card, but they still won,” said Danoff, who has started to become more of a soccer fan in recent weeks, partially due to the “Country Roads” connection. “I thought, ‘Gee, I wish John was still here.’ John got super excited about stuff like that, and it would have been fun to watch that game with him.”

The John Denver estate told the AP that it is “thrilled” by the song’s latest revival at the World Cup, saying “Country Roads” has endured because its message transcends geography, and that its “simple, clear, and relatable” lyrics make it perfect for a sing-along.

“Everyone knows what ‘Take me home to the place I belong’ is about,” the estate said Thursday. “It’s not limited to West Virginia.”

Here’s how a song inspired by a Maryland drive became a World Cup anthem.

Despite the lyrics' heartfelt embrace of West Virginia, Danoff has said the inspiration for the song came from a drive he and his then-wife, cowriter Taffy Nivert, took along Maryland's winding Clopper Road to attend a family reunion in Gaithersburg, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of the West Virginia border.

“I just started thinking, country roads, I started thinking of me growing up in western New England and going on all these small roads,” Danoff told Washington's WRC-TV in 2020. “It didn’t have anything to do with Maryland or anyplace.”

At the time, Danoff hadn't spent considerable time in West Virginia. He was familiar, though, with Appalachian music broadcast from Wheeling, West Virginia's famous WWVA radio station, which he listened to while growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Danoff said he was also inspired by the West Virginia-born actor Chris Sarandon, as well as the West Virginian members of a commune who would frequently attend his gigs.

Danoff said he and Nivert were planning to try to sell the song to Johnny Cash, but when they played an unfinished version one night in their apartment for their friend John Denver, the singer-songwriter convinced them to let him record it instead. The song, released in 1971, turned into Denver's biggest hit and has been a mainstay for decades.

“I don’t know all of the ways that song must have touched people, but I’m grateful that I have somehow been able to say something that has meaning for others,” Denver wrote years later.

According to The Athletic, FIFA officials added “Country Roads” to its postgame playlist options in hopes of creating a shared moment between the U.S. team and its supporters.

It made its debut at the end of the U.S.'s second match as the players celebrated their 2-0 win over Australia in Seattle. The song was an immediate hit both inside the stadium and on social media, as fans embraced the scenes of U.S. players waving to fans as they sang the lyrics.

“You could feel the connection with the fans,” midfielder Weston McKennie told reporters after the match.

John Denver's song didn't get quite the same reception on June 25 at Los Angeles Stadium, as it came after a deflating, though insignificant, last-minute U.S. loss to Turkey.

But it came back in force Wednesday evening in Santa Clara, California, as the U.S. defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina to advance to the round of 16. Perhaps none were more enthusiastic than midfielders McKennie and Sebastian Berhalter, who swung their arms wildly as they wandered around the field while singing to the fans.

During matches not involving the U.S. team, the song has frequently been played during hydration breaks and has also been met with roaring approval from fans who, moments previously, had been booing the start of each hydration break.

It’s hardly the first time that “Country Roads,” has been used by sports fans. It has long been a mainstay at West Virginia University football games, where Mountaineer fans serenade the team after its home victories.

It's even found a home in Europe, where fans have been singing it during the NFL's annual visit to Germany since the first game in Munich in 2022. Fans there were used to singing the song during Oktoberfest celebrations.

And, in the English Premier League, Manchester United supporters years ago tweaked the words to sing about their own “home” — Old Trafford stadium.

While “Country Roads” is the U.S.'s unofficial anthem, the England national team during this tournament has similarly adopted Oasis' “Wonderwall.”

Standing in a line, arms around each other’s shoulders, the English players sang the 1995 hit after their 4-2 opening victory against Croatia, something that captain Harry Kane said was “one of my favorite ever moments in an England shirt.”

The team has been repeating the post-match tradition after each match since.

See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here

United States' Malik Tillman (17) celebrates with teammates after scoring on a free kick during the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between the United States and Bosnia in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino, left, celebrates with supporters following the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between the United States and Bosnia in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

US fans react after the World Cup Group D soccer match between the United States and Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

United States' Weston McKennie (8) celebrates after winning the World Cup Group D soccer match against Australia in Seattle, Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

United States' Weston McKennie (8) and Christian Pulisic (10) celebrate winning the World Cup round of 32 soccer match between the United States and Bosnia in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s joint military command warned Thursday that all oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz must use its approved routes or face a “forceful response,” ratcheting up tensions again over a waterway crucial for international energy supplies.

The strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, has emerged as one of the top issues in negotiations seeking a permanent end to the Iran war. The statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya military command, reported by Iranian state television, comes after both U.S. and Iranian diplomats met with mediators Wednesday in Qatar.

Iran is preparing for the funeral of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the war’s first moments in February. On Thursday night, Iranian state media broadcast images of what it said was the casket with Khamenei's remains arriving at the Imam Khomeini Hussainiya, for the farewell ceremony.

Hundreds were seen in the footage, praying and grieving near the casket covered with a green cloth. The weeklong official funeral is expected to start on Saturday.

It wasn’t clear what sparked Iran's warning Thursday about oil tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz. However, the U.S. military's Central Command had put out a statement about a meeting with officials from Mideast nations in Bahrain that said “leaders underscored their shared commitment to the free flow of commerce through" the strait.

That could have been the phrase that angered Iran.

“Any failure to comply, deviation from the designated route, or disregard for the navigation protocols of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz will be met with an immediate and forceful response from the armed forces, endangering the security of the violating vessels,” the Iranian statement said.

It also said that interference by U.S. forces in the strait “will be met with a rapid and decisive reaction.”

Iran and the United States agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of practice in the waterway.

The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they won’t agree to Iran charging for passage through the strait. An effort by Oman and a United Nations agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore sparked attacks across the Mideast last weekend, highlighting the tensions.

Despite the attacks, ship traffic in the strait continued to rebound. At least 258 ships transited the waterway last week, a period that included Iranian strikes on two commercial vessels, according to marine data and analysis company Lloyd’s List Intelligence. That’s up from 138 ships the previous week.

Iran's attacks on June 25 and 27 “seem to have been forgotten,” Richard Meade, editor-in-chief at Lloyd’s, said Thursday during a webinar.

Traffic in the strait has slowed somewhat since the strikes and remains far below levels seen before the war, when about 130 vessels passed through daily. And with ship operators having to choose between complying with Iran's demands or braving the route off Oman watched by U.S. forces, “nothing about this situation is stable,” Meade said.

“Routes are being chosen on an hour-by-hour basis ... and they are contingent on shifting political approvals and real-time security assessments," he said. “This is not the new normal.”

Earlier this week, Iranian state television reported that a foreign ship got stuck in the strait after ignoring instructions from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. However, the vessel’s shape, reported location and other details indicate the ship is tied to Iran and appears to have been stranded for months.

Despite the tensions, Wednesday's talks saw “positive progress,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said. He told journalists that Pakistan hoped the next round of talks would be scheduled as soon as possible after Khamenei’s funeral.

McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

Iran's Basij paramilitary forces set up a checkpoint at a square ahead of the funeral ceremonies of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shown at the billboard at rear, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A portrait of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and an Iranian flag are displayed in the window of a book store ahead of Khamenei's funeral ceremonies, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

This frame grab of footage aired Wednesday, July 1, 2026, by Iranian state television shows a vessel that ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz. (Iranian state television via AP)

Two boys stand in shallow water with foam floats as cargo ships and other vessels are seen in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

A group of people stands in shallow water as a cargo ship appears anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

Commercial vessels are seen in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)