North America is the center of sports through mid-July as 48 soccer teams from across the globe compete in the world's biggest sporting event. We're talking about 48 teams and 104 World Cup games across 16 cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, including 11 in our country. It's the first time the tournament, held every four years, takes place across three countries. Matches are shown on Fox Sports.

Katy Perry was among performers at opening ceremonies last Friday in Los Angeles before the U.S. men's national team beat Paraguay, 4-1. (Other openings were in Mexico City and Toronto.) The United States hosts 78 matches, including every one after the Round of 16. The championship showdown is July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., with a Super Bowl-style halftime show starring Shakira, Madonna and BTS. The winning country gets an 18-karat gold trophy cup weighing nearly 14 pounds.

And it's not just about soccer. The World Cup is a social, cultural and political phenomenon. The federal government estimates the tournament will draw 5 million to 7 million international visitors here. Competitors include Iran, which is at war with the U.S. Its team is staying in Tijuana Mexico, instead of Arizona as originally planned. Iranians will play at least three matches in Los Angeles and Seattle, and more if they win. Another real-world sidelight involves players, staff and fans from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a deadly Ebola disease outbreak is centered. Those African visitors had to isolate outside their country for three weeks and got medical screenings upon arrival.

Against that backdrop, the head of the sport's governing body frames the 39-day competition as a symbol of unity, harmony and cooperation -- a chance to "bring people together," as President Gianna Infantino of the FIFA association put it. "Football [soccer] unites the world. FIFA unites the world. . . . There are enough problems around the world. There are enough people who try to divide all over the world."

Organizing group says: "The World Cup is the greatest event that humanity, mankind, has ever seen and will ever see." -- Gianni Infantino, president of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

U.S. team captain says: "We will have full stadiums of U.S. supporters and people all over the country supporting us -- feeling that energy and that that excitement in in each city that we're that we're in." – Tim Ream, 38-year-old St. Louis native

U.S. secretary of state says: "What we’re not going to allow is for [Iran] to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to ?the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or things of that nature." – Marco Rubio