Vikings have been the most popular sight lately in New York’s Times Square.
While there’s usually only an asphalt sea of cars and pedestrians there, it’s World Cup soccer time — so Norway’s national team fans have been doing their Viking rowing cheer amid the Manhattan hotspot’s bright lights and flashing screens. Scenes of the rowing fandom in action have gone viral.
Norway and their goal-scoring star, Erling Haaland, are scheduled to take on Senegal Monday, June 22, at 8 p.m. at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. In the build-up to the match, fans have sat down in rows in Times Square. A fellow bangs a drum. Then the fans make a coordinated rowing motion after each beat while uttering a loud, bassy “Ro!” Look for Norway fans in MetLife Stadium to do the rowing cheer, too.
Norway’s team did a photo shoot leading up to the tournament in which they dressed as Vikings. It’s the first time in 28 years that Norway qualified for the World Cup.
International soccer fans make waves in North America
Norway’s fans/rowers are one of several World Cup teams’ fans bringing their traditional cheers, songs, fashion and symbols to stadiums across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Scotland’s “Tartan Army,” kilted and with bagpipers aplenty, endeared themselves to Boston with their cheer (and song) “No Scotland, No Party.” They have now decamped to Miami for Scotland’s next match, against Brazil. For Scotland, it’s also been 28 years since its team qualified for the cup.
Fans of the Netherlands — known as the Oranje — dress all in orange and do the “Oranje Walk,” a sort of side-to-side dance motion as one big crowd, sometimes to techno music. It’s often part of and/or follows a march to a stadium or fan area. USA TODAY reported the tradition of dressing all in orange at the World Cup gathered notoriety at 1974’s cup held in West Germany. At the time, the potent Dutch team had legendary player Johan Cruyff.
Argentina fans are chanting, singing and holding up banners bearing deified images of current superstar Lionel Messi, who led the country to the 2022 World Cup victory, and past legend Diego Maradona, who powered the country to win the 1986 cup.
Will scoring contests continue?
At the 2026 World Cup, for Norway, Haaland scored two goals in the country’s opening match on a day that saw France’s Kylian Mbappe also scored two — and Argentina’s Messi go on to score a hat-trick.
The question is whether Norway and France’s two main stars will keep the scoring contest going on Monday, June 22. So far, Messi scored two more goals Monday in Argentina’s second game at the cup. In doing so, Messi became the all-time top World Cup goal scorer, currently with 18 goals in what is his sixth World Cup.
Contributing: USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Norwegian soccer fans do ‘viking row’ in Times Square for World Cup
Reporting by Michael P. McKinney, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Michael P. McKinney, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
