The Viking Row, a human statue and a Tartan takeover: World Cup trends capture U.S. hearts

“There’s nothing that feels similar to when everyone in one place has the same energy,” she told NBC News in a text message Wednesday, adding: “It was very cool and special, it’s something that doesn’t happen outside of the World Cup.”

The viral trend first emerged during a 0-0 friendly draw with Switzerland in March, as Norway prepared for the World Cup, and has swiftly become the country’s trademark national celebration.

Locke said such trends are “a way in which people express their culture.”

The Norway team has made other nods to its historical roots, posing in Viking costumes for its departure photo ahead of the tournament.

Before this summer, Norway had not qualified for a World Cup in 28 years, but the team has now rowed its way into the knockout rounds.

Scotland fans, known collectively as the Tartan Army, have also made their presence felt during the team’s knockout matches in Boston and Miami.

An estimated 50,000 Scotland fans traveled to Boston for the team’s matches, determined to party hard despite Scotland’s mixed performance in the tournament. Dressed in traditional Scottish kilts, the fans frequently herald their arrival with the sounds of bagpipes blaring through the streets.

Ahead of Scotland’s ill-fated clash with Brazil on Wednesday, a large Tartan Army contingent took in a Miami Marlins baseball game, bringing bagpipes and the party with them. Fans have also indulged in a more modern Scottish tradition, adorning statues in both cities with traffic cones.

Fans in Tartan walk on a ramp by the water — Scotland fans are pictured at the North East Tartan Army boat party ahead of Wednesday’s FIFA World Cup match against Brazil, in Miami, on Tuesday.Craig Williamson / SNS Group via Getty Images

A woman poses next to a statue wearing a traffic cone for a photo her friend is taking — A Statue in James Michael Curley Park in Boston, Mass., wears a traffic cone as a woman poses for a photo on June 21, 2026. Orange traffic cones have been spotted on statues all over the city since the Tartan Army came to town.Martin Rickett / PA Images via Getty Images file

Scottish bagpipes are not the only unique instruments around the tournament, with Swiss fans recognizable from their ringing cowbells. One well-known sonic symbol that won’t be seen at this year’s tournament, however, is South Africa’s vuvuzela — a plastic horn that was banned from World Cup stadiums along with other noisemakers after its widespread use at the 2010 tournament hosted in the country.

“What we are observing in the stands and along the streets of North America at this World Cup is a very interesting expression of national identity, which illustrates a shift in how culture is produced and circulated in global sport,” said Paul Widdop, an associate professor and reader in sport business at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain.

“What matters is not whether these practices are authentic or traditional,” Widdop said via email. “What matters is that they work as simple, repeatable forms of cultural expression that can be recognized across borders.”

For fans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the symbol of national identity has taken a very different form.

Throughout the tournament, the Congolese have rallied around Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, a fan who attends matches as a living statue representing one of the country’s national heroes, assassinated independence leader and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.

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