Shaima Khalil

I am among the fans in the iconic Coliseum Stadium here in LA.

This is the fan festival hub, and I'm surrounded by different jerseys.

A lot of red, white, and blue USA jerseys, but also a lot of Mexico t-shirts.

And the ultimate fan look that I absolutely love, that I have to tell you about, was a USA fan jersey, and jeans short, and cowboy boots.

Not that I can pull it off.

I just thought if I were to ever want to have a fan uniform, that would be my uniform, and I've seen a couple of those, and they looked great.

Yes, just a lot of colours and a lot of excitement ahead of the opening game.

So I've agreed with our producers that I'm going to say soccer, football, football, soccer, and use those two words interchangeably throughout the tournament.

But it's interesting that you should say this, Alex, because outside of the Fan Festival, outside of the zone, if you were to drive maybe half an hour out...

You would be forgiven for not knowing that something is happening here, that the World Cup is being hosted by LA, by the United States.

In fact, some of our BBC Sports colleagues were in a taxi and the driver said, wait a minute, the World Cup is here?

Who's playing?

What's going on?

And you feel that.

Some of the fans, for example, that arrived here, they were surprised that there wasn't more branding in the airport, for example, or in public transport.

Whereas I remember covering the World Cup in Qatar, covering the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and you were immersed in it.

It was in your face.

And I think it's a couple of things.

One, LA's really sprawled out.

But also the fact that the world's biggest, the world's beautiful game and the world's biggest football showcase...