For those who love soccer, it’s much more than a game. Dressed in scarves and jerseys, and painted in their team’s colors, fans wave flags and cheer on the players with special chants, emotions running high. That is to say: fans actively shape the drama, intensity, and meaning of the game itself.   

Eduardo Herrera, professor of folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, discusses the most intense and expressive forms of fan support. He focuses on understanding how highly engaged fans generate powerful collective emotions through singing, movement, and coordinated action, transforming matches into unforgettable events.    

Looking at the first World Cup match scheduled to be held in Kansas City — Argentina versus Algeria on June 16 — Herrera talks about how chants and fan practices from these two countries carry history, rivalry, and identity, elevate players to folk-hero status, and turn stadiums into charged public spaces. 

Herrera earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and serves on the board of the Society for American Music. He’s also the author or editor of two books: Elite Art Worlds: Philanthropy, Latin Americanism, and Avant-garde Music and Experimentalisms in Practice: Music Perspectives from Latin America.