Nashville doesn't have a stadium hosting World Cup matches this summer, but the city has skin in the game anyway. Nashville's sister city, Mendoza, Argentina, is watching its national team make a real run at the trophy, and it's hard not to get pulled in.
The Nashville-Mendoza relationship goes back to 2004, when Argentina's ambassador to the U.S. — a former governor of Mendoza — reached out to Nashville's mayor's office about building a partnership. It became official in March 2009, when Mayor Karl Dean traveled to Mendoza and signed the agreement with the city's mayor. Since then it's turned into something real: Belmont University students studying alongside business students at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, high schoolers doing summer exchanges, musicians from the Nashville and Mendoza symphonies swapping stages.
Mendoza sits in the foothills of the Andes and produces some of the best Malbec on the planet — it's one of the world's great wine capitals. It's the kind of place that, once you know Nashville's connected to it, you start rooting for without really deciding to.
And this summer, there's a lot to root for. Argentina, the defending champions, has been living dangerously and making it work — surviving Cape Verde in extra time, then clawing back from down two goals to beat Egypt 3-2 in the Round of 16, Messi leading the comeback. They're in the quarterfinals now, facing Switzerland next.
Nashville's been showing up for it. Plaza Mariachi packed the house for the Cabo Verde match, giant screens and all, and Argentina jerseys have been all over Broadway during watch parties downtown. None of that is official sister-city programming — it's just what happens when a city has spent almost two decades building real ties to a place, and that place's team is suddenly two wins from a title.
Whatever happens against Switzerland, it's a good reminder that Nashville's global connections aren't just plaques and delegation photos. Sometimes they're a reason to pour a glass of Malbec and watch a match with people who care as much as you do.
