Ashley Jackson has worked out how a Texan and an Englishman survive a World Cup under one roof.
Support four teams. Sit at opposite ends of the sofa. Put the kids in the middle.
The 42-year-old moved from Texas to Manchester four years ago with her husband Andi, 41, and their two children.
She makes videos about the gap between American and British life, and football turned out to be one of the bigger gaps.
She calls it “a completely new experience.”
A house divided four ways
Rather than pick a side, the family picked everyone. England and the USA come first.
Then Scotland, because the kids’ Nana is Scottish. Then Spain, because Andi has a cousin there.
“I know this is against the grain, but having family from different countries redraws the loyalty lines in our house,” Ashley said.
“We are a united front in the house, so we will all support the four teams.”
It holds up until two of those teams meet.
The one match that breaks the truce
If England draw the USA, the united front collapses.
Ashley backs the Americans. Andi backs England. He is a dual citizen, which sounds diplomatic until you hear the rest of it.
“I will always choose England at football,” he said.
Their plan for that night reads less like a viewing party than a hostage negotiation.
“Opposite ends of the sofa and the kids in the middle as a buffer,” Andi said.
“As long as it isn’t a demolition, I think we will still be able to sleep in the same bed.”
Ashley has already game-planned the fallout.
“If the US wins, I think I’d go out of my way to be extra kind to my husband, because I know it’ll be a sore subject for a while,” she said.
“I have no doubt he’d do the same.”
The couple have just bought their first home, and their next-door neighbour is Scottish, so any celebrating will stay quiet either way.
How a Texan ended up shouting for Liverpool
Ashley grew up on American football, basketball, volleyball and baseball. Soccer, as she still half-calls it, barely registered.
Then Andi introduced her to Liverpool, the couple started watching Austin FC during their Texas years, and that was that.
“When I moved to the UK, I knew who I would be supporting. Liverpool,” she said.
Seven-year-old Levon has gone all in. He studies stats, collects cards, learns the players.
Which team he’d pick in an England v USA match is genuinely unclear, because he knows he belongs to both. Four-year-old Matilda runs a simpler system.
“It would likely come down to whoever’s kit she likes the best,” Ashley said.
Late UK kick-offs are the other problem. The family plans to record the final and replay it at a child-friendly hour, pretending it’s live.
Back in Texas, Ashley’s relatives have a view on all this.
“I think if you asked them, they would prefer me to support the USA, of course,” she said.
Why It Matters
Ashley sits in a now-crowded category of creator: the expat who films their own culture shock.
The 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico, hands that niche its biggest content window in years.
A transatlantic household watching the same tournament from opposite emotional ends is exactly the kind of low-cost, high-relatability material that travels, and the loyalty-clash format pays off whether or not anyone’s team wins.
National-identity comedy creators have multiplied since the last World Cup, and a US-hosted tournament puts American viewers at the centre of the conversation for once.
Whether the videos land the algorithm bump partly depends on the draw.
An England v USA fixture is the story Ashley has been building toward without quite saying so.
Until then, the sofa stays divided.
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