Who says jocks and nerds can’t get along? Soccer fans can’t seem to get enough of Guardians of the Galaxy to the point where one of the film’s iconic characters made a special appearance in a recent game.
The US Major League Soccer shared a recap from its recent match, where fans from the Austin Football Club revealed a giant Marvel-themed tifo. Emerging behind the goal was a giant banner with the text “We are Groot,”and featured the Guardians of the Galaxy character in question.
You may be wondering, why did this football club use Groot of all characters in the MCU? Well, that’s simply because Austin FC’s logo is a tree. So using Groot as a replacement for said tree made a lot of sense, especially given the third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy was released recently.
Not everyone was happy with this banner to the point to some hoped that Dinsey would sue. At the same time, some people found it “cringe” that Groot made an appearance during a sports game. Meanwhile, others suspected that this was a “sponsored tifo.” However, Guardians of the Galaxy director, James Gunn saw the video after Major Soccer League tagged him bellow in the comments. The director proceeded to share the video with emojis as the caption in his quote tweet. He also commented on the video and claimed it was “amazing.”
It’s pretty interesting to see the MCU crossover into sports since you rarely see those two worlds come together. To witness sports fans be passionate about a superhero film is such a sight to see, and it’s great that Gunn is in support of it.