Cheerleading at World Cup was like ‘giant dance party’, Northeastern student says
Northeastern student and New England Patriots Cheerleader Lana Vogler performed before a different set of football fan at the World Cup.
It was a cheer-off, of sorts. Lana Vogler beamed as she swished her pom-poms and flicked her skirt’s red and blue fringe, moving seamlessly through a repertoire of choreographed dances. The fans in Gillette Stadium responded with rapturous chants and the blare of bagpipes.
As a New England Patriots cheerleader, 22-year-old Vogler — a Northeastern University student — has entertained football fans at the stadium on the outskirts of Boston since 2024. But the squad is leading the cheering for a different kind of football fan these days — the ones now gathered for the FIFA World Cup tournament.
During the regular Patriots season, members of the 30-person squad dance and amp up the crowd from the sidelines over marathon three-hour sessions. For the World Cup, the squad has performed from a foot-tall, cordoned-off stage on the concourse near the stadium’s lighthouse, where they can interact directly with fans. They pulled from a slate of 20 routines, dancing in the hour before kickoff, during the first hydration break — a new rule that requires players to break for three minutes at the middle of each half of the match — and in “dance battles” with fans from the Jumbotron.
“We’re putting our best foot forward, and everyone’s so locked in to make this experience unforgettable, because you never know what comes out of it,” Vogler told Northeastern Global News.
One of those unexpected experiences is the energy from the international fans who pack the matches in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which was unlike anything she has witnessed before, she said.
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“The Scottish fans took over Boston and they took over Gillette Stadium,” said Vogler, who is studying behavioral neuroscience and philosophy at Northeastern. “It felt like we were at a club, like we were just at a giant dance party with all of them.”
The cheerleading squad went viral on X after Scottish radio presenter Cat Harvey posted a video of a member of the Tartan Army, the name for Scotland fans, who appeared stunned and slack-jawed witnessing their dance to a mashup of Christina Milian’s “Dip It Low.” The video got over 5.2 million views.
“We took it as so positive,” Vogler said of the video. “We love what we do, and we love cheering on the sport and being another element to that game day entertainment, and so it was just cool to bring that to a new group of people.”
Vogler and her fellow cheerleaders performed at both of Scotland’s matches at Boston Stadium, the first against Haiti on June 13, and the second against Morocco on June 19. Her squad’s final World Cup appearance will be during the quarterfinals on July 9, which is also the last match Boston will host.
“Lana is an exceptional cheerleader, teammate and entertainer,” Driss Dallahi, manager for the Patriots cheerleaders, said. “Her performance at the World Cup showed confidence, power, and beautiful energy. Lana and the squad didn’t miss a beat.”
Not only did the World Cup serve as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in 2026 for Vogler, four months earlier, the squad also jetted to the West Coast to cheer on the Patriots at Super Bowl LX. Despite the Patriots’ loss to the Seattle Seahawks, it was a whirlwind experience that included a 3 a.m. wakeup call to appear on Good Morning America, shuttling an hour each way between San Francisco and Santa Clara to participate in community events. Despite the lack of sleep, she said she “wouldn’t change that for the world.”
The Super Bowl was a “culmination of all the hard work that went into the season,” said Dallahi. And the World Cup was an “incredible kickoff” for the new one.
Unlike regular season football games, where the cheerleaders dance during commercial breaks, Vogler’s parents have been able to get glimpses of her World Cup performances on TV from their home in California. It was also somewhat of a full-circle moment for Vogler, who grew up watching soccer.
Her father is German and her mother is Belarusian, and Vogler has fond memories of watching Germany’s win during the 2014 World Cup with her parents while decked out in Germany-themed earrings and a jersey. While she was sad to see Team Germany lose in penalty kicks against Paraguay, Vogler is excited for the underdog teams and has loved getting to witness the spirit of fans from across the world.
“They just love the sport so much, and they’re so loyal to their team but so respectful of each other, and so that was such a fun environment to be a part of,” she said.
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