It was just after 9am when I drove over the bridge across the Arkansas River, hit Route 66 outside Tulsa and headed south-west through scrappy suburbs lined with industrial units and homemade signs offering ‘burn barrels’ for $10. A ragged man raged at the world as he dragged a shopping basket behind him by the side of the road. The writing on his t-shirt said ‘Do the Fandango.’The great American novelist John Steinbeck called Route 66 ‘the mother road’ in The Grapes of Wrath, the road of dreams and escape to the promised land of California, but there are times when it wends its way through Oklahoma that it feels almost forgotten, squeezed between the railroad tracks and Interstate 44, which carries cars and hulking tractor trailers roaring towards Oklahoma City.I wanted to drive it for 60 or 70 miles and smile at all the 66 signs in this summer when England will try to end 60 years of hurt. I wanted to stop in bars along the way to watch a couple of Monday’s World Cup matches before turning south towards Dallas to get there in plenty of time for the opening game of England’s tournament against Croatia.I stopped in a linear town called Bristow, about 35 miles from Tulsa, and had a chicken fried steak for breakfast in a diner called Boomerangs. It was getting close to the Spain-Cape Verde kick-off time. A couple of the waitresses suggested a couple of places where I might find it.The first was called C&J Kountry Fixin’s, outside town. I drove up there. It was closed on Mondays. The second place was called Anchor 66. It said outside that it was ‘Veteran Owned’. There were four booths inside all full. And no television. I bought a drink anyway and sat outside.The waitress was apologetic. ‘We used to show sports,’ she said, ‘but we get a lot of church people coming in here and one day, the music channel was on. There was some fuss and a lady on the TV got her boobies out. There were five or six church people in the place. We had to get rid of the television after that.’ Oliver Holt drove around 185 miles from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Paris, Texas, in search of somewhere to watch the World Cup – though that quest proved harder than first predicted At first he stopped at Anchor 66, a burger bar just outside the small town of Bristow. A waitress said they no longer showed sports At this point Cape Verde were defending for their lives as they held Spain to a 0-0 draw. In Oklahoma, however, they were totally oblivious the match was even taking placeI’d missed the start of the Spain-Cape Verde game by now. The waitress had not heard of the World Cup but she said there might be a sports bar in Stroud, the next town on Route 66. Google seemed relatively optimistic, too, although one of the places it listed turned out to be in Stroud, Gloucestershire.I stopped in at a convenience store when I got there and asked the woman behind the counter about a sports bar. She smiled apologetically. ‘We don’t have anything like that here,’ she said. A message on her t-shirt said: ‘All I need is coffee and Jesus.’ She did not need Spain v Cape Verde. She said there might be a place in Shawnee, an hour’s drive away.But Shawnee was not on my route. I walked down to Okie Tom’s hardware store. Okie Tom wasn’t there but a lady with a tattoo across her windpipe was. I asked her if there was a sports bar in town. ‘There used to be one,’ she said, ‘but they closed it down. The Cue and Brew is what it was.’I’d missed Spain-Cape Verde by now. I drove on along Route 66. Farm machinery lay rusting in a field just outside town. A sign outside the Sooner Motel said ‘We are Still Open’, which did not suggest a heavy footfall. I stopped in at a Wal-Mart and asked one of the guys on the check-out if he knew where I might be able to watch the World Cup. ‘The wutt?’ he said, looking perplexed.I explained what the World Cup was. He said that there was a bowling alley in Chandler, a couple of miles further down the road and that they had televisions there. I parked the car outside it. It was called ‘66 Bowl’. It was decorated outside with 60s-style branding for Mobil, Firestone and Superior Feeds. It was closed.I was four hours from Tulsa and I hadn’t seen a single kick on Route 66. I turned south and left ‘the mother road’ behind. It might be Main Street, USA, but it doesn’t care much for soccer. I had started to realise that for all its popularity in urban centres, and the coastal extremities of the US, soccer and its World Cup lie very much at the edge of the consciousness of the American Heartlands. Few know what it is, let alone want to watch it. Oklahoma is Bible Belt territory. Every crest of every hill brings a Mennonite church, a Revivalist church, a Freewill Baptist church or a Presbyterian church. These are the great monuments of middle America, not the cathedrals of sport where the World Cup is taking place. Oliver’s road trip also took him to ’66 Bowl’, where he was assured there would be football on. But no, it was closed Soccer and its World Cup lie very much at the edge of the consciousness of the American HeartlandsIt was half-time in Belgium-Egypt by now. I made for Paden, a small town Tom Joad and his family pass through in The Grapes of Wrath. There was a restaurant there called Cowpokes that sounded promising. But it wasn’t. The manager said they had a sister-restaurant in Seminole and she was sure they showed sports.That was 25 miles away. I was headed in the other direction. My heart lifted when I saw a television in a pizza place but it was showing the baseball Men’s College World Series. The guy behind the counter hadn’t heard of the World Cup and he said they couldn’t get Fox Sports anyway.I saw the spot where the Joads’ dog is knocked down by a car just outside Paden. Or the place I imagined it to be anyway. It was an abandoned petrol pump, overgrown with weeds. It was the high-point of the day. I abandoned hope for Belgium-Egypt and for Saudi Arabia-Uruguay and made for Paris, Texas, where I was staying the night.I had higher hopes for Paris. There was a sports bar there called The Vintage Hangout. I would be there in time for New Zealand-Iran. I parked my car in a town square that looked eerily similar to the square in Hill Valley in the 1950s scenes from Back to the Future. A store called Remember When was boarded up. Even nostalgia has had its day.The Vintage Hangout was shut. Until Thursday. I went to Gourmet Jaxx, a burger joint across the square. It had two televisions. The Men’s College World Series was on both of them. I asked the waitress if she knew somewhere I could watch the World Cup. Her face creased into a frown of puzzlement. ‘I’m sorry?’ she said crossly, as if I had asked something utterly unreasonable and faintly improper. Which I suppose I had.I asked at another bar. They said I might find somewhere out on the loop, the Paris, Texas version of a ring-road. They suggested one of the chain restaurants like Chili’s or Applebee’s. I tried Chili’s first. It was nearer my hotel.There was a bank of screens above the bar. One was showing a Major League Rugby game. One was showing the Men’s College World Series. One had the Golf Channel. One was showing a Classic Monday Night Football game. One was showing a Fox programme called The Quiz with Balls. At Jaxx Burgers in Paris, Texas, the waitress looked puzzled when she was asked whether the World Cup could be put on the TV. ‘I’m sorry?’, she replied Eventually a restaurant called Chilli’s agreed to put on the Iran against New Zealand match, but there was just one person watchingI asked the waitress if she could put the World Cup on. ‘The wutt?’ she said. ‘Is that the wrestling?’ I explained what it was and she said she would ask her manager. The manager came through for me. There was a television in the corner, above the door, and Iran-New Zealand played out on that.There was another happy ending, too. A gentleman behind me started choking on his chicken quesadilla. He staggered to his feet, pointing to his throat and a woman, who works at the local ER rushed over and performed the Heimlich Manoeuvre on him. I missed the first Iran goal in all the excitement.The gentleman recovered well. I sat and ate a half rack of ribs and watched the World Cup. I was the only one.Which England star has 7 GCSEs? Who has lost half of his finger? Test your knowledge of Thomas Tuchel’s squad with our exclusive quiz HERE.