The U.S. men’s national soccer team made the nation proud winning its group and reaching the Round of 16 at the World Cup, and fans and players alike have displayed that pride by belting out a classic song with Maryland roots.

Bill Danoff came up with the idea for John Denver’s biggest hit, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” while driving along Clopper Road in rural Montgomery County, Maryland, 50 years ago. Danoff, Taffy Nivret and Denver put the finishing touches on the song in a basement apartment in Georgetown.

The University of West Virginia adopted the song — some call it the state’s unofficial anthem — and many more artists have recorded it over the decades.

But the World Cup took it to another level after the USMNT chose it for their victory playlist. For weeks, stadiums have filled with fans singing Danoff’s tune.

“That’s outrageous,” he said. “What’s tricky is that they know all the words. Everybody knows all the words.”

“It’s crazy,” he said.

From his living room in Northwest Washington, Danoff said he had no idea the team was going to use his song until right after its first win, when his phone lit up.

“Then I had to go and look at it, and I thought it was really cool,” Danoff said.

So, why does he think the song remained so popular?

“It’s easy to sing,” Danoff said. “It’s, I think, all in one octave. I don’t know if there’s six or seven notes. So, everybody can sing this and everybody knows the words. The thing that freaks me out is they know, not only all the words, but the whole organization of the song down to the two tag lines at the end. And they all do it from beginning to end. That freaks me out.”

But is it about West Virginia, which is in the lyrics, or Maryland, where Danoff got his inspiration?

The USMNT found a different answer: The song is about America.

“It’s not political. It’s not ideological. It’s just a song,” Danoff said.

He candidly put into perspective how the song has gained popularity in recent years.

“It’s made more money for me in the last, oh I’d say 10 years, than it did in the previous 40 years,” Danoff said. “And these last couple of years, it’s made more money than it did in those other, It keeps, I can’t tell you, it keeps us in our house. It’s paid for my kids’ college. My mother’s nursing home. It’s been very good to me. I’ve got trunks full of other songs that never did a damn thing.”

While millions of people love and sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” around the world, that wasn’t everyone’s first reaction.

“Yeah, the record company wasn’t crazy about it. Well, they like it, now,” Danoff said, chuckling. “They like it.”