as if to, a World Cup, a unifying phenomenon

[GoldfishLord]

As if to reassure the crowd that they’re not in for the musical equivalent of a misery memoir, Mumford is on jolly form, joking that his American backing band will get the chance to experience England during a World Cup, a unifying phenomenon that, he notes, means even people from Yorkshire are being kind to him. Oddly, later on he claims to have been at a Neil Young show where Young played his new album in its entirety, then, when heckled to play something the crowd had heard before, played the same album in its entirety again. Odd, because while that is something Young did, he did it in 1973, 14 years before Mumford was born.

Source: https://www.google.co.kr/amp/s/amp....umford-review-o2-shepherds-bush-empire-london

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1. Does "to" mean "in order to"?
2. Does "a World Cup" mean "a unifying phenomenon"?

 

[emsr2d2]

1. If it helps you to understand it, I suppose you could say that.
2. No. "A unifying phenomenon" is a description of "World Cup" but, in this sentence, only with regard to how unifying the World Cup is in England.