World Cup Soccer – USA vs England – at 1739 Public House in Los Feliz

Every four years, the nations of the world come together in sport, and compete to see who is the best. Who will earn bragging rights for the four years to come. No, I don’t mean the Olympics. I mean the World Cup, which kicked off Friday June 11 marking the 19th such contest.

The current tournament is more correctly the World Cup finals, as each of the teams have already battled their way through numerous qualifying matches to earn a spot among one of the 32 nations now competing.

The World Cup starts with the group stage, where teams are seeded in groups of four, and play at least three matches each. Points are used to rank teams within groups, and the top two teams of each group move on to the elimination round. This is the round which will determine a winner, going into overtime, and penalty shootouts if necessary, a single loss knocking a team from competition. With me so far?

This year has seen a shift in Americans’ usual apathy towards the rest of the world’s favorite game. Maybe we’ve just now noticed all the fun others are having, and we wanted to join in. Maybe we just wanted a good excuse to be at the bar at 7 AM on a week day. Maybe all those fight songs (Like Noise Agents’ "Indestructible" for England http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJacdc0Mgs) finally got to us, and we’re hoping to finally record something better than third place (which we got way back in 1930… sort of).

Whatever the reason, sports bars all over the city are opening early to allow visiting Europeans, and burgeoning American fans to catch the action live from this year’s host country, South Africa. Last Saturday was the first US match, and excitingly enough they faced England.

Why exciting? Well, in 1950 Brazil hosted the world cup. England was then considered the number one team, and was expected to face Brazil in the final match. But 37 minutes into what was supposed to be an easy win for England over the relatively ignored American team, Walter Bahr took a shot at the English goal. Joe Gaetjens headed it.

And it went in. Somewhat miraculously, it was the only goal of the game. The United States had unseated the kings of soccer. This was such an upset that British fans assumed the next day’s headlines were a misprint, that England had won 10-1.England went on to win the Cup in 1966, but hasn’t faced the US team again since 1950. Until Now.

Understandably then, tensions were high Saturday for the match. England came out strong, scoring the first goal within mere minutes, but had trouble maintaining their momentum. The two teams fought back and forth, until American Clint Dempsey (who actually currently plays in the English Premier League) managed to take a long shot on England’s goal, which bounced off goalie Robert Green’s gloves, and over the line to tie the game. The match ultimately ended in a draw, so if both teams do well in their respective matches this coming Friday, they may face each other once again, giving England one last chance to mend their wounded pride.

If you’d like to get swept up in FIFA Fever, and are in the Hollywood area, there are a host of great places showing matches. Dillon’s Irish Pub on Hollywood and Vine is open in time for the 11:30 AM games during the week, and the 7 AM games during the weekend, and offers $3 pints on any of their dozen or so draft beers. 1739 Public House on N. Vermont at Kingswell will be open at 7 AM for the duration of the World Cup and features more than 80 beers on tap, as well as breakfast and drink specials. You can find a full schedule, as well as information on the teams, players, and tournament on the official FIFA website: http://www.fifa.com/index.html
 

-Jo Problems-
Big Wheel Music Scene Reporter