Even people who don\u2019t fully understand soccer\u2019s substitution strategy, extra time or a sensational tackle still turn out to watch when it\u2019s the World Cup \u2014 and that enthusiasm is filling seats at Bakersfield Beer Company, a local soccer bar that regularly shows matches.<\/p>\n
The bar draws die-hard fans for Premier League games, sometimes as early as 3 o\u2019clock in the morning. But the World Cup also brings in more occasional viewers of the sport.<\/p>\n
Among the most dedicated is Justin Krumm, a veterinarian who works near Bakersfield Beer Company and regularly walks over to watch matches. On Thursday, Krumm plans to travel to SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to watch Switzerland against Bosnia-Herz., and he said he plans to wear his Jamaica jersey for fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when the World Cup happens, there\u2019s just something about it where all the nations in the world. Everyone gets their hopes up, and you can see all the different cultures kind of coming together in this one huge melting pot wherever the World Cup is,\u201d Krumm said.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Garcia and his buddies took the day off work to watch England take down Croatia, 4-2. Garcia said the tournament\u2019s once-every-four-years schedule adds to its appeal, and he\u2019s also focused on what this year\u2019s World Cup represents for some of the sport\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up watching Ronaldo, Messi. And, these guys, this is their last dance. So I really want to see as many games as I can and pretty much see how they go out,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n
Friend David Lash said he\u2019s more of an American football fan and a lover of the Philadelphia Eagles, but he still finds himself drawn to the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoccer is the biggest sport in the world and this is like the Super Bowl that happens every four years. Everyone is coming out. Social media. You see people from all over the world coming. It\u2019s just fun to be a part of and fun to watch the games and everyone showing up,\u201d Lash said.<\/p>\n
Tim Douhan, who owns Bakersfield Beer Company with his wife, Tara, said the World Cup has already been good for business.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. It\u2019s fantastic. We\u2019re having a pretty good week so far,\u201d Douhan said.<\/p>\n
Douhan said he\u2019s excited for tomorrow night\u2019s match between Mexico and South Korea at 6, when he\u2019s expecting wall-to-wall fans and standing room only. He said he expects the same kind of crowd when Team USA takes on Australia Friday at noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even people who don\u2019t fully understand soccer\u2019s substitution strategy, extra time or a sensational tackle still turn out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-365240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}