By John Ramos<\/p>\n
With Sunday\u2019s World Cup final, Spain is the newest World Cup champion, but San Jose can claim success as well, as the excitement of its San Pedro Square watch parties created a whole new legion of soccer fans in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n
When it was known that World Cup soccer was coming to the Bay Area, San Jose had an idea: offer a place to go for those who could not afford tickets to the games. Watching the finals match from his barstool, German fan Bernd Otto said that included just about everybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the most expensive World Cup ever. So, the ticket prices were ridiculous. But that\u2019s America\u2026the land of the free!\u201d he said, laughing.<\/p>\n
San Pedro Square became the go-to watch party venue with huge monitors set up on either end of the narrow plaza. Twenty thousand people packed in to see the U.S. and Mexico find unexpected success as they advanced to the round of 16 in the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been incredible around here,\u201d said SJ soccer fan Marcus Banoub.\u00a0 I mean, the energy in San Pedro Square, especially for the Mexico and the South America games, it\u2019s been unmatched. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it in my life in San Jose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither had the city, and when thousands of raucous fans celebrated in the streets after a Mexico victory, the police were called in, and arrests were made. The city quickly pivoted, sending the next watch party to the more controlled locations of the SAP Center and Discovery Meadow Park. But soon, the party returned to San Pedro Square, and in Sunday\u2019s final game between Argentina and Spain, the plaza was once again a sea of frenzied fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspa\u00f1a! \u00a0Espa\u00f1a!\u2026\u201d chanted fans of the eventual champions, Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most fun is just the crew, the people,\u201d said Frania Gonzalez from her viewing spot on the second level of the parking garage. \u00a0\u201cEverybody\u2019s screaming and yelling, and that\u2019s why I love to come watch the games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s honestly something I never really realized in sports, just how much the in-person joy really hits,\u201d said casual soccer fan Joseph Ogawa. \u201cEven if I\u2019m at a bar with friends. \u00a0It\u2019s really nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something America has learned, as well. That the true excitement of the \u201cbeautiful game\u201d comes much more from the passion and energy of the fans than from what\u2019s happening on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad, who was never a soccer fan, is super interested in following all the games now,\u201d said Natasha Banoub. \u201cAnd he\u2019s 77. \u00a0So, it\u2019s never too late to spark interest in soccer here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a woman named Emmy from Oakland had a slightly different take. She couldn\u2019t even get into the viewing area but showed up anyway just because of the way this tournament made her feel as an American. Her favorite part?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow people were excited to visit,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cSeeing social media going crazy about how all these people came from other countries, and how much they loved the US. \u00a0Seeing Norway doing the \u2018Nordic row\u2019 thing. \u00a0How Scotland went to Boston and became part of Boston. \u00a0So, that was what made me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a magical journey, with the World Cup being embraced by a country that doesn\u2019t really like soccer very much. \u00a0At least for now, that\u2019s changed. \u00a0And back at the bar, Otto was watching the game by himself. \u00a0But, by no means, did he feel alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to Minneapolis; I\u2019ve been to Miami. \u00a0Everywhere you go, soccer is on, people are united,\u201d he said. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s what that sport is all about. \u00a0People get together. \u00a0Doesn\u2019t matter where. \u00a0It\u2019s just fun watching it, just cheering.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By John Ramos With Sunday\u2019s World Cup final, Spain is the newest World Cup champion, but San Jose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-405065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405065","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=405065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}