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\n Exclusive Interview: Aaron Garcia becomes first Jacksonville Shark Ring of Honor inductee
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Fans filled every seat, waving flags, chanting and celebrating throughout the match. While many wore red, white and blue in support of the United States, others proudly represented Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n
“We love America, but let’s go Bosnia,” one fan said.<\/p>\n
Another Bosnian supporter said advancing to the tournament has been a source of pride for the country’s community.<\/p>\n
“We’re a really small country, so we’re happy to have made it this far,” the fan said. “We live here, we love it here, but we’re cheering on Bosnia tonight.”<\/p>\n
For many in attendance, the event was about more than the outcome of the match.<\/p>\n
“The World Cup is only once every four years,” one Team USA fan said. “Just spending this moment with my best friends is a special moment.”<\/p>\n
Another fan said the tournament brought together multiple generations of family.<\/p>\n
“I’m the only American, but my husband is Bosnian and my mother-in-law is too, so I’m here to support,” she said.<\/p>\n
Owner Daniel Moffatt said the World Cup has transformed his new venue into a gathering place for Jacksonville’s diverse international communities.<\/p>\n
“We’re just trying to make a place where people from all different communities can come,” Moffatt said. “Whether it’s the Mexican fans, Colombian fans, Argentinian, Brazilian and obviously we’ve got the American fans out here tonight. It’s been a blast having all the communities out here.”<\/p>\n
Fans said the atmosphere inside The Block Jax has made each World Cup match feel like a global celebration, regardless of which team they support.<\/p>\n
With more matches still to come, Moffatt expects more sold-out crowds as World Cup fever continues to grow across Jacksonville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup fever is uniting fans at The Block Jax, where diverse international communities have gathered to celebrate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-327030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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