TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Soccer fans in Tampa gathered for a World Cup watch party this week as supporters of Argentina and Cape Verde celebrated the tournament alongside Independence Day events in the United States.<\/p>\n
The gathering brought together fans with personal connections to the teams and others celebrating Tampa Bay\u2019s international communities as the U.S. marks 250 years of independence this weekend.<\/p>\n
For some Argentina fans, the connection to the team is tied to family.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy godmother is from Argentina, so there’s like a special place in our heart,\u201d said Lisett Osorio, an Argentina fan.<\/p>\n
Cape Verde supporters also gathered as the team\u2019s World Cup run became a point of pride for people with roots in Tampa Bay. The timing coincides with Cape Verde\u2019s Independence Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only the 4th of July, but we get the opportunity to share on the fifth, our Independence Day,\u201d Alexandria Andraee, a Cape Verde fan, said. \u201cFifty-one years of independence from Portuguese colonization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the fans at the watch party said Tampa is home, and the World Cup has given them a chance to celebrate their heritage while also taking part in American holiday traditions.<\/p>\n
Osorio said the tournament is helping showcase the country to people around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we have 250 years of our country and everything, but the World Cup, it’s showing everybody that this is bigger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Soccer fans in Tampa gathered for a World Cup watch party this week as supporters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,276,4628,115,135,137,136,278],"class_list":["post-328956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328956","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=328956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}