By Ryan Schwach<\/p>\n
Fans celebrating in bars with loose connections to the country they were supporting, chance subway encounters between rivals on a Queens N train and jubilant celebrations on Steinway Street and outside of historic clubhouses. <\/p>\n
These are just some of the stories from a World Cup in Queens \u2013 when the diversity and culture of the World\u2019s Borough was put on full display as the global tournament played out just across the Hudson River and beyond. <\/p>\n
In an effort to document the 2026 FIFA World Cup and its cultural and historical impact on the soccer-loving borough, the Queens Memory Project is teaming up with Queens Public Library to gather Queens locals\u2019 stories from the tournament. <\/p>\n
\u201cSomething as enormous as the World Cup is obviously experienced by millions of people, and yet within that collective experience, there are so many individual, meaningful moments that are really specific to those individuals,\u201d said Annabel Short, the founder of World Cup Memory and a long-time contributor to the Queens Memory Collections at QPL. <\/p>\n
Short told the Eagle that focusing on Queens to capture the experience of this summer\u2019s World Cup was a \u201cno brainer,\u201d and ventured to gather stories that could encapsulate the energy the tournament brought to Queens. <\/p>\n
She spoke to attendees at Honey Fitz, an Astoria watering hole that became an unofficial viewing place for Cabo Verde matches as the small island nation made its historic run through the tournament. <\/p>\n
Atlanta Amando, who was born in the city to a mother from Cabo Verde, told Short having the bar to celebrate in \u201cmeant everything.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels really really powerful to be seen,\u201d she told her. \u201cLike, a lot of us our entire lives people have assumed we were Dominican, or Brazilian, and to have this place \u2013 like steps from home, we are all within walking distance \u2013 it literally gives me chills.\u201d <\/p>\n
Short also spoke to excited fans outside of a historic Spanish club just minutes after Spain captured the World Cup trophy over Lionel Messi and Argentina. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe all came here to watch the game and celebrate together. Thankfully Spain won!\u201d a man named Gabriel told her.<\/p>\n
A favorite memory of Short\u2019s was one she witnessed herself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ryan Schwach Fans celebrating in bars with loose connections to the country they were supporting, chance subway…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-331492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}