Soccer fans packed restaurants and gathering spots across downtown Erie on Wednesday night to watch the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup matchup between the United States and Bosnia and Herzegovina.<\/p>\n
For one group of fans, the match was a celebration no matter the outcome.<\/p>\n
Bosnian-Americans gathered to cheer for both of the countries they call home, saying the game represented much more than a result on the scoreboard. Many came to the United States after fleeing the Bosnian War, building new lives while maintaining deep ties to their homeland.<\/p>\n
Several fans said the opportunity to see the United States face Bosnia and Herzegovina on one of soccer’s biggest stages was something they never imagined experiencing.<\/p>\n
Some members of the group also traveled to California to attend two of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s World Cup group-stage matches. This year’s tournament marked the country’s first-ever trip to the knockout stage, a milestone they said symbolizes how far both the national team and the country have come.<\/p>\n
“I think since the war that happened in Bosnia, it just means so much that we were able to come together as a country and really fight and represent and show up,” said Anita Brkic.<\/p>\n
Emina Hrnjic said Bosnia and Herzegovina’s success carries meaning far beyond the sport itself.<\/p>\n
“It’s a country that wasn’t supposed to exist, and, you know, with the war and everything, so it’s definitely more than soccer for us,\u201d Hrnjic said.<\/p>\n
The United States defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0, but for the Bosnian-Americans gathered in Erie, the evening was about celebrating both of the countries that have shaped their lives. Regardless of the final score, they said they were heading home happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer fans packed restaurants and gathering spots across downtown Erie on Wednesday night to watch the highly anticipated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137,95388,296,139,11868,726],"class_list":["post-233458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-fifa-club-world-cup","tag-local","tag-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}