From an English pub in Addison to a Croatian-inspired village in McKinney, supporters of England and Croatia are preparing for Wednesday’s World Cup showdown in Arlington.<\/p>\n
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At The Londoner in Addison, the excitement can be felt around the entire building.<\/p>\n
“It’s a load of fun,” said owner Rosemarie Tate.<\/p>\n
The pub, known for its British atmosphere, has long been a gathering place for soccer fans. Tate says visitors from England often seek it out when they arrive in North Texas.<\/p>\n
“They come over here, the English people, and the first thing they do is, ‘Where’s the English pub?'” Tate said.<\/p>\n
With England set to face Croatia in Arlington, Tate expects one of the busiest days the restaurant has seen during the tournament.<\/p>\n
“There’s so many England fans,” she said. The matchup is expected to draw supporters from across the region, many of whom will gather at pubs and watch parties before and after the match.<\/p>\n
About 30 miles north, fans can find a different World Cup connection.<\/p>\n
Adriatica Village in McKinney was designed by developer Jeff Blackard and modeled after a Croatian coastal village.<\/p>\n
“It’s Adriatica. It’s a little 45-acre village,” Blackard said.<\/p>\n
The development gained international attention during the 2018 World Cup when Croatia’s national team visited the village during its run to the tournament final.<\/p>\n
Blackard says visitors often have an emotional reaction when they see the community.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing. People cry because this feels like their homeland,” he said.<\/p>\n
For Vesna Solano, who is originally from Croatia, the village serves as a reminder of home and has become an especially meaningful place to visit with Croatia competing in North Texas.<\/p>\n
“It resembles a lot because you don’t see anything like this in Texas,” Solano said.<\/p>\n
As fans prepare for the England-Croatia match, many say the World Cup is about more than just what happens on the field.<\/p>\n
From English pubs to Croatian-inspired streets, the tournament has created opportunities for people from different cultures and countries to come together.<\/p>\n
“It’s just fun to watch,” Tate said. And regardless of who wins Wednesday’s match, many fans say they’ll celebrate the experience together.<\/p>\n
“Win or lose, we’re all going to celebrate together,” Solano said. “There’s no hate.”<\/p>\n
For supporters across North Texas, the World Cup is proving to be about more than the final score, it’s about community, culture and the connections made through the world’s game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From an English pub in Addison to a Croatian-inspired village in McKinney, supporters of England and Croatia are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-339387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}