New York is where I had the first of my truly disappointing experiences on this trip, and boy did those experiences decide to come in droves. First, a little rant - while New York’s public transportation system is held up as one of the best on the continent, it is not at all kind to outsiders, especially if you want to go much further than Manhattan. In particular, the trains in from New Jersey and the bus system to/from Staten Island did almost all they could to be unhelpful to someone who didn’t know exactly what they were doing. In all fairness, the subway system is superb (if unbearably hot in the stations), and the buses to New Jersey are quite nice, but all-in-all, I preferred Chicago’s public transportation.
Then, the soccer culture. The first day I was in New York, I was not overwhelmed by the number of people watching the games. I chose to stop in a Manhattan Belgian Bar, BXL Zoute, to watch the end of Colombia-Cote d’Ivoire and take in England-Uruguay; it was not full by any stretch of the imagination. Part of that, however, might have been due to the huge number of options one has for watching the World Cup in Manhattan. You can barely go a block (and sometimes not even that far) without seeing an establishment making every effort to advertise (with flags, big signs, TVs, etc.) that they are showing the World Cup.
The next day started off by bringing disappointment, however. I bused down to Staten Island, home of the largest concentration of people of Italian descent in the United States. With the Italy-Costa Rica match kicking off the day, I was super excited. But while I saw plenty of Italian names on the store signs on the bus ride down Staten Island’s busy Hylan Boulevard, what I didn’t see was soccer. I may not have been paying enough attention, but I didn’t see a single bar or eatery advertising that they were showing the World Cup that day. Not even the sports bar that I found had its doors open, and the match kicked off in about 30 minutes! It was like no one on the island knew about the World Cup.
Frustrated, I decided to bus back to Manhattan to a place which I knew had a reputation as an Italian stronghold: Ribalta pizza place. And boy did it live up to its billing. I may not have arrived until halftime due to my long detour, but when I got to the restaurant, I found the first establishment on my trip which was so crowded that I couldn’t even walk. People were spilling out onto the street to watch the game. And just as the Americans’ atmosphere in Indianapolis were more openly passionate than the Brazilians’ in Milwaukee, the Italians’ atmosphere in New York was more passionate than the Americans’. Even though the Italians never scored in the match (and, while I was there, they only even came close to scoring once), it was LOUD. Shouting in Italian was rampant. Even the regular conversation was approaching deafening level. It truly did feel like I was in a stadium.
There was also a significantly different mood to the atmosphere, although that may have been because of the way the game was going. For the Brazilians, it was a carnival. For the Americans, it was a very cheerful air. For the Italians, it was pure frustration. Lots of groaning and swearing to be sure, but even the conversation had an angry tone to it. As Italy lost, the upset crowd filed out. A couple unsavory things things were yelled about Costa Rica and its people, but for the most part the Italians were accepting of their loss, if unhappy.
I then went to the Central, an Irish bar in the East Village, to watch Switzerland vs. France. Everyone was quite engaged in the contest, even though there were just a couple French fans and I was the only Swiss supporter. Interestingly, the entire crowd seemed increasingly interested as the game became a slaughter. I was extremely depressed at this point, but the interest of the neutrals in such a lopsided game made me feel good about the game’s progression in the USA. Even though the New York leg of my trip ended in one of my teams getting destroyed, and I had experienced a couple disappointing surprises during my time there, it showed me that if you just go looking for it, soccer enthusiasm can be found all over the place. And finding it is well worth the search.
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