They gathered by the thousands in Madrid, filled the bars in Amsterdam and cried in Berlin.
In Haines, 10 soccer fans watched a game in a local bar at 6 a.m. Twelve people turned out for a pick-up game this Tuesday and an Italian visitor expressed grief over his team’s loss to Slovakia.
World Cup fever may not have swept Haines, but the town’s soccer fans have gathered to watch games, entered pools and upped the number of nights they meet to play soccer.
“Shame, I feel big shame. Who is Slovakia? I can name one player on their team,” raged Seba Cornacchione.
Cornacchione and his brother Amedeo, a former exchange student in Haines, were warming up for Tuesday night’s pickup soccer behind the high school. They hadn’t watched many games since Italy was eliminated, Seba said.
Teens and adults are playing Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m.
Logan Simpson, a 16-year-old basketball player, said he and his co-workers have a bracket sheet on the wall and have picked teams to win. But his pick, Argentina, was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Simpson, who played soccer in Oregon and California before moving to Haines, said the world competition inspired him to get back into the game.
Local forester Greg Palmieri, who played soccer through college and coaches youth teams in Haines, has recorded all the games and watches them with his sons.
“It’s world cup fever everywhere in the world, in the U.S., even in Haines.”
His three sons attended soccer camp earlier this summer, where they were on teams named after competitors. Since then, they have followed “their teams” through the event.
Palmieri said he is rooting for Spain, which earned a spot in the finals with a 1-0 win over Germany on Wednesday.
Local bar owner Christy Tengs said she had nine Germans and one local in her bar at 6 a.m. for a Germany game in the early rounds of play.
Richard Buck, whose wife is from Germany, was in the bar that morning, watching the game because he doesn’t have a television at home.
“It was very exciting because they won.”
He said his team deserved their semi-final loss “because they didn’t play very well,” and that he will watch the finals, even though his team is out.
Fifteen-year-old Tia Heywood couldn’t go to the bar for the games, but watched some early matches at a friend’s house. Her family doesn’t have cable.
“It’s pretty exciting,” she said, adding that a highlight was the United States’ win over Algeria in the last minute of play.
Heywood said the tournament fever seems to be catching, with more players turning up for the pick-up matches.