WASHINGTON -- After 139 goals scored in 62 games over 23 match days, just a few questions remain to be answered at South Africa 2010, the most important being whether Spain or Holland will lift the FIFA World Cup Trophy after the tournament final on Sunday.
But in and around Washington, D.C., an important and related inquiry must be posed as well: Just how will the nation's capital recover from its World Cup drunken state?
The US as a whole has embraced the world’s biggest sporting event to a degree never seen before. However, few locales in this country can boast the levels of dedication that have become routine in the nation’s capital, where downtown offices turned into ghost towns at midday, countless bars became second homes, and where even White House staff members stepped back from the daily grind long enough to watch our National Team play their hearts out.
While US replica jerseys are one of this simmering summer’s top fashion statements in DC, on any given day, the colors of nearly every team in the tournament can be seen on the sidewalks. The city’s international character has long made it a soccer hotbed and those fans looking to watch the game with like-minded souls have been spoiled for choice throughout this year’s World Cup.
Argentine supporters made an Albiceleste home base at El Patio in Rockville, Md., Heineken-swilling Dutch fans have congregated at Mackey’s in downtown Washington, and the main allegiance at DC’s Ghana Café should surprise no one.
Biergarten Haus, a new establishment on H Street NE near RFK Stadium, pushed up its debut date in time for World Cup action, got clearance to open early for morning games and was quickly swamped by patrons eager to watch the action over knockwurst and one-liter steins of German draft beers.
“Bottom line, once World Cup was coming, we just knew we had to get the doors open,” said general manager Chris Chambers, who saw throngs of fans pour in even for the less popular teams. “USA and Germany were definitely our two big [draws]. We opened up at seven every morning [and] we were pretty much open for every game.”
Embassies, movie theaters and even art museums hosted match viewings. A hard-working group of volunteers led by District resident Michael Lipin went to great lengths to stage Soccer in the Circle, an outdoor viewing party centered around two 6-foot-by-8-foot screens in historic Dupont Circle on for the colossal US vs. England main event on June 12.
Lipin and his colleagues had to raise some $20,000 and negotiate numerous bureaucratic hurdles at the local, federal and international levels to make it happen, but the screening drew large, diverse crowds.
The region’s hustle and bustle will slow down one more time for Sunday’s championship match, which has inspired another bevy of special events like “Disco Soccer,” which features live music after the World Cup final is viewed on a DC hotel’s rooftop.
Come Monday morning, soccer fanatics in “The Capital of the Free World” will reluctantly return to work, hungover from large doses of the beautiful game. But as they go about their daily business, perhaps feeling a bit miserable, all they have to do is remember that, while this year's World Cup is nearly over, Brazil 2014 is rearing its gorgeous head in the horizon.
