Crowds will gather. Bands will play. People will drink beer and shout to the very edge of decorum.
In many places, it will be must-see TV.
Sounds like a football Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Close.
It is football, but Friday marks the first games of the FIFA World Cup — soccer in the United States, but football almost everywhere else. The games will be contested in South Africa — touching down on African soil for the first time in the World Cup's 80-year history.
Fans in Pittsburgh will be able to watch games as early as 7:30 a.m. at home, work or in several bars and pubs in the area.
The opener is today, with the host country facing Mexico at 10 a.m. The most eagerly anticipated matchup arrives at 2:30 p.m. Saturday when the U.S. team meets England.
Chris Esposito and other members of the American Outlaws — the Pittsburgh chapter of the fan club for the U.S. men's national team — plan to gather at Piper's Pub on the South Side, one of the most popular spots for area soccer fans. If you're not there at dawn, forget it.
"It will be packed," he said. "The fire marshal will be shutting it down."
Those who can't find seats at Piper's can join the Pittsburgh Riverhounds at Claddagh's Irish Pub, also on the South Side. The Riverhounds moved their game at Harrisburg from Saturday to Friday to allow their players to see the game, mingle with fans and conduct a miniclinic on the patch of grass across the street from Claddagh's. Other places, such as Harp & Fiddle on Penn Avenue and Rock Bottom in Homestead, plan World Cup parties, with games, karaoke and live calypso and reggae music.
"Hopefully, it will extend into a block party," said promoter and disc jockey Carla Leininger, who will be spinning tunes at Harp & Fiddle.
Such excitement for his favorite sport pleases Scott Gibson, a native of Middlesbrough, England, and the director of the Riverhounds Academy, the team's youth soccer school. In fact, it reminds him of home.
"The whole country will close down for a month, basically," Gibson said of his homeland. "There will be a massive amount of people skipping work. The pubs will be full."
But to Joseph Adjaye, director of African studies at Pitt and a native of Ghana, the World Cup is more than just a reason to party. For much of the second half of the past century, South Africa was tainted by apartheid — legalized segregation that was banned in 1994 but at its height caused much of the world to turn its back on the nation at the southern tip of the African continent.
"(The World Cup) means recognition for South Africa that goes beyond its inglorious past," Adjaye said. "It's big. It's not just politically big, but it also is going to be a boost for the growth of soccer for the next generation."
Allan Brown, a former Robert Morris and Riverhounds player who was born in South Africa, said soccer is a game anyone can enjoy.
"It's not about color or how rich you are," Brown said.
Penn-Trafford High School girls soccer coach Achilles Vassilicos, a native of Greece, said the World Cup reminds him of the Olympics.
"Enemies put their weapons down," he said, "and come together to compete."
Additional Information:Soccer celebration in Schenley Park
Hot dogs, four big-screen TVs and more than 900 young people and their families will be the centerpieces Saturday for what has been billed as the biggest soccer celebration in Pittsburgh history.
The East End's Pittsburgh Dynamo soccer program will hold its end-of-the-season picnic at the Vietnam Veterans Pavilion in Schenley Park, where TVs will be tuned to the World Cup match between the United States and England. The game marks the first time the nations have met in competitive soccer since the U.S. team's monumental 1-0 upset of England in 1950.
The game starts at 2:30 p.m., but festivities ⢠including the Dynamo's final games of the season ⢠are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
