Kaz Kondo couldn’t help himself. He nearly knocked over his beer, his friend’s beer and a table.
“Yaaaaay!”
Kondo rose in his seat on the patio at Hobnob Neighborhood Tavern in Midtown Atlanta. He beamed, took a sip of beer, liked it so much he took a second.
Then he smiled at the TV. Its big screen flicked back the facts: Japan, where Kondo was born, had just tied the United States, 2-2, in the Women’s World Cup Soccer championship.
Let the record show that Kondo, celebrating his 39th birthday Sunday afternoon, also had something else to cheer: Japan beat the United States, 3-1 on penalty kicks after a 2-2 draw . It was the sort of game fans of soccer – or football, for you purists – like: The outcome was never a sure thing until the last moment.
More than two dozen fans gathered at the bar Sunday afternoon to cheer for the two teams. Some knew the game well; others just watched the ball bounce and cheered when others did.
David Quintero, a physician and native of Colombia, offered the highest praise a longtime soccer fan could muster: “I’m impressed,” said Quintero. “They play like guys.”
The teams impressed Tricia Wisner. She doesn’t know much about soccer – it wasn’t big where she grew up in Phoenix – but she knows athletic effort when she sees it.
“Of course, I want them to win,” she said of the American squad.
So did Emily Davenport. She took a seat at the bar, ordered some chardonnay, then ignored it. She only had eyes for the USA’s Abby Wabach, who did what she does so often – used her head to score. The 5-foot-11 striker spiked the ball to put the U.S. team in a temporary lead.
Davenport remembered her wine and took a sip.
“Abby Wambach,” she said. “My firstborn will be named Abby Wambach.”
And though the U.S. team lost, the sport is sure to have won more fans in Atlanta.
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