By Peggy Taylor
“Burn the clock! Burn the clock!” shouted the nearly 300 Team USA fans who packed the Amity Hall Sports Bar on Amsterdam (108/109) to help the team stave off elimination by Iran and move to Round 16 of the 2022 World Cup.
Following its double draws with England and Wales, a goal by Iran or even a draw would have sent Team USA home packing. But as the clock ticked down and with its back against the wall, Team USA displayed grit and guts and ended up with a 1-0 win. (A second goal by Brooklyn’s Timothy Weah near the end of the first half was unfortunately disallowed after it was ruled offsides.) Quite a feat for a team which didn’t qualify for the Cup in 2018.
I watched the nail-biting, do-or-die, heart-stopping match at two popular sports bars. Saw the first half at Blondie’s on West 79th (between Broadway and Amsterdam), where, enjoying lobster bisque and Buffalo wings, I joined about 40 other fans cheering forward Christian Pulisic (from Hershey, Pennsylvania), who injured himself scoring Team USA’s sole but decisive goal.
For the second half, I bussed up to Amity Hall (Amsterdam between 108/109) where I joined 300 plus fans packed to the rafters (standing room only!) as they downed beers and craned their necks to take in the action on 16 overhead TV monitors.
The tension was thick; the fear of loss palpable; the suspense unbearable. And it was made all the more nerve wracking when Iran nearly drew a penalty in one of the final kicks of the game. It was win or go home. A draw or a loss and we were done. But somehow our pleas and cheers reached Qatar. The team felt our high fives and fist pumps, heard our moans and groans when we thought we might lose. They came through. They won. We won and now face the Netherlands on Saturday morning.
Peggy T reports are always a treat, but have to say I was not expecting a World Cup bar review! This game was a nail biter for sure. Thanks for letting us know where we can go if we want company getting through the next one 🙂
Ha! Ha! You’re welcome!
Now she’s a great sportswriter! She had me glued to the ups and downs of the nail-biting game to the end! (And I don’t even follow sports.)
See you back there Saturday morning! Amity Hall been amazing all tournament.
Okay, we “beat” Iran…in Soccer. “Yay”, sort of. But WHY was Iran, a dangerous religious dictatorship (cf. it’s beating young people for daring to protest the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iran’s “Morality Police”.
Iran is a rogue nation “saying” it will not use its enhanced Uranium to build a nuclear weapon…we hope.
Should Iran secretly build a nuclear weapon that would be a real threat to the safety of Israel and of the entire Middle East.
Cool that “our” team beat Iran’s team, but that’s just a temporary “warm-‘n’-fuzzy” with no real effect.
I can also highly recommend George Keeley on Amsterdam between 83rd and 84th, a great crowd and lots of TVs and a World Cup beer special. I know the odds are against us Saturday, but hope springs eternal, let’s go!
I’d say there’ll be protests in the streets of Tehran ….. but there already are!