In most nations hosting the World Cup, soccer is a fixation
, George Carson described himself as a huge soccer fan who hopes to catch all 104 games of the global tournament. In most nations hosting the World Cup, soccer is a fixation.
But with the New York Knicks holding a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Finals against San Antonio and one win from their first title since 1973, attention is surely going to be split this weekend. The Knicks can clinch with a victory in Game 5 on Saturday night. Tipoff will come shortly after Brazil and Morocco wrap a World Cup match in New Jersey, and it will directly overlap with a showdown between Scotland and Haiti.
“I want to watch all the World Cup games, but for us, the Knicks is still a priority,” the 38-year-old Carson said while he and a friend viewed the World Cup opening ceremony at The Football Factory at Legends, a soccer bar near Madison Square Garden. “I’ll probably catch the recap after. ” The Knicks have gripped New York, but even some diehard fans already have divided attention.
Hours before sitting courtside for the Knicks' historic Game 4 rally at MSG, film director Spike Lee was clad in green and gold for a visit to Brazil's training facility in New Jersey on Wednesday. Brazil plays Morocco in its opener at East Rutherford, New Jersey, at 6 p.m., a match slated to end about 30 minutes before the NBA game starts in Texas.
Scotland-Haiti in Massachusetts starts at 9 p.m.“I hope they put it to bed Saturday night, so we can just say, well done, Knicks. Have your parade, and that’s it. Now we can concentrate on the soccer," said Jack Keane, the Irishman who owns The Football Factory. , Leeds and AC Milan.
He estimated more than 2,000 people come through his bar on Wednesday night, when the Knicks won Game 4. A 10-minute walk south and east, fans also were lined up to enter Smithfield Hall, which hosts the supporters clubs of “Usually for American sports, because they’re longer, people don’t like to stand,” said Kieron Slattery, an Irishman who is Smithfield's co-owner.
“For the Knicks right now, they’re standing. It’s like a soccer game atmosphere. ”Ryan Cole, a 44-year-old from Britain's Southampton who has lived in New York for a dozen years, wore an England jersey and hopes to come up with a ticket for The Three Lions' group-stage game against Panama on June 27. His grandfather, William Cole, was an English League linesman — he has a program with the grandpa's name from a Manchester-Chelsea match in 1952.
“You just see a wave of jerseys everywhere, which is amazing,” he said of the soccer kits and Knicks gear. “It’s just amazing to be in New York all the time, but now in particular with the Knicks, with the World Cup, with summer, couldn't be happier. ” One of his friends, 46-year-old Joel Ramirez, is a New York transplant from Dallas with Mexican parents.
During the 2022 World Cup, he watched games at different ethnic restaurants that had ties to a team involved in the match, such as Brooklyn's Sunset Park for Mexico. He thinks the soccer supporters will have greater numbers in the bars Saturday than Knicks fans.
“There's going to be pound for pound a lot more football fans in the city,” he said. “I'll be watching both. " New York City soccer bars open early on weekends for fans to watch lunchtime matches in England and Europe. The World Cup is different.
, it’s a niche market, still. There’s people who watch it, people who don’t,” Keane said.
“The World Cup is the big one. It’s the big party. Everyone’s got a shirt in the closet. Everyone’s going to claim either their own identity or a parent or a grandparent, get on the bandwagon.
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