Medford, Ore The United States Men’s National Soccer team advances to the knockout round at the World Cup in Brazil.
The morning soccer matches are creating excitement at sports bars across the country and right here in the valley where typically they aren’t even open in the morning.
It’s known as the beautiful game, and for sports bars in our area, it means beautiful profits as excitement over the World Cup is creating a demand for big screens and food.
“Right now is about as good as it gets for sports fans,” said Jeff Hill.
At 10am at Buffalo Wild Wings in Medford, all eyes are focused on a game a world away, the United States taking on Germany in Brazil.
“We got hit right at 9am as soon as the doors popped open, and brought in quite good business for it,” said Joseph Cloutier.
The weeks long world cup has Cloutier opening early every day for the morning games. Among the red, white and blue-blooded crowd taking in the US match is Jeff hill and his son Morgan.
“Everyone’s involved with it, it’s a big atmosphere, especially when the USA is playing, you got everyone in here cheering for that team,” said Morgan Hill.
That’s created big business at sports bars as fans like the Hills pour in.
“We actually brought in, I want to say 5 more cooks, and a couple servers,” said Cloutier.
For others, like former soccer player and coach John Winn, it’s a chance to reconnect with the sport they love.
“I played Los Angeles for 6 years, then I played here too, for 3 years, said Winn.
Winn is from Germany, but on this day he says his heart is with Team USA.
“This one here could have gone out either way, so the US played excellently, I’m very impressed.”
Given the results of the game that still allows the United States to advance to the knockout stage it looks like fans and the businesses they support will have plenty more cheering to do.
“This is our year, we might not win the cup, but we’re not done playing yet,” said Jeff Hill.
With the results of today’s game, the United States will take on Belgium in the first knockout round of the 16 team tournament. That game starts at 1pm on Tuesday.
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