The World Cup Final: Where to Watch
The beer orders are in. The flags are hung. The Spanish and Dutch sides are set to meet for the final game of the World Cup on Sunday, July 11 at 2:30 p.m. And the city's bars, restaurants and residents are prepared for mayhem.
Here are a few fan-tested, favorite spots to watch the biggest soccer game of the next four years. (For the Gallegos and the Nederlanders, welcome to the biggest game ever.)
As the unofficial ambassadors of South African culture in New York, Madiba is a World Cup mecca. Staff and regulars have a more-the-merrier, neighborhood vibe that guarantees big crowds in front of the two projection screens and two plasma TVs transmitting Sunday's game. All the elements of a great party will be in place: 3 DJ's, special pitchers of Bafana-Bafana rum punch, and as much standing room as possible. Oh, right! Soccer. There will also be soccer.
Outdoors, in DUMBO, Long Island City, the South Street Seaport and the Meatpacking District
The heatwave seems to have subsided, so you don't have to get heat stroke while watching the game outdoors. For the closest thing to a stadium, Studio Square has fifteen 65" plasma screens and a giant 9' by 12' LED setup outside with room for 4,600 fans (and proportionate heckling). Brass Monkey, in the Meatpacking District has room for 75 people on the roof, and will take over the adjacent parking lot, serving beer and sandwiches in front of a giant screen. Puma City at the South Street Seaport is the place to be for corporate-sponsored silliness, where fans can take a break from the indoor and outdoor screens at Red's to play some human foosball (no, seriously). Family-friendly viewers can take their picnics to the DUMBO Waterfront, where the game goes out to the turkey-sandwich-and-a-juice-box set. With neighborhood pride and philanthropy in mind, viewers can get ice cream from the Time Warner Ice Cream Truck, where a suggested donation of $1 for ice cream goes to Brooklyn museums (awwww).
Tonic, in Times Square, has been home to fans of the Dutch team for at least the past six years, according to bar spokesman Joseph Jacobino. There is a 6'x12' Dutch flag hanging outside, and Jacobino expects the bar will fill to its 300-plus capacity with Nederlander fans. "They are passionate about their soccer," he says. "Whole families, children and infants come to the games." The bar is equipped with 11 big screens and 12 flat screen TVs, but the most important element is Heineken. "We might be down to the bottom of the cooler by the time they leave, but we haven't had any run out," says Jacobino. Now all they have to do is win.
A normal day at Casa Galicia involves retirees and Spanish ex-pats playing dominoes and cards while a soccer game is on in the background. On Sunday, the cultural center (which is open to the public) will be packed with Gallegos cheering on their team, known as "la Furia Roja." Fans will pass around tapas and clink Estrella de Galicia beers during the game. Club regular Valentin Gomez says there isn't too much singing: "everybody yells," he says. With their first World Cup victory on the line, yelling is to be expected.
Clearview Cinemas (Brooklyn and Chelsea)
This is the first World Cup to be transmitted in 3D, which might be the best way to watch the game short of spending the next 17 hours on an airplane. Clearview Cinemas in Chelsea and Brooklyn will show the live game in 3D, and patrons with a sentimental streak can keep the 3D glasses for posterity (or tear them up, depending on who loses).
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