The soccer buzz spread across the U.S. on Saturday. While the game's rules weren't always completely understood, fans were plugged in with nervous anticipation.
Fans cheer after the U.S soccer team scores a goal against Ghana as they watch on television Saturday in Los Angeles.
In San Francisco, about 100 people packed into Glen Park Station, a bar that had painted soccer balls on its windows and opened by 6:30 a.m. for the early games all tournament long. The crowd groaned when Ghana scored its first goal, just minutes in. A latecomer cursed loudly when he saw the scoreboard.
The mood stayed jubilant until Ghana's goal at the beginning of extra time. In a moment that showed how new soccer mania still is for the U.S., no one seemed to realize that the teams played two extra periods no matter the score. People were headed toward the door before stopping when they saw the teams lined up to play another 15 minutes.
When time finally ran out on the U.S. squad, the bar broke into applause—a thank you for two fun-filled weeks—and quickly dispersed.
"It was a good game," said a somber Marvin Maradiaga, a San Francisco resident who watched the game in a Giants jersey. "The U.S. had some chances, the calls just didn't go their way. It's frustrating." Despite how it ended, Mr. Maradiaga said he enjoyed watching the tournament, and had developed an appreciation for "the whole atmosphere" surrounding the World Cup.
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Near Washington, D.C., "crowded" doesn't begin to define the Southside Bar in Old Town Alexandria, where eight of the 15 screens were tuned to the U.S.-Ghana match and where standing room only became straining room only.
The U.S. advance to the round of 16 brought out more fans, and more vocal ones, than attend even telecasts of playoff games of the Washington Capitals or sporadic starts by the Nationals pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg.
It was a soccer crowd in the purest sense—riveted to the screen, impervious to the Maria Sharapova third-round tennis match at Wimbledon, or even the Nats-Orioles game that started in the late afternoon. What some may have missed in soccer savvy—there were bar-side discussions over whether a "hat trick" required three goals or four—was more than made up for with genuine, unchecked enthusiasm.
American counterattacks were greeted with cheers and claps with the ball in their own side of the field. Near-misses by the U.S. generated unanimous groans. Corner kicks were applauded before they were taken. Routine saves by star goalkeeper Tim Howard earned furious applause. Landon Donovan's conversion of a penalty kick in minute 62 was ear-shattering, and followed by spontaneous (and obligatory) high-fives and chants of "USA!, USA!".
The one thing the American defeat, after two extra periods against a disciplined and feisty Ghanaian side, didn't seem to do was quell enthusiasm for America's new-found prowess—and the national team's prospects four years hence.
"I'm an eternal optimist. I'm looking forward to Brazil in 2014," said Brian Limperofulos, a fourth-generation Greek-American who's foresworn the tactics that made his mother country the 2004 European champs.
U.S. soccer fan Taija Thomas (center) cheers though surrounded by mostly Ghana fans at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Limperofulos spent halftime of the U.S. match on the phone, pointedly criticizing to friends the staid midfield deployment of the U.S. squad, yearning for a creative ensemble like his beloved Arsenal, a top English team. Six months of study abroad in Belgium made him a convert to "football"; his other favorite sport is "American football." He calls himself a "reluctant fan" of D.C. United, the local Major League Soccer franchise.
The soccer wars aren't quite over, though. Jerry, who lived in Germany as a kid and has played soccer his whole life, defines himself as a "World Cup fan," not a "soccer fan."
"I'll probably watch ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there," he says. "I'm not religious about it."
In Los Angeles, Ghana's victory was a blow to the soccer fans on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, many of whom crowded into the wild-west-themed Saddle Ranch Chop House, known for its bottomless Bloody Marys, rock-and-roll mariachis that serenade patrons with heavy-metal tunes and its mechanical bull by the bar. Throughout the match, the perennially popular bull sat empty and the mariachis stood quietly as fans in dark sunglasses stared at the jumbo TV screens, hoping the Americans would pull out a dramatic win at the last minute, as has been their wont.
Among the believers were crisply dressed Lebanese real estate developers from Beverly Hills, rap artists decked head-to-toe in Lakers gear and a healthy number of loud New York transplants, some of whom were less concerned about the outcome of the soccer match than about how bad the cross-town traffic would be en route to the Yankees-Dodgers game Saturday afternoon. When the U.S. missed one of its first opportunities to score, one rabid Yankees fan yelled in disgust: "Jeter makes that play!"
There was also a good dose of confusion over the rules: one couple departed in exasperation when they were informed that there would be not one, but two additional 15-minute periods to settle the tie after the first 90 minutes.
But the serious soccer fans in attendance were heartbroken. Among the most disappointed was 26-year-old Cecelia Benovenli, who put down her mimosa and burst into tears of happiness after Mr. Donovan scored the U.S.'s only goal, and her companion Justin Frech, 32, who said he suffered "heart attacks" each time the U.S. blew a shot.
"It's so frustrating because we had this game," said Mr. Frech, who was sporting a Clint Dempsey jersey. "We had so many opportunities."
In Chicago, people at Halligan bar veered from bitterness to wild optimism and back again depending on how the U.S. team was faring.
Fans watching at the North Side bar chanted "USA! USA!" and sang along with the national anthem before the game started. They booed when Ghana's anthem played.
But after Ghana scored near the fifth minute, somebody yelled "No!" The noise level in the bar dropped to a loud murmur.
A few people clapped when U.S. players got the ball and occasionally several mustered a "USA!" chant, but the enthusiasm level was dampened. One man wearing a U.S. flag on his back walked out of the bar.
"We're leaving so many guys unmarked, I'm surprised it's only one-zip," said Michael Paul, a fan wearing a U.S. Soccer federation shirt, toward the end of the first half.
No chants of "USA!" preceded the start of the second half.
Soccer fans Sarah Hafley (left) and Kate McGurn react to the U.S. loss while watching it on TV at Yankee Doodles restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif.
After Mr. Donovan scored on a penalty kick, fans in the bar jumped up and cheered. They shook and emptied bottles of Bud Light as foam sprayed in the air.
Marty Kollmorgen, in a University of Virginia shirt, wondered aloud if the U.S. would win the World Cup after toasting the country and taking a shot of whiskey.
Another man, in a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap, proclaimed he would buy a U.S. team soccer jersey after the game—once they are on sale.
Following the goal, the noise level in the bar stayed at a level at least double that of the first half for the rest of the second. A minute before the end of the second half, one man in a red shirt was hoisted onto another's shoulders and chanted "USA!" while waving a U.S. flag up and down.
But after Ghana scored again in extra time, the mood dropped again and stayed fairly low. Mr. Kollmorgen said, "this was a lot more fun in the second half."
In the backyard of Grosse Ile, Mich., home, a suburb of Detroit, party guests at a college graduation played horseshoes and nibbled on finger food. Inside the home, Zack Wright and other guests watched the final minutes of the game tick down. At the Lear Corp. office where Mr. Wright works, the World Cup has taken over. "We have these huge pools at work, everybody's all jacked up about it," he said.
Mr. Wright said, though he's by no means a die-hard soccer fan, he's been keeping tabs on the World Cup from Hockeytown. "I've been watching so I can at least make fun of them," he joked of his co-workers.
In New York on Saturday evening, hundreds of people filled the city's streets after the loss. Some fans wore jerseys they purchased years ago; some had makeshift patriotic gear they threw together after they discovered a love for soccer in the last two weeks. All appeared dejected. But while the mood in Manhattan was somber, most fans weren't disappointed with the team after winning their group and providing a handful of exciting moments in their four games.
"This experience has been fantastic," said Jason Corliss, 37, of Bloomfield, N.J. "I've been watching soccer for 30 years and with each cycle [of World Cup games], more and more laypeople get involved, hopefully that carries over. I have no complaints and the team should leave with their heads held high."
The reaction to the game itself was nearly universal, as fans felt the Americans couldn't continue to survive while giving up early goals, as the they did on Saturday, after digging similar holes against Slovenia and England.
"It's probably asking too much for them to come back after giving up another early goal like that," said Anthony Stevens, a college student from Queens. "I appreciate the effort they made, and they'll do better in another four years."
The epicenter for diehards was an overheated, overcrowded room on the second floor of Jack Dempsey's restaurant on 33rd Street in the shadow of the Empire State Building, where a number of U.S. supporters groups converged. If the place didn't feel like South Africa already with the rowdy U.S. fans, many of whom travel around the U.S. to watch the team play, there were also some vuvuzelas in the crowd, ensuring that it's not only those in South Africa who will be annoyed by them.
Their first chants and surprisingly intricate songs began at 11:40 a.m., nearly three hours before kickoff. Ranging from American favorites like "God Bless America" to a patriotic version of a Wu-Tang Clan rap, the madness did not end until Kevin-Prince Boateng's fifth-minute goal, which limited excitement for the rest of the match. Fans were at least happy they got the euphoria of one goal—Mr. Donovan's second-half penalty.
"With a goal, beer goes everywhere, you hug a random stranger," said Nick Laveglia from New York, who has travelled to see the U.S. team play in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. "That's what's great about the World Cup, you don't care who is next to you, who they are or where they are from, for a goal, they get a hug."
How crazy did it get? A few moments after the goal, staff members from the downstairs bar told fans they needed to stop jumping up and down—as patrons on the floor below them were getting nervous the floor would collapse. The excitement was short lived—it quickly turned to nerves for the tense ending and then finally turned to despair as Ghana scored in extra time.
— Ben Worthen, Keith Johnson, Ilan Brat, Hannah Karp, Sharon Terlep and Kevin Clark contributed to this article.
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