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Undaunted, hearty soccer fans rise early, cheer hard
By CANDACE RONDEAUX SAFETY HARBOR -- "Ooolalalalalala," Willy Brevet groaned as he buried his face in his hands. The sun was just pushing its way up over the horizon, casting a glare on Brevet's blaring wide screen TV. At 8 a.m., Brevet was wide awake but his worst nightmare loomed large before his wide brown eyes. "I can't believe France hasn't scored yet," Brevet said. He was just 25 minutes into watching the opening match of the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament and his team was already down by one. The 26 year-old marketing manager from Lyon, France, and six friends gathered Friday morning in his modest bachelor pad to watch France, the reigning champion, face off against 42nd-seeded Senegal. Brevet's party of early morning revelers were a rollicking guy gang of Moroccan, Greek, Mexican-American and French twenty- and thirty-somethings. Brothers Amine and Adile Zidouhia rooted loudly for Senegal while a stream of French expletives escaped from Brevet, seated next to them on the couch. After France failed several rushes at the goal, Brevet clutched nervously at the collar of his blue team France jersey, struggling to keep his cool between mouthfuls of minimuffins, coffee and champagne. A riotous medley of Arabic, French and English shouts erupted as they watched Senegal deal France a crushing blow, 1-0. For the first time in the 72-year history of the World Cup, matches are being played in Asia. That means the matches are broadcast in the middle of the morning. But that's not stopping local soccer fans to tuning in and tying one on. The quadrennial tournament is one of the world's most watched sporting events. It is also the world's biggest excuse to party. Just not necessarily at a local sports bar. Only a smattering of bars in the Tampa Bay area say they plan to open up for the dozens of early morning matches that are part of the practically round the clock coverage on cable networks. "We'll definitely open up, but we'll only be serving coffee and whatever food we have that early in the morning," said Jennifer Packer, co-owner of the Harp & Thistle Pub, an Irish bar in St. Pete Beach. Some bar owners say they plan to run recasts of the biggest games. But Brevet and his friends say taped and recast matches are a sacrilege. So he and hundreds of soccer devotees in the Tampa Bay area are hunkering down for a full month of red-eye get-togethers to watch close to 100 World Cup matches. "I have to adjust my whole sleep schedule and take Ny-Quil so I can fall asleep fast and wake up in time for those 7 o'clock games," said Eddie Gomez, 34, one of Brevet's guests and soccer teammates. For the most part, coffee mugs will replace beer kegs at many of the early morning viewing parties. John Letchford, a native of England who has worked as an information technology consultant in Safety Harbor for the past 10 years, said he's planning on serving plenty of coffee and donuts at his party. But that doesn't mean he's happy about it. "I find it difficult to watch England play without a beer in my hand," he said. He and several friends from the Tampa Bay Club Sport Soccer League volunteered to host seven World Cup breakfasts over the next four weeks. Letchford, who says most English fans are "practically born with their soccer boots on," jumped at the chance to play host for his former home team's match against Nigeria on June 12. He's excited that ESPN is airing the match live at 2:25 a.m. Forty of Letchford's friends who play routinely in the league's weekly games in Clearwater also put together their own fantasy World Cup series on the Internet. The series is like an online version of NCAA Final Four office pools where participants track their team as they traverse multilayered berths and elimination matches. Each player picked one or two teams from a hat and is locked in for the entire 31-day tournament for a "friendly gentlemen's wager." Letchford considers himself lucky to have picked 24th-seeded Uruguay, but says he's keeping a watchful eye on England's longtime rival Argentina. The fierce rivalry between France and it's former colony, Senegal, unfolding on the field in Seoul on Friday morning was no surprise for some of Brevet's guests. Amine Zidouhia, 20, and his brother Adile, 26, finance students from Morocco at USF, leapt off the couch to urge on Senegal's fleet footed star, El Hadji Diouf, with shouts of "Allez! Allez!" (Go! Go!) They did a swivel-hipped dance of victory that would have put Michael Jackson to shame as Senegal's star forward hoofed the ball down the wide open stretch of green toward Papa Bouba Diop, who swept the ball into France's wide open goal. "Since football has been created they have ignored the African teams. Africa has only five places in the World Cup and Europe has like 20," said the younger Zidouhia. Fans say nationalism is to soccer what Cracker Jack is to baseball -- a necessary evil. "How well your team does in the World Cup is a measure of how good your country is," Letchford, a Briton, said the day before the tournament began. But it is soccer's fierce firepower and players' superstar shimmer that draws most fans in. "I'll break a leg to watch the matches. People don't understand the drama, the pathos of the whole thing," said Tom Sommerville, 44, a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company and a part-time coach for an under 13 kids soccer league in Clearwater. Deep into the second half Brevet's beloved home team showed few signs of recovery from Senegal's searing defense. As the clock counted down Brevet's frown of disappointment was barely a match for Amine Zidouhia's blinding grin of satisfaction. "Everyone was thinking that France was going to win with 3 goals, but miracles do happen," he said. Now there are just 29 days left to see how long that miracle lasts.
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