SPORTS

Soccer fans feel right at home at CONCACAF Gold Cup

Jane Havsy
@dailyrecordspts

EAST RUTHERFORD – When Gilberth Varela learned Costa Rican national soccer team would be playing a CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal right up the Turnpike from his Red Bank home, he turned to Facebook. Varela emigrated from Costa Rica 12 years ago, and is an active participant of “Ticos en New Jersey,” which he used to organize a tailgate party.

About 50 people gathered under the limited shade of tents at one end of a MetLife Stadium parking lot, listening to DJ 9 spin Spanish-language music as meat sizzled on nearby grills.

Costa Rica was scheduled to play Mexico in the second game of a quarterfinal doubleheader on Sunday. Most of the crowds surrounding MetLife Stadium on Sunday supported the Central American squads, with an occasional red-and-black Trinidadian flag.

More than 80 percent of the seats remained empty at kickoff of the first quarterfinal, which matched Trinidad & Tobago and Panama.

“We have to support our team,” said Varela, who moved to the United States 12 years ago. “The World Cup for Costa Rica was really good, so I think we’re going to have a good Gold Cup too. ... You feel like you’re in your own country here. Everybody gets together. It’s like home.”

Fabian Gamboa, a Costa Rican emigre who works on sprinklers for East Hanover-based Irrigation and Landscape Management, echoed that sentiment.

“To be here with everybody from the country, you feel good. You never see that many Costa Ricans together. It’s a good time. ... I feel like I’m at home.”

Mirari Chavez, 6, and 8-year-old Nicole Cabrera sold chips, water and soda near the entrance gates to MetLife Stadium, two of a rambunctious group of small children under a tent. Cabrera, whose family emigrated from Ecuador to Plainfield, planned to root for Mexico on Sunday. But both girls really hoped “to get a lot of money” for school supplies, and maybe, Chavez insisted, a miniature motorcycle.

Giovanni Gonzalez, a 15-year-old rising sophomore at Bound Brook, came to the stadium with his uncles and cousins while his parents worked at the Bound Brook Diner, which they own. Gonzalez wore a green Mexico jersey autographed by striker Raul Jimenez, and had the tricolor flag painted on his cheeks.

Bound Brook is home to one of the largest Costa Rican expat populations in the United States.

“We’re rivals. It makes it interesting,” Gonzalez said, looking around at clusters of Costa Rican fans in red, white and blue. “We’re all Hispanic, so we’re going to see who’s the greatest team, to see once and for all who’s better.”

Held every two years, the Gold Cup is open to all the nations of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The United States national team defeated Cuba, 6-0, at M&T Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday to advance to a semifinal against Jamaica on Wednesday. The winners of the two games at MetLife Stadium will meet in the other semifinal, the second half of a doubleheader at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

The Gold Cup final is scheduled for Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on July 26. The U.S. defeated Panama, 1-0, to win the last Gold Cup title in 2013, and has played in nine of the 12 past championship matches.

“You don’t feel the same excitement (for another nation),” said Aldana Espinosa, a rising junior at Piscataway who has Argentine and Mexican roots. “We have different ways of living, different foods. But we all come together because most of us play soccer.”

Staff Writer Jane Havsy: 973-428-6682; jhavsy@gannettnj.com; www.dailyrecord.com/writerjane/