RICHMOND, Va. -- The U.S. Men's Soccer kept its World Cup hopes alive and played England to a scoreless draw Friday, meaning they could still reach the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup alive.
Dozens of fans of both sides watched the match at Penny Lane Pub in downtown Richmond, many of them regulars who are supporting English Premier League teams.
"We basically put our scarves away for this game and for 90 minutes they're them, we're us," said England native Kevin Tully, part of the Liverpool FC Supporters Club of Richmond. "And after that, we're all together again. So, it's a great rivalry. It's good fun. It's good banter."
Prior to the match, some English fans expressed more confidence in a positive outcome than the Americans.
"Pretty comfortable. Yeah. Early goal will do. I'm predicting 4-1," said Tully.
"Nervous, nervous. England is a very good team, but we are the United States," said Igor Babichenko, who was supporting the U.S. wearing an American flag bandana and sleeveless romper and hoped the team would take inspiration from this day in history 239 years ago.
"On this date in 1783, George Washington marched the Continental Army into New York after the British had withdrawn. We're going to replay that here. We're going to make it happen again."
And when the final whistle blew, despite a draw on the scoresheet it was the American fans who seemed more pleased with the outcome.
"The biggest thing was the upset of Iran [over Wales] today, helped us with this match. It eased our nerves so that coming into this one we knew we don't really have to win. If we can come away easy and play a good solid match, we'll be fine and we did that. And we dominated and played better than them. I'm very happy," said Jason Hunt.
"A little bit disappointed, but I'll take a point anyway. I mean, we won our first game, got a point out of this. I think I'm OK with it as long as we didn't lose," said Tully.
The U.S. will need a win in its final group stage match against Iran on Tuesday in order to make the knockout stage of the tournament.
