The USA v Japan Olympics Women’s Soccer Gold Medal Game is just about 12 hours away, and if you’re like me and don’t have NBC Sports Network in your cable package, and would prefer to watch the game with others, it might appears that you’re out of luck – but you’re not.
The best place is a bar that’s listed as an official USA Soccer Bar, or listed as an Olympics bar. But how do you find those? Well, here are links to two websites:
Official US Soccer Bar Program:
http://www.ussoccer.com/Community/Official-Bar-Program-2.aspx
Best Bars To Watch The London 2012 Olympics:
http://find.mapmuse.com/map/olympic-bars
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you don’t have a lot of choices outside San Francisco itself; I live in Oakland. When the USA Soccer Men were playing World Cup Soccer, Oakland had Era Art Bar, Luka’s, and even Heart And Dagger Bar open; this time, nothing. I called Era Art Bar three times today, and just got an answering machine, and no Oakland bar shows up on either of the websites I posted links to here.
That means I have to go over to San Francisco to see what promises to be a game for the ages, a rematch of last year’s USA loss to Japan in the Women’s World Cup Final Game. A game that could very well break Twitter considering the magnitude of its importance on the World’s sporting stage.
Ok, so over to San Francisco I go, and I’ve got a fair number of choices according to Alex Roberts of The Examiner. Of them, I can say that Mad Dog in the Fog, at 530 Haight Street, at 415-626-7279, is DEFINITELY ready to show USA v. Japan, and I know this because the person who answered the phone (yeah) said so, and the game is prominently mentioned on the Mad Dog In The Fog Facebook Page. That’s also true for the Kezar Pub at 770 Stanyan St. San Francisco, CA 94117, Phone (415) 386-9292, where the bartender told me to arrive at “Oh, 11 or so.”
I called Zeke’s Sports Bar & Grill at 600 3rd Street, at 415-392-5311, but the person who answered didn’t sound certain, and told me to “call again before it starts to make sure.” Heck, by that time I’ve already made up my mind where I’m going. I’ve got to get there to get a decent seat and watch this contest!
Stay tuned!