Boise’s cultural melting pot has been on show this World Cup. Here’s what I experienced

As the final minutes of England and the United States’ World Cup 0-0 draw ticked away, I was quickly coming to terms with the deluge of verbal abuse I was about to receive from those around me.

I arrived at Double Tap Pub in Boise’s BoDo District at 9 a.m. on Friday and enjoyed my morning sitting alongside a gentleman from the Netherlands as he went through the emotions of an eventual 1-1 draw with Ecuador.

“We don’t deserve to win this,” he muttered as the game approached its end, half speaking to me and half to himself.

Soon after, the U.S. fans began filing in behind me, packing into the small bar like sardines. Folks with American flags tied around their shoulders or Captain America masks on chanting “USA, USA!” or “I believe that we will win!” It was the kind of behavior that had me, wearing my old 2008 Umbro England jersey, foolishly predicting a 4-0 victory for the Three Lions as the drinks flowed among us all.

I grew up in Liverpool, England, before moving to the U.S. in 2011 as a teenager. Despite over a decade on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, my allegiance to England hasn’t wavered one bit.

So as the final whistle blew and a member of the American Outlaws (the U.S. soccer supporter’s group) called me out from across the bar — “How about that 4-0, Shaun?!” — all I could do was accept what I’d brought upon myself.

And you know what? I’m happy about it.

Because eight years after the U.S. last competed in a World Cup, these past couple of weeks I’ve gotten to experience authentic soccer culture in a state where the sport doesn’t have a visible foothold.

It has not just been Americans that I’ve interacted with. I’ve met several compatriots from England, as well as individuals who spent much of their childhood traveling to Germany to see family, a woman who lived in Argentina for much of the past decade, and others.

I’m going to go ahead and say it: Boise is a soccer city.

I spent the last couple of weeks visiting team-specific bars, watching soccer, and talking to fans — partly for this story but absolutely for my own enjoyment, too — and this is what I’ve learned about why soccer isn’t fading away in this city anytime soon.

A home for the Outlaws

Double Tap Pub is one of downtown Boise’s hole-in-the-wall treasures. Tucked away just off 8th and Broad Streets, you have to walk down a hallway filled with a second-hand vintage clothing store and other small businesses before you even reach the bar.

But once you’re inside, there’s no mistaking it for a soccer bar. Soccer scarves from teams as varied as the Portland Timbers to Japanese club Sanfrecce Hiroshima hang from the ceiling, and on soccer game days — whether it’s the World Cup or a midsummer Major League Soccer game — all televisions are tuned into the game.

“We’re just trying to provide soccer to the Boise area and the Treasure Valley,” said Drew West, who recently purchased Double Tap Pub after being involved with the bar for the best of the last decade.

“We’re a veteran-owned pub,” West continued, “we’re a sports club, and we’re a soccer pub.”

Along with the England - USA game, I was also at Double Tap for USA’s World Cup opener against Wales. Although it didn’t end overly positively — a late Wales penalty resulted in a 1-1 draw — there was no denying the atmosphere was electric.

Midway through the first half, a chant from the fans at the game in Qatar was picked up on TV: “U…S…A. U…S…A….” The hundred-plus fans around me quickly picked it up, and for a brief 30 seconds, two groups of fans — one set in the Middle East and the other in a small pub in Idaho — combined for a powerful connection.

Later in the game, one particularly passionate fan took particular offense at the Welsh players flopping to the ground easily. Unfortunately, I can’t publish what he yelled at the TV, but imagine a couple of F-bombs and a stream of other angry words, and you get the idea.

After the game, I chatted with Jake London, president of the Boise chapter of the American Outlaws. The group has made Double Tap their home since 2013 — membership peaked at around 200 members before a drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the World Cup is helping that number rebound.

“(Double Tap) has just been kind of a home, and they are accommodating for us,” London said. “You know, there’s a lot of times we have to compete with the American sports, and if there’s a US (soccer) game on, they’ll put the American sports behind it, which really helps to have a dedicated space that we’re able to come in and have that. And we get rowdy, obviously.”

Double Tap will continue to open early throughout the World Cup, West said, and he also hopes to start opening early for English Premier League games in the near future.

Boise’s international fan bases

I was worried I might see the end of a relationship on Saturday.

Bunched around two televisions at Parilla Grill in the North End, a bunch of Mexico fans watched their team fight for survival against Argentina. Huddled up at one table, a striped blue and white Argentina jersey stood out against the green of Mexico.

Nicole Calzacorta, proudly donning her Argentina jersey in enemy territory, had lived in Buenos Aires for nine years before recently returning to her home state of Idaho. Her girlfriend, Megan Carreau, spent much of her childhood traveling to Mexico and has close family friends from the country, resulting in her picking up the fandom of America’s neighbors to the south.

Parilla Grill is a go-to spot for Mexico fans, partly due to the restaurant’s extensive range of burritos, bowls, tacos, and $2 cans of Tecate lager. Even though the Michigan State versus Ohio State football game was showing at the bar, most eyes were glued to the World Cup game.

“We went to watch some soccer games here before,” Calzacorta said. “So just kind of knowing that they would have the games on, it was kind of guaranteed.”

Calzacorta grew up in Idaho before moving to Argentina and says she can tell the difference in soccer’s growth between her formative years and now.

“So from what I could see, I feel like football has gotten a lot more popular — or soccer, if you will,” Calzacorta said. “I would say because of the Basque culture here, they did have a Jaialdi years ago, they had Bilbao play Tijuana, and so I think that’s kind of helping to integrate more of the football culture.”

I talked to the pair at halftime when the game was still 0-0 — “we’ll see how it goes,” Carreau joked when I asked if the game would test their relationship.

The game ended 2-0 in favor of Argentina — I caught the pair briefly on my way out, and I believe their relationship survived the trials and tribulations of a Lionel Messi wonder goal.

The following day I changed pace somewhat and spent my afternoon at Prost, a German pub in the heart of downtown Boise that attracts German, Dutch and Belgian fans, to watch Germany versus Spain.

That doesn’t mean the three countries get along, of course.

“Eugh, a Dutch referee,” a man to my right said aloud at the start of the game. I later learned he grew up in Kaiserslautern, a city in southwest Germany. The Germans and Dutch have long held a rivalry in soccer, ever since West Germany defeated the Netherlands in the 1974 World Cup final. Nearly 50 years on — and plenty of contentious games between the two countries since then — tensions are yet to simmer.

On my left was a half-German man called John, who pointed out the differences between European soccer fans to those from Central and South America. Even in Boise, the Argentina and Mexico fans at Parilla the day before were loud and boisterous throughout the game, while the German fans at Prost were calmer and more selective with their oohs and ahhs.

That’s not including the loud “scheiße!” — the German word for “damn” that in America we know better pronounced as “schizer” — someone behind me yelled when Spain opened the scoring in the second half. But as a general rule, the soccer-watching mannerisms from both sets of fans had traveled from the homeland to the Gem State.

“This wasn’t here when we were in college, so this is great for us,” said Monique Ray, a half-German who attended Northwest Nazarene University. “Because this is the food we love and the beer we love.

“There are more adults who watch it now,” Ray continued, decked out in a German jersey, flag, hat and face paint. “I feel like when we were in college, this really wasn’t a thing. So it’s nice to be in a community with other people who enjoy watching these teams play.”

Boise’s newest international sports bar

I don’t think I’ve been to many bars where the bartender will stand on the bar and lead soccer chants with a megaphone.

That was until I visited Liga, a recently-opened sports bar on the corner of Capitol Boulevard and Idaho Street.

“I’ve grown up here. I’ve been here my whole life. So growing up, how big (soccer) has expanded, there are so many more cultures and people out here,” said Liga bar master Erik Schweitzer. “There’s kind of a need for more of that international influence and catering to a bunch of different needs for a bunch of different people.”

Schweitzer said that following the World Cup, his bar would cater to various international sports — rugby, racing, cricket, and of course, soccer. There was no denying that Liga was a soccer bar — flags of various soccer teams from around the world plastered the walls, only giving way for the TVs showing the beautiful game itself.

I spent a couple of hours at Liga for the double-header of the USA versus Iran and England versus Wales. The bar was 99% Americans, who went berserk when Christian Pulisic scored the would-be winning goal, but I did manage to find the one other Englishman in the bar.

“There’s a lot of people; this is a really good vibe, though, like everybody’s very into it,” said Ian Stanley, a south London native who’s lived in Boise for the last two-and-a-half years. “We were the only two English people here, which was surprising. I thought there’d be at least like ten English people.”

Stanley predicted England and USA would meet in the final and that England would run out as 6-0 winners — I think we both know he’s a bit hopeful about that prediction, in his hopes of both countries making the final and his predicted scoreline.

Liga will continue to open at 8 a.m. for games throughout the World Cup and hopes to uphold its reputation as Boise’s newest go-to bar for international sports far into the future.

“One of the best parts about this place is the international audience that shows up,” Schweitzer said. “It’s really nice to be here in the middle of Boise and see a diverse cast of characters all enjoying what we all enjoy, which is international sports.”

The United States’ run in the World Cup ended Saturday with a 3-1 loss to the Netherlands in the round of 16.

You can find a map of the four bars I visited below, which will continue to show World Cup games throughout the tournament’s duration, which will conclude with the final on Dec. 18.