Fans pack bars for Women's World Cup

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WASHINGTON — Soccer fans were on the edge of their bar stools at Toro Bar in Columbia Heights. About 60 people leaned in close to watch the final moments of the U.S. team in the Women’s World Cup. They cheered. They roared. Their smiles could be heard outside the walls of Toro Bar.

But then gloom struck. Fans smiles turned to frowns. And the bar emptied out. The reason? The U.S. was knocked out of the tournament for losing a dramatic penalty shootout against Sweden.

Toro Bar is one of almost 100 bars and restaurants that requested to stay open for games, after the DC Council passed legislation last month that allows them to stay open 24/7 during the tournament.

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"This year, everybody knew about it, it was all over the place and we just had to come out and see it," said fan Maria Vottero.

The Women's World Cup is commanding higher ticket sales and viewership numbers than ever before. USA VS. Sweden was one of the largest turnouts. After a long, exciting and scoreless game, the team was eliminated by Sweden in the penalty shootout.

"There's a huge luck factor," said fan Christian Long. "There's that randomness if you go through and run penalties like five or ten times, you'll get a different set of results."

Long traveled to Australia for one of the games and he sees the excitement of the women's team growing.

"We got spoiled," he said. "Our team won so much, it's like whenever your team doesn’t win you're disappointed, that’s a positive."

Toro Bar's manager said sales have doubled over the last month with the games, capitalizing on the fact that D.C. is a big soccer town.

"There's a big community of soccer players in D.C., you can always find a pickup game pretty much everywhere, around the corner from where you live, it's cool and it's an amazing way to make friends in DC," said fan Nehemia.

RELATED: 'We just lost the World Cup by a millimeter': US loses to Sweden on penalty kicks

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