All’s well that ends well for local soccer fans

Team USA?s 2-1 win over Ghana in the teams? World Cup opener on Monday inspired passions in soccer fans. Just ask Taso Nikolakopoulos, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and owner of John?s Roast Beef, who watches games at his restaurant.?I?ve been known to run out of my restaurant screaming,” Nikolakopoulos said. “I might have scared some customers (when Ghana tied the US in the 82nd minute).”Thanks to Clint Dempsey?s goal in the opening minute, the US had taken a 1-0 lead against the team that eliminated it from the Cup four years ago. Andre Ayew put Ghana on the board late in the second half.?I thought, ?Here we go again,?” Nikolakopoulos said. “I stepped outside, in back of the restaurant. I?ve seen that movie before. It?s very difficult to let up goals in the last 10 minutes. It?s almost like watching the Red Sox.”Luckily for Team USA, and for local fans, substitute player John Brooks scored the game-winning goal in the 86th minute. Brooks wrote his name in history as the first US substitute to score in a World Cup.?This is terrific,” Lynn English High School girls soccer coach Ed McNeil said. “This kid is only 21 years old. He scored the winner. There couldn?t be a better start for the US team.”McNeil watched the game at home with his stepson, Ron Donahue, a former Lynn Youth Soccer player who was a captain on the combined Essex Aggie-North Shore Tech soccer team, as well as its leading scorer and a Commonwealth Athletic Conference All-Star. McNeil had said the Americans were going to lose the game before the dramatic game-winner.?I was hoping for a tie,” McNeil said. “Ghana was the better team. If they played 10 times, Ghana would probably win eight out of 10. Today they worked hard.”Not only was it a win, it concluded in dramatic fashion.?It was exciting,” Nikolakopoulos said. “Now you?ve got the country watching … People who never watched (before) say, ?I gave it 45 minutes.?”He cited the “pageantry and passion” of soccer and said that the coaches? reactions after a goal are much more intense than, say, their counterparts? after a touchdown or home run.?That coach delivers a victory,” Nikolakopoulos said. “He?ll be a god in his country … I was in Greece for the European Championships in (2004). Greece faced (long) odds to win. They beat Portugal in the final. They were celebrating in the streets for months.”There are still a few weeks in the first round of the Cup, but the US gave its fans a day to remember on Monday.