World Cup enthusiasm hit Harlem on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Senegalese New Yorkers and African expats squeezed in to dine at Senegalese restaurant Chez Maty Et Sokhna on foods they grew up on. The owner told NY1 he is a massive soccer fan, a native of Senegal, and been waiting to host this watch party.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Senegalese New Yorkers and African expats squeezed in to dine at Senegalese restaurant Chez Maty Et Sokhna to watch the France-Senegal World Cup match
And down at Pastis, a French restaurant in the Meatpacking District, French fans locked in for their watch party
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The next match here at MetLife is on June 22, and Senegal plays again, this time against Norway<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very excited, exciting to the World Cup right here, exciting the Senegalese team comes right here, that\u2019s the best, best gift,\u201d said Amadou Thiam.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtremely hype, very hype, I\u2019m a big football fan, and I think Senegal is the strongest African team, I\u2019m also from Africa, so I think Senegal has the best chance to represent the continent and do well in the tournament,\u201d said Kaleb Gebrekirstos, who was also at the watch party.<\/p>\n
Hadi Tadesse, who\u2019s originally from Ethiopia, told NY1 at the watch party she has been watching the World Cup since she was a little girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe never miss this, soccer is our life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
No African team has ever won the World Cup, but Tadesse believes this year\u2019s tournament will be different.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica never won, they getting better every four years, so Senegal, Morocco or Ghana, way to go! I can\u2019t wait,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Somali-New Yorker Abdiaziz Ahmed, who was also at the watch party, said he\u2019s also supporting all African teams. He added that the match at nearby MetLife Stadium was out of his price range and that this was the next best thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the place to be, everybody is excited, there\u2019s community around the games, people are getting together, food is being shared, and so we\u2019re really excited to be here, I mean, I live down the street, and so I see it all the time, and these are my neighbors, and so I\u2019m happy to support them,\u201d said Ahmed.<\/p>\n
And down at Pastis, a French restaurant in the Meatpacking District, French fans locked in for their watch party, supporting Les Bleus.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice to come to some place with all the French supporters, all the French flags everywhere, and lots of jerseys, so feeling like a good crowd is here for the match,\u201d said Matthew Lapolice.<\/p>\n
And, for fans of Senegal, there\u2019s hope for the next game \u2014 belief in a team that could go far in this competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to go all the way up,\u201d said Tadesse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like African teams are slept on,\u201d added Ahmed.<\/p>\n
The next match at MetLife is on June 22, and Senegal plays against Norway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup enthusiasm hit Harlem on Tuesday. Senegalese New Yorkers and African expats squeezed in to dine at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[25817,23578,5,5594,6,25815,7,2519,25816,409],"class_list":["post-36727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-france","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-noorulain-khawaja","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-vod","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}