Fans celebrate the first goal during the U.S. Women’s National Team’s game against Germany on Sunday from Rising Tide Brewing in Portland. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
An hour before Sophia Smith scored the U.S. Women’s National Team’s opening goal against Germany in the Paris Olympics, 10-year-old Madelyn Snyder of Portland sunk a penalty shot on Kennedy Field, proudly wearing the star player’s jersey.
Snyder said she’s been playing soccer for about five years, but she fell in love with the sport when she watched last year’s World Cup. Standing on the Kennedy Park green, minutes before Olympic kickoff, Snyder rattled off the players she’d be watching closest at the afternoon’s game.
“Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman and Mallory Swanson,” Snyder said, counting each athlete with her fingers. Asked what she wanted to see later that afternoon, Snyder offered a simple answer: “Victory!”
Team USA delivered.
The young girl and her mother, Lindsay Snyder, joined more than 100 soccer fans who on Sunday filled Rising Tide Brewing’s taproom and patio. They came – by foot, bicycle, car – from as near as around the block and at least as far as Friendship to watch the U.S. Women’s National Team square off against Germany in the Paris Games.
Fans march from Kennedy Park to Rising Tide Brewing to watch the U.S. Women’s National Team play Germany in the Paris Olympics on Sunday. Sofia Aldinio/Staff Photographer
For nearly two hours, the team drew round after round of applause from the taproom and a tent just across from the park, as they took down Germany 4-1 and secured their second win in the Olympics.
The brewery first exploded into applause around 3:10 p.m., as Smith scored an early goal. A couple of children stood on chairs, cheering as their parents raised hands and glasses in celebration.
The watch party, hosted by Hearts of Pine, Portland’s soon-to-launch soccer team, was designed to highlight the team’s upcoming first season while celebrating Portland’s growing soccer community, said Gabe Hoffman-Johnson, the team’s founder and chief community officer. It followed more than an hour of family activities at Kennedy Park, where over a dozen families ran soccer drills, tie-dyed Hearts of Pine tee shirts and decorated posters to support the women’s team.
“For soccer in America right now, it’s just such a fun time,” Hoffman-Johnson said. “A lot of what we’re doing here is really community building, but using this game as the vehicle. Whether you’re watching, whether you’re playing, whether it’s just meeting people that are within this community.”
Hoffman-Johnson largely credited rising interest in soccer across Maine and the country with the success of the women’s national team, which took first place in the 2015 and 2019 FIFA World Cups.
The team failed to reach the World Cup finals in 2023, but for many at Rising Tide, the Olympic match against Germany – which also gave a lackluster performance in last year’s cup – meant a possible return to glory.
At halftime, as the U.S. held a 3-1 lead, fans alternated between plates of tater-tots and pale brews, swapping stories and snapping selfies from across picnic tables. Around 100 people filled the brewery’s east room, with dozens more scattered throughout the main taproom and tented patio. The crowd was dotted with Team USA jerseys and Hearts of Pine T-shirts.
Erica Morgenstein, 40, sipped a beer while her children chased each other around the patio before the game’s second half began. A Portland native who grew up playing soccer in town, Morgenstein said local interest in the sport has appeared to increase in the last few years.
“It’s exciting to take in this level,” Morgenstein said. “It used to be that you cap out at high school, and then there’s nothing else to support.”
But while overall interest in the sport has spiked, Morgenstein said the community is still catching up on women’s soccer.
“We’re getting there,” she said. “Obviously the women’s program in the U.S. is better than the men’s. So it’s fun to support women’s teams.”
Vanessa O’Mara sat at a table on the patio with her cream-colored chihuahua, Tito, sitting on the table next to her. The pair gazed at the television screen, taking in the first half of the match.
O’Mara, who moved to South Portland from Baltimore late last year, said she was surprised to see so many soccer fans when she first got to town. O’Mara said she and her husband go to the Portland Zoo, an East Bayside bar known for its soccer broadcasts, nearly every week to catch a match.
“I think that people are super supportive (of women’s soccer),” O’Mara said. “It’s just a good vibe overall.”
Speaking around halftime, Hoffman-Johnson said he was thrilled by the turnout at Sunday’s event. He added that the fact that some fans drove more than an hour to watch the game “speaks to how excited people are” about soccer’s growth in Maine.
Though there have been similar events for men’s soccer in Greater Portland over the past few years, Hoffman-Johnson said he could not recall a similarly-sized watch party for the women’s team.
“Our goal is really just to uplift,” he said. “Shining a spotlight on our Women’s National Team is important work to be done.”
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