Watching the USA Game, With Italian Spirit

When Landon Donovan scored that much-awaited goal for the USA in the 91st minute of Wednesday morning's soccer game against Algeria, Hoboken's bars undoubtedly exploded with cheering and laughter. 

And although the cheering wasn't as loud, the roughly 10 Italian gentlemen watching the game at the Monte San Giacomo Club on 6th and Adams streets were just as happy. Still, reading Italian language newspapers and drinking San Pellegrino and coffees, they were mostly looking forward to tomorrow's Italy game. (Italy has to win tomorrow's game in order to go on to the next round.) 

"I'm rooting for the USA and I'm rooting for Italy," said Frank Castello, 75. But, he added, if Italy and America play each other, "I'm undecided!" 

Mayor Dawn Zimmer joined the men at the club on their brown leather c ouches for the last part of the second half. 

Castello, who is the chairman of the club, came to the States in 1953, which is also the year he joined the San Giacamo club. The gentlemen gather at the building, in which the club has been housed since 1946, daily, Castellano said. 

All 120 male members of the club come from—or married into a family from—San Giacomo. 

Frank Spina, 83, has been a Monte San Giacomo member since he was a young man. Watching soccer with his friends at the club, he said, "It's a tradition."

"America had a lot, a lot of chances," Spina said. "It's the end that counts."

Most of the men there said they come to the club almost every day to drink coffee and talk to their friends. 

Andrea Amato moved from Italy to Hoboken 35 years ago and immediately became a member of the club. Amato, 67, said that he spends most nights in the club, playing cards, cooking food, and talking—mostly in Italian—to the other members. 

A photo of the Italian national soccer team from 2006 (the year they won the World Cup) hangs on the wall in the Monte San Giacomo Club. And that victory is still fresh in Castello's mind.

"We had a big parade in Hoboken," he said.