By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER MANHATTAN — Excitement over the World Cup may have hit a fever pitch throughout much of the world, but in Washington Heights and Inwood, it's strictly a low-grade fever.
Baseball, not World Cup soccer, is the game of choice for many Northern Manhattanites, as evidenced by television screens at countless bars and restaurants along Broadway from West 155th to 218th Streets.
But in Inwood, Greg Orfanos, a 47-year-old Greek waiter at Capitol Diner on Broadway, the World Cup is bigger than the World Series and Super Bowl combined.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love basketball and baseball, but I’m a big soccer fan, that’s why we got the TV,” he said, pointing at the flat screen television behind the counter.
A Greek native who has lived in the United States since 1979 and lives in the Bronx, Orfanos said he played soccer when he was a boy and watches soccer from Greece on a special Greek cable channel throughout the year. But when the World Cup comes around every four years, he gets excited for the games despite Greece’s forgetable performance this time around.
“Of course I wanted Greece to win,” Orfanos said, “but I also want to see a good game.”
Despite limited neighborhood interest — only a few of the diner’s patrons watched the Greece vs Argentina game on Tuesday, June 22, which Greece lost 2-0 — Orfanos said he will be watching the World Cup everyday and will be showing the games at the diner everyday through July.
“And then I’ll go home and fight with my wife for the remote control to watch more,” he said.
