More than 7,500 people watched the U.S play Germany on large screens outside Crew Stadium, home of Columbus' professional soccer team. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        COLUMBUS, Ohio — The word has gotten out about the World Cup soccer matches being shown on the big screen at Columbus Crew Stadium.

        Officials of the Major League Soccer team say fans from surrounding states and even from Florida are coming to watch the games in the middle of the night and early in the morning.

        About 4,000 showed up at 2:30 a.m. Monday to watch the United States defeat Mexico. Between 5,000 and 7,000 people were expected for Friday's 7:30 a.m. U.S.-Germany quarterfinal match, Crew public relations director Jeff Wuerth said.

        Jarrett Pettis, 31, of Columbus, and John Brunner, 27, of St. Clairsville, tailgated in the parking lot before going inside to watch the match on one of several big-screen televisions or the stadium scoreboard.

        Pettis said the U.S. team's progress this year is “awesome.”

        “I'm looking forward to the Unite States taking it to the semi-finals,” he said, cradling a bottle of beer in his lap.

        The majority of fans drank coffee and munched doughnuts, cheering loudly and chanting “USA.”

        Among the crowd were Nick Lewis, 23, and Ryan Dolan, 30, of Cape Coral, Fla., and Dolan's 57-year-old father, Chris Dolan of Haines City, Fla.

        They drove 18 1/2 hours nonstop, about 1,200 miles, from the Fort Myers area to be on hand for the 7:30 a.m. game.

        “Crew Stadium is the place to be,” Lewis said. “We invited everybody on the way up from Florida. If we stopped at a gas station, we invited them. We talked to people in Kentucky who had never heard of soccer.”

        It was during a World Cup 2Night broadcast on ESPN2 that Lewis first saw the madness.

        “I said, 'That's it. Let's go party with those people in Columbus.' There was nothing where we were,” Lewis said.

        He called the Crew.

        “All we wanted were directions,” Lewis said. “We'd never been to Ohio.”

        Instead, the Crew got the trio a hotel room and gave them passes to the Crew game against Kansas City on Wednesday night.

        “We had to show our appreciation for coming so far to our viewing party,” Wuerth said.

        The elder Dolan was a soccer referee and coach for 30 years and took a youth team to Ireland in 1982. His son and Lewis played soccer through high school and have taped every World Cup match this year. They took vacation time to watch as many games live on television as possible.

        But Chris Dolan is still not sure how he got roped into coming.

        “They said, 'We're going to Columbus and you're going,”' said Dolan, who is retired but works as a consultant two days a week. “The next thing I know, my wife has my bags packed. She said next week she didn't want to put up with the 'I should have gone' talk.”

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