A Hot Case of Soccer Fever : Fans of Italy, Brazil Rejoice in Victory

The diagnosis was soccer fever, judging by the peculiar symptoms scattered around Orange County Wednesday.

Frantic people stood on bar tops. They sang, chanted and shouted. They threw napkins and bread sticks and romped around restaurants waving flags of many colors.

When it was over, after Italy had defeated Bulgaria and Brazil had beaten Sweden, the stage was set for Sunday’s World Cup final at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl--and another bout with the dizzying delirium. Blood pressure is likely to remain high until then.

“I waited four years for this,” said an ecstatic Marcello Apollonio, the head chef of Il Fornaio restaurant in Irvine, after the Italian team has ousted Bulgaria, 2-1. He took a break from dancing with his sous-chef and his general manager to make a prediction.

“We are very confident,” said Apollonio, 35, a native of Italy who lives in Irvine. “All the other games, we were not really there yet. But if we play like we did today, in the first half when we ran the entire half, we will win.”

By early afternoon, about 250 people had piled into Legends Sports Bar in Costa Mesa to watch both games on the bar’s 22 televisions.

“They all arrived at once,” said Boomer Felton, Legends’ 19-year-old host. “I mean, we expected crowds for the games, but this place was packed.”

At Yolie’s Brazilian Steakhouse in Irvine, a smaller but energetic group crowded around the bar, pounded the bar top like a samba drum and cheered the Brazilian team past Sweden, 1-0. Claudio Carvalho, 36, an exercise therapist from Rio de Janeiro, was just as confident as the Italian faithful that his team would return home with the cup.

“They’ll win Sunday,” Carvalho promised.

Even the Americans seemed bitten by the World Cup bug. Michelle Lanz, a 22-year-old USC student, altered her work schedule to tag along to Legends with a group of friends from Rome.

“This is a different perspective,” she said, gazing around at the feverish crowd. “You get more into the game when you are in a place like this with your friends. It adds a heightened level of excitement.”

At Legends, Brazil seemed to be the favorite.

“Brazil! Brazil! Brazil!” went the chant carried by a gathering of native Brazilians in soccer jerseys.

A crowd of about 60 screaming fans greeted the Brazilian team when they arrived at the Fullerton Marriott hotel at nightfall. The fans, who were cordoned off from the hotel, were still wearing the green and yellow Brazilian jerseys and some had their faces painted.

“All we want is the World Cup,” said a bubbling Patricia Tatagiba, 19, of Huntington Beach. “They are going to win the cup because they are the best. They are going to go all the way.”

Liliana Aquayo, 24, and Edwin Salas, 30, both students at Cal State Fullerton, said they came just to see soccer fever in action.

“We wanted to take part in all the excitement with everyone screaming,” Aquayo said. “We just wanted to see it.” At Il Fornaio, the chant was, “I-tal-ia! I-tal-ia!” The restaurant’s general manager, Mario Bernardo, pulled down his Italian flag from above the bar.

“The last time Italy won the World Cup, in Spain in 1982, I was there and wore this around my neck,” said Bernardo, 33, a Newport Beach resident. “I will wear it again Sunday.”

The Italians will rest their hopes on Roberto Baggio, the pony-tailed, sleepy-eyed national hero who suffers from tendinitis but scored both his team’s goals against Bulgaria. He will not be hurting Sunday and will bring the cup back to Italy, said Giuseppe Naccarelli, 27, Il Fornaio’s sous-chef.

“The last few years, he is the best player in the world. . . . Bravo, bravo!” Naccarelli said.