AILSA CHANG, HOST:
England faced Croatia today in the last semifinal game of the World Cup. It is the first time since 1990 that England has gotten this far. My co-host Mary Louise Kelly watched the game from a pub in central London, or at least she tried.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, BYLINE: The weather gods have delivered the most glorious summer night. And apparently the entire city has decided to clock out early and hit the pub so much so that we are being thwarted in our quest to find one where we can watch because they are all already spilling out onto the street about - I would say 20 deep, but it's way deeper than that.
JOHN APPLEBY: My name's John Appleby (ph).
MARTIN ROBINSON: I'm Martin Robinson (ph).
KELLY: I'm going to take a wild stab at who you two are rooting for tonight.
APPLEBY: Come on, England. That's - of course.
ROBINSON: I'll be nervous as soon as it starts, yeah, but I'm OK at the moment.
KELLY: The appearance of Team England - we can see them, finally, on screen, walking out in their uniforms.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) Southgate, you’re the one. You still turn me on 'cause football’s coming home again.
(CHEERING)
KELLY: OK. I'm back with considerably more lager in my hair and down my back than when I last checked in. I was just in the bar trying to get a better look right when that first England goal went in, which, as you may have heard, was greeted with a little celebration here.
(CHEERING)
KELLY: OK. You just heard it fall a little bit quiet. That is because Croatia just equalized - yeah, so the score's now tied 1-1.
Oh, boy - 1-1, and we are out of time, so we're headed to 30 more minutes. Buckle up.
(CHEERING)
KELLY: All right. Despair in the bar 'cause Croatia has just scored. Now it's 2-1, and England is not winning.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Screaming) Come on. Come on.
KELLY: And that's it. They lost, but they're still singing. A lovely little moment of applause there for the team that - they didn't win, but they fought hard.
CHANG: Mary Louise Kelly with soccer fans in London watching England lose. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
