The DJ couldn’t help himself. He punched the button.
An airhorn drowned out the last chords of the Nigerian national anthem, “Arise, O Compatriots,” and the wall-to-wall crowd at Appioo African Bar & Grill on Saturday afternoon exploded back into the shouts and laughter from moments before.
“Give us one goal, Nigeria!” yelled Adetayo Ogunsanya, who wore a giant grin and somehow bigger sunglasses around the collar of his shirt, which he customized to read: “This Naija Swag is on a 100.”
On TV, the Croatians and Nigerians met for kickoff and, inside Appioo, in the Shaw neighborhood of Northwest D.