The fare was hot dogs and hamburgers with potato chips, normally the perfect complement to a baseball game — but, as one visitor from the United States kidded, "the worst of American cuisine." Still, it proved a hit that was totally appropriate for the occasion and no one seemed to mind.

The atmosphere was about what you'd expect in not just a losing effort by the American squad, but an embarrassing showing — the team just never got in the game. By the second half people spent as much time socializing and walking the manicured grounds as watching screens.

The Czech half of the crowd erupted into applause when players like Jan Koller scored, but were graciously subdued about applause and celebrating at the end. One visitor from the United States who had spent the previous week in Berlin, watching games on the huge screens at the Brandenburg Gate, commented on the way home how low-key the Czechs were in their street celebrations Monday night. When the Germans win, he said, huge crowds get falling-down drunk for hours afterward on the streets.

Fans invariably spill over into the Czech lands. Some swapped stories over the weekend at Malá Strana's U Malého Glena jazz bar. German fans in the stands tend to be reserved, they complained, while Costa Ricans "make more noise than the whole rest of the stadium."

While here the visitors made a trip to Kutná Hora, to check out the ossuary, a collection of thousands of human bones gathered into geometric shapes by monks centuries ago. A guide recounted that they were from victims of the great "plaque."