NEW YORK – Greek-Americans had mixed feelings about the performance of the Greek national team in its game against Japan on June 19, but they were out in force to cheer them on at bars and restaurants all over the city.

Many felt Greece should have won, but after a sad performance in a 3-0 opening game loss to Colombia, some were relieved that they held on to a 0-0 tie after a red-card called on team captain Costas Katsouranis forced them to play a man short for most of the game.

Markos Kaminis, known through his financial industry blog as Wall Street Greek, invited friends to join him on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. “It was tough luck,” he said of the two yellow cards that added up to a red, which caused captain Costas Katsouranis’ expulsion from the game and next week’s crucial match against the Ivory Coast.

He said, “The second yellow card was questionable,” he said, but he was impressed with the team’s response.

“They had to play a man short,” but they played very well, noting that fans could not tell they were handicapped until the last ten minutes, when their fatigue began to show.

“They played like warriors. They were tough and dominated physically… [goalkeeper] Sokratis Papastathopoulos was the man of the game.  They could not get anything past him,” Kaminis said, who is looking forward to the next match on June 24.