They cheered “USA!”, slurped Italian ices and took selfie after grinning selfie with the victorious athletes.
And that was just the cops.
Friday’s ticker-tape parade for the World Cup-winning US women’s soccer team was such a G-rated family affair that it became the easiest OT of all time for the hundreds of NYPD officers stationed along its route.
“It’s like a little day in paradise,” one uniformed cop noted as he surveyed the sun-dappled, law-abiding throngs on Centre Street and sipped at a blue and white icy.
“Everything went beautifully.”
Most of the paradegoers were peaceable little girls with the requisite soccer moms.
That meant none of the vomiting, groping and fighting associated with similar soirees on the Canyon of Heroes for the city’s sports teams.
I BELIEVE THAT WE JUST WON! #WorldChampionspic.twitter.com/CkGuREcQD2
— U.S. Soccer WNT (@ussoccer_wnt) July 10, 2015
“Those crowds have been a lot bigger and, to be honest, sloppier,” said one cop, summing up the teenybopper crowd as “not causing any trouble.”
The only drama came from fans like Annika Solomonsson, 13, of Brooklyn, who hyperbolized through heaving sobs, “Oh my God! I can’t breathe!” at the prospect of seeing her hero, midfielder Megan Rapinoe.
The masses of virtuous citizenry freed up many cops to actually enjoy a parade for a change.
Detective Ark-Meek Hunter pitted one side of Broadway against the other in a contest of who could shout, “USA! USA!” louder.
“This is fun. My side is better,” he said of the chanting.
At least eight cops, including Commissioner Bill Bratton, posed for selfies with two-time Olympic gold medalist and fan-favorite fan favorite Hope Solo, one showing the goalkeeper wearing a police cap, and another an NYPD baseball cap.
“It’s not like with local teams,” noted Richard Robinson, 47, a bartender at The Beekman Pub, who has had to babysit unruly fans through eight championship parades — five for the Yankees, one for the Rangers and two for the Giants.
“There’s no chance that a bunch of Devils fans are gonna come in and cause trouble,” he said.
Still, it was a ticker-tape parade, even if confetti and unraveling rolls of toilet tissue long ago became the projectiles of choice. That meant trash.
“I mean, it doesn’t mean there isn’t work for us to do,” one Parks Department employee grumbled when asked about the Girl Scout Jamboree vibe.
“You see all that toilet paper up in the trees? We’re still going to spend all afternoon taking that down.”
Meanwhile, only a day after city officials said they couldn’t accept contributions from private citizens to help pay for the parade, Mayor de Blasio said, “I certainly want people to know we’re happy to accept their donations.’’
Additional reporting by Rich Calder and Yoav Gonen
