It’s safe to say the attention of the soccer world was not focused on the seesawing battle at Mordovia Arena in Saransk, Russia, on Thursday as Panama fell to Tunisia, 2-1, in the teams’ last game at the World Cup.

Neither team advanced in the tournament — Tunisia managed its first World Cup win in 40 years; Panama goes home with an 0-3 record, the lowest-ranked team — but they most assuredly did in the sport.

They might not have shone the brightest on the field, but they certainly stirred some far-flung corners of the globe.

So why should I be surprised that after the game, the pounding salsa music came on, the rum poured forth and the happy banter and singing of scores of Panamanians, offering one another long hugs, filled a bar in Brooklyn that nobody seemed in a rush to leave? (They were still singing an hour after the game.)