The adventure is (kind of) over; the signs have been ripped down by fans eager for souvenirs; the fake Brazil shirts are on sale ridiculously cheap in the streets of Salvador; and the 2014 World Cup is, officially, done.
As seems to happen so often, it was a game of twenty-two men, ninety minutes (and thirty more this time), and then Germany won.
If this guy wasn’t actually German, it would have made it all the more amazing…
And Argentina lost.
And Messi didn’t Continue reading
Brazil has almost certainly never had a worse 24-hours of football.
After yesterday’s German spanking, their arch-rivals Argentina won the right to challenge for the title Brazil thought would be theirs, in the theatre of Brazilian dreams, the Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
Suddenly, there are a lot of Brazilian Germany fans.
Not everyone at the Fanfest was cheering for the Dutch…
After the excitement and sheer jaw-dropping nature of the first semi-final many feared the second may not live up to expectations, and boy were they right. This was ninety-minutes of extraordinarily dull, often average football, with three minutes of play by Holland in injury time, some thrills in extra time, and two fantastic saves from albiceleste keeper Sergio Romero to create a Euro-American Final which could be a fascinating encounter.
Highlights of the game included a couple of accidental injuries to Argentina players, (Pablo Zabaleta appeared to lose a tooth in a head collision and staggered around like a Brazilian playing against Germany before soldiering on, his face stuffed full of cotton wool); Arjen Robben barely diving all match and having a last minute shot blocked heroically by Javier Mascherano; and half of the stadium thinking Gonzalo Higuain had scored when he poked a beautiful cross into the side netting.
Two Spaniards and a Brit, believe it or not from the jerseys…
Lio Messi, whilst still being industrious and tough to tackle, disappeared for large swathes of the game. In fact, he failed to touch the ball in the Dutch penalty area for the complete two hours of the game. On the other side, The Netherlands didn’t manage a shot on target until shortly before the 100 minute mark!
The over-all standard of play was pretty poor all round, (prompting some at the Fanfest to wish they had just shown a re-run of the other semi-final…although not Brazilians), leading to the first ever 0-0 in a World Cup semi-final.
Germany must have been rubbing their hands with Teutonic glee.
Germany and Argentina have samba’d into the final…well, limped in, in the latter’s case…
Which probably means they’ll lose, which would be the ultimate humiliation for Brazil: their enemies not only winning the title, on their turf, but doing so against a team which had trousered the hosts so thoroughly in the previous match.
Is it too much of a stretch to suggest that Dutch coach Van Gaal’s mind games in the previous round against Costa Rica may have cost his side in the shoot-out? Not having a spare substitution to make at the end of the 120 minutes, his regular goalie was forced to stop the penalties after having been essentially told last time out that he wasn’t good enough.
And he wasn’t, (despite the fairly despicable practice he shares with Tim Krul of trash wasting time and trash talking penalty takers before each spot kick). At least this proves that Van Gaal was probably right first time round, as Argentina won the lottery of penalties™ 4-2.
Brazilians were praying for the Dutch to win the shoot-out…to no avail…
So, with my last evening at the (half empty) Fanfest spent explaining to random Argentines that I wasn’t actually from Argentina, just a fan of Buenos Aires club Racing and hence wearing their jersey, my World Cup time in Salvador has come to an end: tomorrow begins the final leg, a flight to Rio, and 72-hours to fight as many Argentines as I need to in order to get hold of a ticket to Sunday’s final.
Stay tuned for updates from the South!
And don’t forget to sign up for news of the Benfica to Brazil book!
In a World Cup full of unbelievable matches, (Holland vs Spain, Costa Rica vs Italy, Germany vs Portugal), yesterday’s 7-1 thrashing/spanking/sausaging/humiliation of Brazil by Germany has to rank as the most stunning of all.
This was both the best I have ever seen a team play in a World Cup, and the worst, and possibly in any football match.
To call Brazil’s play ‘Sunday League‘ is an insult to hard-working Sunday League teams across the world.
My allegiances were torn…
Germany were so (I hate to use the stereotype, but it’s true) ruthless that Continue reading
So it’s come to this.
After all of the (c)upsets, near-knockouts and fun and games, there are four teams left, two from Europe, two from South America, three former World Cup winners who are in the top five ranked teams in the world, and one almost-team hoping to be the second successive first-time winner.
Brazil face Germany today, and Argentina take on Holland tomorrow to decide whether or not there is any chance whatsoever of me getting a ticket to Sunday’s final.
These Mexicans haven’t forgotten how Holland got to the final…
(If Brazil make it, I give myself a 0.01% chance: if they don’t, but Argentina do, it won’t be much better, except that maybe the suicidal Brazilians would rather sell/give their ticket to me than to Continue reading
A meeting of minds…
So Brazil are one step from actually getting to the final, which is either totally predictable or a complete miracle given how they have played most of the tournament.
This time they deserved the win, brushing aside a desperately disappointing Colombia who never really got going, and (with a little help from the referee, for a change), won their quarter final 2-1 and sparked the biggest party yet in the Salvador Fanfest, where thousands of people spent the entire night either dancing the night away, or staring at me attempting to do the same.
Fanfest festivities…
Standing in their way will be Continue reading
A gorgeous, sunny day; an old friend visiting from NYC who happened to show up for a USA match; another old friend racing back to see her country play; and yet another old friend back from his travels, all to be reunited in the gorgeous, gleaming Salvador stadium.
Back where I belong…
Another friend didn’t have a ticket, but details like this didn’t seem to matter on this magical day: walking to the stadium three hours early to soak up the atmosphere, (and the Continue reading
Yes, it’s the one the world has been waiting for: Iran vs Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Not a fair fight, really, considering the Iran team has been under sanctions so long that they didn’t even have player photos up on the giant screens when they announced the teams before the match.
And they were playing against two countries.
Bosnia on the left, Hercegovina on the right…
I began the tournament Continue reading
It is Sunday morning, and it sounds like there is a hurricane blowing outside my window.
After staying out until 5am to celebrate the national holiday of São João in the least traditional way possible, (joining some local friends at a live rock venue, instead of gyrating the night away to a farró band), this is not ideal.
A morning view of stormy Salvador…
At least it allows me to lie in the warmth of my bed and report on yesterday’s footballing adventures.
The festival of Saint John, (whose saint’s day is Continue reading
Seventeen goals.
That is how many have been scored in Salvador’s Arena Fonte Nova stadium in the first three games of the 2014 World Cup, three of the best games I have seen in three decades of football-watching.
Germany 5 (and a half), Switzerland 2…
After three games in Cape Town in 2010, I had seen two goals, and three of the worst games I had ever seen.
I hereby declare this World Cup the best ever. More or less.
The day began with Continue reading
Colombia 3 Greece 0
Uruguay 1 Costa Rica 3
England 1 Italy 2
Ivory Coast 2 Japan 1
The view from my morning jog…
These were the results on Day3, and in case you weren’t counting, that’s 13 goals in 4 games, a ridiculous tally considering at the past few World Cups it felt like every other game in the group stages ended either 0-0 or 1-0.
I thought teams would be too scared to lose games to make the early rounds exciting: either due to the heat, bad defending or managers saying Continue reading
Today (possibly around a week ago now, since it took a while for me to get around to blogging this entry!), saw the release of the latest of a rash of World Cup team selfies, this time of the Belgian team on the plane.
What finally prompted me to blog was, after featuring a David Luis photo in an earlier blog, I love the fact that Marouane Fellaini’s hair barely fits in the plane…
Marouane’s hair (top left) may have had to buy its own seat…
It also coincides with some English lads trying their luck and Continue reading
It’s finally here.
I’m finally here, in an apartment on the beachfront.
The sun is still here, although it’s having a little disagreement with its main sponsor, showers, this week.
Some Dutch and Spanish tourists are here in Salvador, although not as many as you would have thought.
Fatboy Slim is probably here somewhere, getting ready for his World Cup-opening show here in Salvador later this afternoon/evening, giving me a dilemma about where to watch the opening match, since the FanFest is literally next to the place I’m staying, and where most of the friends I have made this past two weeks has been.
So, here’s the last news update before we can officially say: The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil has started!…
–Security seems to be all in place and highly organised. As long as Continue reading
Some quick updates from the world of the cup today, before I head to the gorgeous FIFA ticket collection centre here in Salvador to collect the remaining tickets I have managed to get hold of.
-I watched England struggle to a 0-0 draw with the mighty Honduras over a giant pizza last night, (me and some friends, not England). Honduras is one of Continue reading
Today saw the release of a collection of posters by Brazilian artist Cristiano Siquiera, better known by his professional name crisvector. Sponsored by ESPN, the posters are stunning, simple, and feature some of the best players in the world representing their countries and team nicknames.
You can see the complete set of posters HERE.
Cristiano Sigueira/ESPN
Benfica to Brazil 
