I'll start by saying I'm pretty shallow in the midst of all of this. I'm not a soccer fan. During the last World Cup, I engaged in heated debates with friends about everything that's wrong with the sport and why America, by turning its back on soccer, was smart.
Since the South African games back in '10, I haven't really changed, but the environment around me no doubt has. I fell in love with a Brazilian. I moved to Brazil. I was given a Santos FC jersey by my father-in-law-to-be. He's a diehard fan and if I was moving to the land of the Beautiful Game, well, alliances here are important.
After a fan from a visiting team was killed outside a stadium here a few months ago, Dani told me she didn't want me wearing my jersey on game days anymore. I don't keep up with game days, so that's turned into pretty much ever.
In a similar way, Dani and I spent Wednesday night not discussing Brazil's chances against Croatia or which bar we were going to watch the game from, but instead, if we should leave the house at all. Brazil's anti-World Cup riots have intensified for months now. Rumors of random violence/police clashes were running wild here, fueled by the fact that the violence making the news seemed so random and unpredictable.
Making things worse, Dani had been told by several friends that the city's largest organized gang was planning an attack on civilians Thursday in the form of burning buses (with or without people inside), something she said they had carried out before.
I finally did persuade her out of the house on Thursday, but in my honest opinion, I really thought the day was a total coin toss for the country. Thankfully things have gone to plan so far, and by that I mean no helicopter aerial footage of large-scale looting and fires.
Despite my reservations about soccer, I honestly have been so excited for the big day to arrive. Dani and I donned the green and yellow and found a bar on Rua Augusta. We secured one of the last tables 90 minutes before game time. I was worried the restaurant was a little upscale for real fans, but as the seconds winded down to kickoff, it was clear that everyone in the restaurant, in Sao Paulo, in Brazil is a real fan. Dani's fallen asleep on the couch beside me many times over the past couple years as I've watched my sports. On Thursday, I've rarely seen her as into anything as she was this game.
In this kind of environment, where the collective happiness and perhaps safety of everyone you know rests on the outcome of a 90 game, it's impossible not to be into soccer. I guess one big reason I was never into it before was that I had no skin in the game. That's changed completely. And Brazil vs. Croatia is about the most fun I've had watching any sport in a good five years.
Brazilians felt pretty confident going into the match. That dropped through the floor when Croatia struck in the opening minutes (mistakenly off the foot of a Brazilian player no less). The air in the bar was completely sucked out. Nothing left but a mix of this-can-not-be-happenings and silence.
The pressure over the next hour plus as Brazil eventually put away one, two and then three goals was enough to make you choke. Every time Croatia booted the ball horizontally across the field in front of Brazil's goal, the voices in the room shot up to screams of pure terror. When Brazil scored each of its three goals, the place swung to instant euphoria. Horns. Vuvuzelas. High fives. Fireworks outside. Hugs. Kisses. Kisses. Kisses.
The streets afterwards were filled with car horns, loud stereos playing, bros with their arms around each other's shoulders, drunk girls draped in Brazilian flags laughing and screaming. The country, as a whole, felt untouchable. And all of this after just one match. As the stakes get higher over the next few weeks, I don't really know how people are going to handle it.
I'm completely on board the World Cup bandwagon this year. If Brazil gets eliminated it will honestly crack my heart open a little. But if they win…well, I guess the world will just have to see.
Penalty kick by Neymar against Croatia. Brazil's second goal of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment