The World Cup

A CUPO DO MUNDO

It goes without saying that it’s a dream come true to be at the World Cup. If I could pick the most ideal location on earth to attend the World Cup, it would probably be Brazil. The soccer/football culture here is unparalleled. So are the beaches and nightlife. And the women aren’t so ugly.

I truly am a lucky man to be here. Last September my sister Haley married her Brazilian boyfriend Rafael with whom she went to college, and the two of them live in Natal in the northeast. Their apartment is literally walking distance from the stadium where USA played Ghana.

I applied for tickets using my brother-in-law’s info (discounted since he’s Brazilian), and we won tickets in the lottery to games in three different cities. In each of these cities Rafa has family or friends and thus places to stay free of charge. Plus, I traveled to Brazil overland from Colombia through the Amazon so I didn’t have to book an expensive international flight. It’s a cheap World Cup for me.

After 2 weeks of the World Cup, I can say confidently that it has lived up to the hype. The atmosphere and football fever in each city is electric. Every TV set is tuned in to the games. People begin drinking in the streets before noon. Most businesses shut down in the host cities when a game is going on. Likewise, every time Brazil plays is essentially a national holiday.

The Crew

My time in Brazil was spent in good company. I was based in Natal with Haley and Rafa.

Joining us were two of their friends from college, Mike and Rouvan, as well as Rouvan’s younger brother Rafeh. Rouvan and Rafeh are Pakistani though they could pass for Brazilian.

We spent a few days in Recife with Kristín and Ana, close friends of Haley and Rafa’s. I met and stayed with Ana during my last trip to Brazil.

In Fortaleza we stayed with Rafa’s grandmother and cousins. Shout out to Eva and especially Rafa for driving us around everywhere!

Controversy

Obviously, the World Cup is not without significant controversy. There are scores of protesters, more so than in any World Cup in recent memory, and it’s easy to understand why. In a country rife with economic inequality, a land of favelas and billionaires, there is widespread outrage at the cost of this event at a time when crucial upgrades to infrastructure are long overdue. A Pew poll found that 61% of Brazilians “say hosting the World Cup is a bad thing for Brazil because it takes money away from schools, health care, and other public services.”

The Brazilian government spent $8 billion building the stadiums and around $15 billion overall. In total, Brazil (a country larger than the continental United States) built twelve new stadiums though FIFA requires only eight. Current projections estimate roughly $3.5 billion in revenue from the World Cup, but Brazil’s impoverished masses will see almost none of it. The profit goes almost exclusively to FIFA, with the rest allocated to the Brazilian elite and government officials.

In fact, an argument can be made Brazil will be worse off when they are left with several state-of-the-art stadiums in cities without teams that can fill them. The most striking example of this is in Manaus, from where I’m currently writing, a city dead smack in the middle of the Amazon.

This 45,000 seat stadium in the middle of the jungle will host only four World Cup games and costs $250,000 a month to maintain. What is to become of it?

I don’t want to go on and on about all the controversy, but if you’re interested John Oliver delivers an eloquent and hilarious breakdown.

Many people continue to disagree with or at the very least feel conflicted about the Cup, myself included. Still, once it began, I saw no reason not to enjoy the hell out of it.

Games

So far I’ve been to three games in three different cities, and lucky for me they were all phenomenal: Japan-Ivory Coast in Recife, USA-Ghana in Natal, and Germany-Ghana in Fortaleza. Here’s a couple shots of the stadium exteriors:

One thing I found odd was the slew of empty seats at these games. On TV it’s easy to see as well. The thing is, every ticket is sold, but many of the best seats are bought by corporate groups whose people don’t all show up, or by merchants who can’t get rid of all of their tickets. I had good seats to my games but never sat in them. Instead I walked straight to midfield and always found a row of empty seats a few rows up from the bottom. Fun for me, yet depressing given how many people there are who’d give anything to attend one of these games. Here are photos from my seats at each game:

Another interesting thing I’ve found, at least at the games I’ve gone to, is the respect between fans from opposing teams. In a country where alcohol is banned at football matches because of the high death rate, I’ve thus far witnesses nothing but kindness and sportsmanship amongst fans. At the USA-Ghana game I sat in a large group of Ghana fans who wished me luck before the game, chatted with me pleasantly during, and congratulated me after our boys in red, white, and blue broke their hearts.

To me, this is mainly a reflection of a wealthy fan demographic. Infantile turf wars are beneath dignified people who have spent thousands of dollars and traveled thousands of miles. Everyone’s been waiting so long for this – no one wants to get yanked out of a game by security for being an idiot. Except for this guy:

When I’ve seen local teams play in other South American countries, you would be out of your damn mind to openly support the away team. In fact, in certain places (i.e. Buenos Aires) away fans aren’t even allowed in the stadium by law.

It’s a pleasure and a true relief to feel safe in the stadium. The atmosphere at these games is loud, passionate, and drunken to be sure, but definitely safe. Everyone is totally decked out in gear and body paint. Outside the stadiums before the game, random groups of fans supporting different countries drunkenly embrace for photo ops.

I want to make special note of the USA–Ghana game, which was unquestionably the greatest live sporting experience of my life. The amount of high-fiving that transpired before the game was unlike anything I’d ever seen. As I mentioned I was sitting in a large group of Ghana fans, and though everyone had been fairly calm for most of the game, when John Brooks Jr. headed in the go-ahead goal a Ghana fan dumped his Coke on my head while I celebrated. I wasn’t even mad. Nothing could have upset me in that moment. I turned to him and held up my stained jersey and said, “I can wash this off, but this game is forever.” He smiled and nodded and offered me a fist bump. Good times.

I went to the game praying to find a good after party. Leo Dicaprio had rolled up to Natal in his Yacht. I’m sure good times were being had by him and his. After the game I spotted Vice Prez Joe Biden in his luxury suite pumping his fist in the air. He looked wasted. I left my group and snuck into the box suite section with my usual maneuver: putting my phone to my ear and acting like I was on an important call as I confidently marched by security. Acting like you belong is often all that stands between you and the VIPs. I actually made it to Joe’s suite but he had already left. And to be honest, I was exhausted. The same was true for every game – aggressive pre-gaming, followed by the tension and excitement of the game really takes it out of you.

Girls

In Fortaleza the night before the Germany-Ghana game we went out to a Samba club and bumped into the Ghana fans we’d sat next to at the game in Natal. After bantering about the Cup for a while, one of them timidly asked me if I knew how to meet Brazilian girls. They had really wanted to meet some local girls but hadn’t had any luck. At first I was taken aback by the question, but it actually made sense.

There’s a huge international perception that Brazil is filled with gorgeous women who don’t play hard to get, and there is data to back this up.

 

Consequently, many tourists come to Brazil expecting to effortlessly hook up with 10’s every night. But what many people forget is that Brazil is not Thailand and doesn’t rely on English-speaking tourism for economic survival, especially outside Rio and Sao Paulo. So, the girls may be down and they may be beautiful, but if you can’t communicate it’s going to be tough to get from A to B.

“But wait!” you might interject, “this is the World Cup, surely there are scores of women from around the world everywhere!”

Not so much. The World Cup may be the world’s biggest tourist event, but it is still a sporting event, and sports are primarily watched by men. Girlfriends and wives come to the World Cup, not groups of young, single girls. So unfortunately, the World Cup is a bit of a sausage fest.

Cost

I must say I’m surprised. I expected everything to be 3 or 4x the normal price. Granted I haven’t had to stay in a hotel or take a domestic flight to a World Cup city, and those would be astronomically expensive. Also I’ve avoided Rio and Sao Paulo and it may be a different story there. But beers at the FIFA Fan Fests are only around $2, and around $5 in the stadium (half the price of a beer at Fenway Park). There are plenty of food vendors on the streets that sell good, cheap food, and taxi meters seem to be normal. I should note that I was nearly always accompanied by locals who surely helped us to game the system in ways impossible to other tourists.

Fan Fest

One cool thing that FIFA sets up to get non-ticketholders involved (aka profit off them), is a FIFA Fan Fest in each host city. The layout of Fan Fest is similar to that of a music festival. There are generally at least two jumbo screens so thousands of people can watch the game together. Big time Brazilian bands and other musical acts perform for everyone in between games. Entry is free, but of course you can’t bring in your own food or drink, which is how they get you.

There are also VIP platforms at Fan Fest if you want to watch the game in a less crowded space while having an elevated view of thousands reacting to a Brazil goal (that, or you despise slumming it with commoners). The cost of VIP entrance depends entirely on the game and the city. In Natal, I bought my VIP entrance for the Russia-South Korea game for around $12 and just stayed there for the Brazil game which came on afterwards. In Fortaleza (a much more populous city), I bought my VIP ticket minutes before Brazil-Cameroon kicked off and paid around $70, drinks included.

At present I’m leaving Brazil and returning to Colombia for the remainder of my stay in South America. I’m definitely sad to be leaving the World Cup, but to be honest, I don’t think I could take much more. It’s very difficult to watch a game in a public place where everyone’s drinking and not join in. And with three or four games per day in the knockout stage, the body can only take so much. I’m eternally grateful for this peak life experience, and also extremely appreciative of my sister and bro-in-law for hosting me.

And I can’t complain too much, because in a few days I get to see Zack Evans, one of my best friends in the world. He’s meeting me in Medellin and we’re going to travel for a week and a half. Not only that, but against all odds Team USA made it out of the group of death. How dare you naysayers count us out.