Opening Night

So, as you can tell from the picture from yesterday, our hotel here in Fortaleza is immediately across the street from the FIFA fan fest. That is an interesting place to be. This morning the 8:30 AM sound check was a little unsettling but last night for the game it was awesome. 

We sat in our air conditioned hotel room till about 4:30 and wandered across the street to join 4000 Brazilians and watch the opening match. It was an incredible experience. Their enthusiasm, for the introductions of the teams, the national anthems, the opening kickoff, it was a fever pitch. When the first goal came about 12 minutes into the match the reaction was stunning. Brazil had scored an own goal and now the impossible had happened, Brazil was trailing in a World Cup match.

The reactions of Brazilians was surprising. It was a mistake, no big deal. This is the Brazilian team and they have 70 some odd minutes to recover, surely they will score the next goal. Not a big deal. Oh my, was I wrong.  That goal was perhaps the worst thing ever to happen on the planet earth. It was for me a little bit amusing - Brazil playing at home unlikely to score the next goal?

And of course they did score the next goal and now all was well. The Brazilian fans are nothing if not enthusiastic. Every time the Brazilians made a run up the field the cheering became almost deafening. When they scored, it's 4000 people screaming and dancing and jumping up and down. Even when they scored after what I think most impartial observers would characterize as a pretty soft foul for a penalty kick. No matter, Brazil was ahead and they were not looking back. The 3 - 1 final simply confirmed the joyous anticipation that must've been building for the last several years. The party after went on for hours and hours as the streets remained filled with Brazilians not ready to go home,  not ready to stop celebrating. Brazil will not play for another five days and I don't think Brazilians care all that much what happens between now and then. For us we do - our first game is tomorrow - Uruguay v. Costa Rica