Brazil 2014: World Cup PART I

On June 10th, after just a night of recovering from our Greece trip, I dropped Hyrum off at the Vilseck train station.  He was the happiest guy on the planet-- headed to Brazil to fulfil his life-long dream of watching Colombia play in the World Cup.  [In this previous post I explained his long road to Brazil, and why I stayed home.]

For the next 10 days he breathed soccer.  Except he recently informed me that in our house we're not allowed to call it soccer.  So he breathed futbol.

He flew from Nuremberg to Paris, and then had the long cross-Atlantic flight to Sao Paulo.  When he explained to me what the flight was like, it sounded like a party bus, only 30,000 ft in the air.  It was completely packed with futbol fans headed to watch the games, everyone wearing their team's jersey and equally excited as Hyrum.  In a big group of Americans it's hard for Hyrum to find people to talk futbol with, so I think he was in heaven.  He said at one point he got up to stretch, and ran into a group of guys in the aisle.  They talked for almost 2 hours about... I couldn't tell you... whatever it is they actually talk about when they "talk futbol".  Unlike a normal flight, where it's relatively quiet, the plane was buzzing with excitement the entire time.

While he was boarding, he saw a famous player from the France's champion team at the 1998 World Cup, Christian Karembeu.  [I'm told that if you know anything about soccer, you'd know him.  I wouldn't have even blinked twice if I saw him.]  He tried to take a picture of him from afar, but the player boarded too quickly.

But as Hyrum was going to take his seat, he passed the player and was able to get a picture.  So that's one happy Hyrum, and he hadn't even touched foot in Brazil yet.

So after the party bus airplane, he took one last flight from Sao Paulo to Brasilia.  It seems like the airports there weren't very well equipped to handle the huge increase in passengers, so things were slow and confusing, but eventually he made it.  He had a day to explore, and pick up his long-awaited game tickets, and then took a night bus to Belo Horizonte (where Colombia's first game would be). 

I didn't realize until Hyrum went there and told me about it, but Brasilia wasn't even founded until 1960 because they wanted to build a more central capital.  The city was designed then built all at once, giving it a cityscape pretty unique from other big cities.  The architecture is modern, and there is a lot of open space with parks.  Brasilia has the highest GDP in the country because it's predominantly government employees with fairly steady jobs.  

^^Hyrum made random friends everywhere he went.  

^^Brasilia's unique architecture: the top right is a church, and the bottom left is the national library.

^^bottom center is the supreme court building, along with some other government buildings. 

^^Of course he found a place to watch soccer games throughout the day. 

       
Although he was initially going to do this trip solo, a few months ago one of his good friends from Colombia, Manuel, (who now lives in Utah) decided that he was also going with a couple of friends.  So Hyrum was able to meet up with them in Belo Horizonte and travel with them the rest of the trip.  It worked out great.  They were way more fun for Hyrum to be with than I ever could have been.  

On the bus ride into Belo Horizonte he passed through a lot of favelas, making him nervous about where his hotel was going to be.  Incredibly, a lot of the stadiums were built in pretty bad areas.  They 'cleaned up' the neighborhoods, but you can only imagine what will happen after the summer's events.  In Manaus and Cuiaba, they built stadiums where no futbol teams actually play! They will probably never be used again.

A few sights around Belo Horizonte before getting to any soccer games.

Hyrum even made friends with a homeless guy,who kindly gave him his Brazil flag.  The sport really does bring people together!

Up next: Colombia vs Greece and a lot of crazy Colombians

It's beginning to look a lot like... SOCCER

Last week we sent Hyrum off to Brazil to watch the World Cup.  While he's there dancing the samba and living out his lifelong dream, signs of futbol madness are popping up all around us.

GIANT flag in downtown Vilseck:

Cars everywhere with flags waving:

Posters advertising game viewings:  (The Germany vs USA game will be an interesting one here!)

Meanwhile...

...we have been cheering on Colombia.  Hyrum was at the stadium on Saturday when they played Greece in Belo Horizonte.  I think that second to our wedding day, that was probably the best day of his life.

I didn't watch the game (we don't have any tv channels) but followed live updates through Huffington Post.  A few of them made me laugh.

From right before the game began:

16.45 Colombian fans look like they're going to be outnumbering the Greeks by around 50,000 to 1 in Belo Horizonte tonight.

16.58 National anthem watch: jaunty little number from the Colombians which is thunderously belted out by 99% of the stadium. They even did a Brazil and squeezed out a second verse acapella. More subdued from the Greeks but very well observed nonetheless.

Then once the game started:

5 mins GOAL. Colombia. Defender Armero squeezes it in after Rodriguez dummies it to him in the box. Takes a deflection from Manolas on the way but the Colombians don't care. The World Cup may well have seen it's best celebration yet too as the Colombians descend on the touchline with a synchronised arm-waving thing. Lovely.

83 mins Colombian fans doing very well to entertain themselves with another round of ole's. I give it three minutes before we get a Mexican wave.

[source]

Basically, it was a stadium full of Colombian soccer fanatics who were over-the-moon to have a good team (ranked #8 in world) and be able to cheer on their National Team at the World Cup for the first time since France '98.  They've been waiting a long time for this.  And I can't even begin to imagine the excitement in the stadium as Colombia crushed Greece.

Hyrum was interviewed by Univision, and a lot of different stations airing the game showed him, including ESPN, RCN and Caracol.  (Second appearance on Caracol--Colombia's news channel.  We made an appearance in 2010 when we were in Colombia watching a game of the Under-20 World Cup.)  I guess he was destined for fame.  [Click here to see a video where he makes several appearances.]

2010

2014

[Full video here]

Here is Santiago all dressed up for the game in his Colombia onesie.  I'll make a note here that this baby has recently learned to stand up.  And I think the teething has been making him crazy.  On Saturday I tried about 5 times [unsuccessfully] to give him a nap.  I'd  put him down in his crib (obviously tired) and he'd cry and cry.  When I'd go check on him, he was standing up like this.  Eventually I'd give up and as soon as I'd pick him up, he'd get the biggest smile on his face.  It's certainly harder for a crying baby to fall asleep when they're not laying down.

And a crazy face, because its funny.

One last comment about soccer.  (I can't believe I just wrote an entire post about soccer.  Hyrum would be proud.)  I saw this video link somewhere, and watched all 14 minutes.  It's hilarious.  And worth the time.

John Oliver Explains the World Cup and FIFA to Americans