Famous pitch man

São Paulo, Brazil — I’ve never met Pele, but have seen him everywhere in Brazil.

The soccer icon is highly visible here, not as an ambassador to the 2014 World Cup, but as a corporate spokesperson.

There doesn’t seem to be a product here in Brazil, Pele isn’t endorsing.

His face is on posters all over the country, pitching a number of different products.

During the tournament, we’ve seen him at least three different television commercials for three different products.

As arguably the best soccer player in the history of the game and the only player to win three World Cup championships, it seems odd to see him as a corporate shill.

That would be like Wayne Gretzky pushing product after product back home.

Pele is idolized here in Brazil.

His story is well documented.

When Brazil first hosted the World Cup in 1950, they lost the final to Uruguay in front of almost 200,000 fans at the Maracana Stadium.

Pele’s father wept after the game and it was the first time the player, born as Edson Arantes do Nascimento, saw him cry.

A nine year old Pele promised his father, he would help Brazil win the World Cup.

Eight years later in Sweden, a 17-year-old, Pele helped Brazil capture their first World Cup title with a decisive 5-2 win over the hosts.

Pele scored two goals in the final and was unconsolable after the game, having delivered the promise to his father.

Brazilians fell in love with him at that moment.

Four years later in Chile, Pele once again helped Brazil win the World Cup title, although injured in the early stages of the tournament, he did not play in the final.

After literally being hacked and whacked out of the 1966 World Cup in England, Pele came back to lead Brazil to their third World Cup title in Mexico four years later, playing on arguably the best team in tournament history.

Pele also had a long and distinguished club career in Brazil, playing for Santos, before closing out his playing days in the original NASL with the New York Cosmos.

He’s scored more goals than any other player in the history of the game. And at one time, he was the highest paid athlete.

He’s been an ambassador of the sport since retiring and is still beloved in Brazil. He’s an official national treasure.

That’s why it seems strange to see him on a Subway poster.

Witnessing history

São Paulo, Brazil — We have seen our share of historic matches so far at the 2014 World Cup.

Apart from being in attendance for Chile’s victory over Spain at the famed Maracana Stadium last Wednesday, we also witnessed Costa Rica’s greatest World Cup triumph, then watched as Ghana came close to collecting their biggest win in tournament history.

Marc and Derek at the Germany, Ghana game in Fortaleza, Brazil.

In perhaps the most entertaining game of the World Cup to this point, Ghana went toe-to-toe with Germany and built a 2-1 lead in the second half before Miroslav Klose scored to rescue the contest, tying a record for most World Cup goals in the process.

The game was played in Fortaleza, a northern costal city, which was a balmy 36ºC when we arrived the day of the contest.

The heat proved to be an advantage for the Africans as Ghana looked comfortable in it and had the partisan German crowd in a state of shock before Klose tied the game.

The previous day, we had been in Recife, on the northeast coast of Brazil, to witness the Italians wilt in the heat.

Costa Rica had a strong fan contingent at the game, vastly outnumbering the scattering of Italians in attendance.

Costa Rica looked the better team throughout the contest and were well deserving of the victory, which came on the heels of a surprise 3-1 victory over Uruguay.

Italy looked disinterested in the contest and rarely seemed to want to venture over half, content on defending the 0-0 scoreline.

Along with those games, we were also at a spirited contest between Algeria and Belgium in Belo Horizonte, which had the North Africans on the verge of a monumental win.

Algeria, who have roughly 5,000 supporters in Brazil, were up 1-0 on Belgium in the second half before conceding two late goals.

Between all of us, we have been to over half of the host cities for the World Cup so far even though we are less than two weeks into our trip.

Sunday, we’ve arrived in São Paulo after a long flight from Fortaleza, which made a pair of stops along the way. The milk run touched down in Salvador, then Belo Horizonte before arriving at our final destination.

With Chile facing the Netherlands here on Monday, the city was a wash of red and orange.

The Dutch always travel well, while over 50,000 Chileans made the trek to Brazil to follow their national team, minus the 85 who were deported for crashing a media gate in Rio.

With the Dutch before the Chile, Netherlands game.

Monday’s game had huge significance for both teams, who had already qualified for the second round of the tournament.

Chile, didn’t play well and lost 2-0, meaning they’ll have to play Brazil in the second round.

Brazil hasn’t been overwhelming in this tournament by any means, needing some help from the referee to get past Croatia and being held to a scoreless tie by Mexico.

But with a star-studded lineup, they found their stride in a 4-1 win against Cameroon on Monday. Drawing them in the first knockout round could be a death sentence for Chile.

Part of us wanted to see Chile face Brazil just to witness a game involving the home team.

Then again, with tickets through to the semifinal if Chile advances, we’d also like to see our team go as far as possible.

A game to remember

 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Part of me still has difficulty believing it happened.

I was in attendance when Chile defeated Spain 2-0 at the Maracana stadium in their Group B encounter at the World Cup on Wednesday.

Chris, Marc, Derek and Rod at the Maracana Stadium in Rio, prior to Chile beating Spain.

It was one of the biggest victories in Chilean soccer history and put Chile in the second round, while eliminating the defending World Cup champions from the tournament.

And we were there to witness it.

The entire day seemed surreal and I’m still worried I’ll wake up and it will all have just been a dream. The whole day felt like a dream.

We arrived in Rio Tuesday night from Belo Horizonte in anticipation for Wednesday’s game.

Knowing what lay ahead of us the next day, we did not venture too far from our hotel that night. We stayed in the middle class Flemengo neighbourhood where we felt safe to walk around and explore the shops, cafes and restaurants after dark.

The next morning we got up early and made our way to the famed Copacabana beach, which was about a 10-minute cab ride from our hotel.

Seeing as it’s winter in Rio, the beach was not overly crowed. It was a warm, humid day, and there were a good number of tourists venturing into the water.

The beach was teaming with Chilean soccer fans, many of which, had driven from Santiago for the game.

Estimations had over 50,000 Chileans in Rio in the few days leading up to the game.

While Brazilian fans watch their team take on Mexico at the FIFA Fan Zone in Rio de Janeiro, Chilean fans take to the streets. Photo courtesy Ryan Hafner.

After a few hours of admiring the sites, we decided to make our way to the stadium, located in the northwest part of the city.

We were dropped off at the Maracana roughly 90 minutes prior to kickoff and were greeted by a sea of red jerseys. The Chilean red vastly outnumbered the Spanish red.

It proved to be essentially a home game for Chile in the Maracana, as the Spanish fans were overwhelmed and drowned out by the South Americans.

The playing of the Chilean national anthem was truly breathtaking, as the fans sang with great pride. Knowing the words to the Chilean national anthem, I was one of them.

By kickoff, the stadium echoed with Chilean chants as we urged our team towards a historic victory.

In the 20th minute, the stadium erupted as Eduardo Vargas put Chile up 1-0. We found ourselves hugging strangers in the crowd, somewhat in disbelief over the goal.

Before the end of the second half, the stadium erupted again as Charles Aranguiz put Chile up 2-0, converting a rebound off a free kick.

With a loss eliminating Spain in the first phase of the tournament, the defending champions came out hard in the second half, which proved to be the longest 45 minutes in the history of Chilean soccer.

Yet despite dictating play in the half, Spain could not claw their way back into the game. And when the American referee blew his whistle to conclude the match – after six agonizing minutes of added time – the stadium erupted for a third time.

Chile is moving on to the next round, while Spain will conclude it’s tournament against Australia.

The atmosphere throughout the contest was incredible. Even the Brazilians in attendance were impressed. Midway through the second half the Brazilians, scattered throughout the stadium, burst into a chant urging on the Chileans, who they referred to as brothers.

We celebrated the victory on the Copacabana beach until the early morning hours before returning to our hotel.

The next day we made our way to the coastal city of Recife, where we will see Italy take on Costa Rica. The Italians can clinch passage into the next round with a victory over the Ticos, having defeated England 2-1 in their opening game.

Costa Rica also won their first game of the tournament, shocking Uruguay 3-1.
From Recife we’ll work our way up to Fortaleza to see Germany face Ghana.

We will then fly from Fortaleza to São Paulo for Chile’s final group game against the Netherlands. The winner of that game goes on to win the group, and more importantly, avoids Brazil in the second round.

Familiar faces

BRASILIA, Brazil — We know we’re not the only Canadians who have come to Brazil for the World Cup.

Yet, it was still a pleasant surprise to run into fellow Canucks following the Ecuador, Switzerland game at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia on Sunday.

The Canadian hockey jerseys were a dead giveaway.

Canadians get together for a team photo following the Switzerland, Ecuador game in Brasilia, Brazil.

The group from Toronto were making a similar trek across Brazil to take in World Cup games.

Sunday’s game was the first World Cup encounter I’ve ever seen live and it was a good introduction to the tournament.

Despite security and logistical concerns heading into the event, things seem to go off without a hitch.

They didn’t hand us a hammer on our way into the stadium and ask us to finish pounding out the final few nails.

No one was mugged on the way to the stadium and the Police didn’t have to tear gas anybody.

There weren’t any issues getting into the security area, few problems getting into the stadium itself and the weather cooperated. Not that rain would have mattered.

The $900-million stadium, constructed for the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, has a roof which covers the capacity 72,700 spectators.

At that price tag, it should.

The Stadium came in $600-million over budget and is currently the second most-expensive soccer facility in the world, next to Wembley Stadium in England.

Marc and I arrived in Brasilia the day before, after a flight from New York connecting through São Paulo.

We took in the sights on the first day and were impressed with the city and how modern it was.

It does not resemble any South American city I’ve been to, and from what we’ve been told, it is vastly different than the other cities in Brazil.

Brasilia was built from the ground up, with construction starting in 1957 and completed three years later. At the time, the Brazilian federal government was looking for a new capital.

Designed to be a city of the future, Brasilia is a beacon of organization. It is called the city without corners as the roads are constructed to keep traffic flowing with more roundabouts than traffic lights.

Fortunately, we were close enough to the stadium where we didn’t need to worry about traffic.

The game itself proved interesting, as Switzerland scored a last-second goal to pull out a 2-1 victory.

It was the first game the four members of our travelling entourage saw as a group.

Rod and Christopher arrived in Brasilia a few days before us and drove 15 hours each way to Cuiaba to see Chile’s first game against Australia.

Their trip had its fair share of perils for the brothers, travelling through roads not always paved and littered with potholes.

The trip proved worthwhile, getting a taste of Chilean patriotism and watching the team pull out a 3-1 victory.

From Brasilia, we flew out to Belo Horizonte to see Belgium take on Algeria on Tuesday.

Belgium is considered a dark horse in the tournament and could go a long way, have been drawn into a favourable group.

Belo Horizonte is a working class city with a rich cultural tradition.

As was the case in Brasilia, the people were extremely friendly and accommodating.

The owner of the Pca da Liberdade, Lourdes B. Trindade Lemos, went out of  her way to set us up in a suitable room.

Our initial intentions were to cram four guys in a small twin room, but she would have none of it. Despite being sold out, she was able to move things around to give us a bigger room. It was nice being able to sleep and not worry about rolling around and bumping into someone.

From Belo Horizonte, it’s on to Rio for Chile’s second encounter of the tournament, going up against Spain.

Spain were hammered by Netherlands in their tournament opener.

Personally, I’m looking forward to going from casual spectator to participant as I’ll see Chile play live in a World Cup game for the first time ever.

I expect to be in strong voice for the game.

Game on

NEW YORK — Soccer seems to be alive and well in the United States.

We decided to stay a few days in New York on our way to Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Derek and Marc at MetLife Stadium.

On Tuesday, Portugal played its final tune-up game, going up against Ireland at MetLife Stadium.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal cruised to a 5-1 win, in front of over 46,000 fans at the site of last year’s Super Bowl.

Ronaldo looked great for Portugal making his return from a minor injury. He could single-handedly take that team a long way.

Or at the very least, get Portugal out of their group.

The game turned out to be a pleasant surprise for us, considering we did not know it was being played until arriving in New York earlier that day.

The following night, we caught Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at a bar a block away from Madison Square Garden. Local fans were happy as the Rangers held on to live another day.

It proved to be a fun night surrounded by jubilant Rangers fans.

Thursday, we were back in soccer mode as the opening game of the World Cup took place in Sao Paulo, featuring Brazil and Croatia.

It wasn’t hard to find a place to watch the game as seemingly every bar in New York turned into a soccer bar. We ended up at a place called Legends in midtown Manhattan.

Fortunately, we got there early enough to get a seat at the bar, because things filled up quickly, mainly with Brazilian fans.

By kickoff, it was standing room only.

Brazil didn’t play well, nor did they look particularly inspiring. They were fortunate to get a dubious second-half penalty which gave them the advantage before Oscar scored a third goal to add to Neymar’s pair in a 3-1 win.

Even the Brazilians at the bar were surprised by the penalty call, but they still emphatically celebrated the goal.

Thanks to the Brazilians third goal, the penalty wasn’t the decider.

It was a good way to see the opening game of the World Cup somewhere full of Brazilians. When they sang the national anthem at the start of the game, it made us feel like we were already in Brazil.

Standing room only at Legends bar in Manhattan for the World Cup opener.

We’ll be there on Friday, leaving from JFK and flying direct to Sao Paulo before catching a connection to Brasilia for our first game Sunday.

First up for me is Switzerland and Ecuador. It’ll be a nice appetizer along with Belgium, Algeria two days later before the main course June 18 when Chile face Spain at the famed Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

That will be Chile’s second game of the tournament.

Here’s what our schedule looks like:

June 15 – Brasilia
Switzerland vs Ecuador

June 17 – Belo Horizonte
Belgium vs Algeria

June 18 – Rio de Janeiro
Spain vs Chile

June 20 – Recife
Italy vs Costa Rica

June 21 – Fortaleza
Germany vs Ghana

June 23 – Sao Paulo
Chile vs Netherlands

June 26 – Recife
Germany vs U.S.A

June 28 – Belo Horizonte
(Second round, conditional)
1A ??? vs 2B Chile

June 29 – Fortaleza
Second round
2A vs 1B

July 4 – Fortaleza
(Quarterfinal conditional)
Chile vs ???

or

July 5 – Salvador
(Quarterfinal conditional)
Chile vs ???

July 8 – Belo Horizonte (Semifinal conditional)
Chile vs ???

or

July 9 – Sao Paulo
(Semifinal conditional)
Chile vs ???

I’m booked to come home on July 1, but if Chile does manage to get out of their Group of death with Spain, the Netherlands and Australia and moves on beyond the second round, adjustments may need to be made to my itinerary.

But there are three weeks of World Cup awesomeness to go through before we get to that bridge.

The party has started.

I’ll let you know what it’s like when I get there.

Destination Brazil

Marc, Derek, Rod and Chris are part of the Canadian contingent off to Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. — Photo by Evelyn Van Diest

Attending the 2014 World Cup was a subject first broached when Brazil was awarded the tournament.

If you’re going to attend the greatest spectacle in sports, what better place to do it than in the country most passionate about the game?

Brazilians are obsessed with the World Cup and have been since hosting the first post-war tournament in 1950.

The Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro is the Mecca of soccer.

It’s where we will be on June 18 when Chile and Spain clash in a Group B encounter, which will go a long way into dictating what team moves on to the second stage of the tournament.

It’s not unheard of to see the defending champions bow out at the group stage. Isn’t that right Italy and France?

That will be one of eight games our group will be attending.

What started out as a trip to follow the Chilean national team around Brazil turned into an excursion through seven cities around the country.

It was a result of good fortune during the FIFA World Cup ticket lottery process and persistence on our part.

I will be travelling with three friends, Rod, Chris and Marc, to Brazil, where we hope to run into a couple of other acquaintances.

There is expected to be a strong Edmontonian contingent at the tournament, which will have a large Canadian presence.

Despite not having a team at the event, according to FIFA, Canadians have purchased the fifth highest number of tickets for the tournament outside of the host country.

The United States leads the way with the highest number of tickets purchased by foreigners, dispelling the myth Americans don’t care about soccer.

England is next, followed by Germany, Australia, Canada, France, Colombia, Switzerland, Japan and Argentina.

My World Cup adventure will begin in Brasilia on June 15 with Switzerland vs Ecuador.

Rod and Chris will be attending Chile’s opening match against Australia on June 13 in Cuiaba, taking a 15-hour bus trip each way into the gateway of the Amazon, after landing in the Brazilian capital.

The four of us will reconvene in Brasilia and we’ll travel as a group to Belo Horizonte to watch Belgium take on Algeria in a Group H match.

Belgium is expected to be one of the tournament dark horses and could go a long way having been drawn into a favourable group.

From Belo Horizonte, we move on to Rio for the battle of the Rojas between Chile and Spain.

Both teams refer to themselves as ‘La Roja’ (The Red) and a campaign was launched in Chile that the winner gets exclusive rights to the name.

Chile will go into the game believing they can defeat the reigning World Cup champions, having given Spain all they could handle in exhibition games leading up to the tournament.

The Chileans will also have a strong fan base behind them, led by the rescued miners who were part of an inspirational commercial urging their national team.

“We want to show the world that to a Chilean, nothing is impossible,” says Mario Sepulveda, who spent 70 days trapped in a collapsed mine with 32 of his colleagues. “Spain is difficult, Holland is difficult. The group of death doesn’t scare us. We don’t care about death, because death, we have beaten before!”

It’s pretty stirring stuff for a Chilean.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/05/29/chilean-miners-inspire-in-breathtaking-world-cup-commercial

From Rio we move on to northern Brazil to Recife, where we’ll see Italy take on Costa Rica. We have the Italian member of our group to thank for that.

Since we were in that part of the country, we decided to head a little further north to Fortaleza to watch Germany face the Black Stars of Ghana, who were a penalty kick away from making it to the semifinals four years ago in South Africa.

From Fortaleza, it’s south to Sao Paulo to see Chile and the Netherlands clash in a game which will likely dictate which team makes it out of the group.

After that, the trip is a little open ended.

We have tickets to follow Chile into the knockout phase of the tournament all the way to the semifinal.

(Just a note to my boss; I won’t be coming home on time if Chile makes it through to the semifinal.)

Along the way, we also have tickets for the first-round encounter between Germany and the United States.

The adventure begins Tuesday as half our group heads to New York and the other half through Florida on the way to Brazil.

Hope I packed properly.

 

 

A chance to represent

Attending a World Cup had always been a dream of mine.

Prior to heading to Brazil for this year’s tournament, the closest I came to attending the event was in 1994 when the United States hosted the World Cup.

Logistically, it would have been an easy tournament to go to, however, we didn’t have a team to root for.

Chile had been banned from the 1994 World Cup qualifying tournament due to an incident five years earlier involving goaltender Roberto ‘Condor’ Rojas.

During a qualifying match against Brazil for the 1990 World Cup in Italy, Rojas claimed he had been hit by a flare thrown by a fan at the Maracana Stadium in Rio.

The match was abandoned as the Chilean goalkeeper was carried off the field apparently bleeding from a head injury.

An investigation into the incident revealed Rojas had not been hit by the flare and his wound was self-inflicted with a razor concealed in his glove.

He was given a lifetime ban by FIFA and Chile was barred from the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.

With the Chileans out, our hopes of representation rested on Canada. And those were faint at best.

With the United States hosting the tournament and getting an automatic berth, there was realistically just one spot available for another team from the North and Central American qualifying region.

The tournament in the United States featured just 24 teams. It would expand to its current format of 32 teams four years later in France.

Canada did manage to get to the final round of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the 1994 World Cup, something they have been unable to do since.

But they finished second to Mexico in the final qualifying group, missing out on a direct berth into the tournament. Canada still had an opportunity to qualify through a back-door route, which would involve beating Australia in a home-and-home encounter and then Argentina in another.

I was among the 27,775 fans that attended the first leg of the series against Australia at Commonwealth Stadium, where Canada won 2-1.

At the time, it was a record attendance for a soccer game at Commonwealth. A few months later, 51,936 fans – myself included – would show up to see Canada tie Brazil 1-1 in an exhibition game. The Brazilians were passing through on their way to the tournament in the U.S.

I still remember the shock in the stadium as Eddy Berdusco scored to tie the game in the second half. It was 20 years ago this week.

Canada had long since been eliminated from World Cup qualifying when they went up against Brazil. They fell 2-1 in their return leg with Australia and were knocked out on penalties.

The most upsetting thing about the loss to Australia was that Canada would not get an opportunity to play Argentina in a home-and-home series.

Argentina would have had laid the boots to Canada and we all knew that. But Diego Maradona was on Argentina’s team and we would have had a chance to see him at Commonwealth Stadium had Canada been able to win the penalty shootout against Australia.

So without Chile, Canada or England for that matter in the United States, it didn’t seem worth it for a bunch of struggling university student to make the trip.

I do regret not going, it would have been a fun tournament to attend.

Maradona ended up getting kicked out of the World Cup after Argentina’s second match for using ephedrine, which was a banned substance. And the same Brazilian team that Canada held to a draw in Edmonton went on to win their fourth World Cup title.

Regardless, it was still fun giving our Italian friends in Edmonton the gears after Roberto Baggio missed his shootout penalty in the final.

 

My World Cup obsession

My obsession with the FIFA World Cup began at nine years old.

A few years earlier, my family and I had immigrated to Canada from Chile, where I was first introduced to the beautiful game.

DVD as a budding soccer star.

I was excited about the 1982 World Cup in Spain because Chile was participating in it.

I remember the games in Spain were shown in Edmonton around noon and we had just purchased a new recording device called a VCR, which I was charged with operating during the tournament.

My job was to come home from school at lunch and press the record button on the VCR, taping the games so my father could watch them after he came home from work. These were the days before VCRs were programable. It was a job I took seriously.

I’d watch the first half of the games, go back to school, then return after school and watch the second half on tape. I saw every game of the tournament they showed on television.

Unfortunately, Chile crashed out of the World Cup, failing to win a game in Spain. Chile’s best player, Carlos Caszely, missed a penalty against Austria, which would go on to haunt him for the rest of his career.

Chile was a disappointment in that tournament, but I wasn’t too bothered by it because I found a new team to root for.

I discovered Brazil.

The Brazilians helped me fall in love with the game and the tournament.

They were awesome. I contend to this day, the Brazilian side of 1982 was the best team in the history of the game not to win the tournament. (A case could be made for the 1954 Hungarian team as well).

The names of the Brazilian players rolled off the tongue: Zico, Socrates, Falcao, Junior, Lenadro, Cerezo, Serginho, Eder. I was intrigued with how they all had just one name. Eder was I player I particularly admired. One of the first games I saw of that tournament was Brazil against the Soviet Union and he scored one of the greatest goals I’ve ever seen.

With the game tied 1-1 in the second half, a Brazilian gathered the ball along the wing and played it towards the top of the Soviet penalty area. Falcao, let it run between his legs to Eder, who had sprinted to the top of the box. In mid-stride, Eder flicked the ball in the air with his left foot, then hammered a volley with the same foot into the back of the net, leaving the goaltender rooted to his spot. I’m still in awe of the goal …

From that moment, Brazil was my team. The Brazilians played the game on a different level. They made the ball dance. They didn’t run, they glided across the field. I was mesmerized by them and figured they would waltz through the tournament.

However, the Brazilians got a little too complacent after breezing through the first round, then pounding Argentina in the second round, knocking Diego Maradona and the defending champions out of the tournament.

Brazil lost to Italy in their next game, essentially giving away three goals to Paolo Rossi in a 3-2 loss …

I cried when Brazil lost. I didn’t think it was fair they were no longer allowed to play. They were the best team in the tournament. It was an early lesson on how life sometimes isn’t fair.

I still have that game on tape and have seen it countless of times.

That’s where it started for me. The World Cup became an obsession and I’ve spent countless of hours delving into the history of the tournament.

I have seen every World Cup game from 1986 on. In 1990, I started recording most of the matches. I still have them all.

Now, finally, I’m getting a chance to experience the tournament first-hand. I’ll be heading to Brazil for this year’s tournament as a fan with a group of friends, cheering on Chile, who is fielding their best team in years. My love affair with Brazil has dwindled over the years, although I still love watching them play.

Chile is in tough with Spain and Netherlands in their group, but I still think they’ll find a way into the second round.

I’ll be attending Chile’s games against Spain and the Netherlands.

We’ll also be attending a handful of other games, crisscrossing Brazil on a trip that will take us from Brasilia down to Sao Paulo and up to Fortaleza with a few stops in between.

It’ll be an adventure of a lifetime and one I will chronicle along the way. I invite you to follow along for what is sure to be an interesting ride.