Along with most of the other
Australians over for the World Cup, we all left Florianopolis and made our
respective ways to Curitiba for Australia’s last game of the cup. Although it
was a dead rubber, a lot of people were excited to see how the Spanish would
respond to being ousted so early, and to hopefully see the Aussies come away
with at least a point from this cup.
We however weren’t amongst those
dedicated enough to pay top dollar for a dead rubber (we didn’t get tickets
during the ballot stages and weren’t willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a
scalped one) and decided to watch the Aussie game out at the FIFA Fan Fest and
then secure prime positions for the following Brazil game.
We were kindly taken out on the Sunday
night by some Brazilian friends we had recently met in Chile, and the city centre
was packed with fans from all over. Not standard for a Sunday night we were
told, but Curitiba does seem like a place that enjoys a party.
Monday was game day, and after
applying our patriotic makeup, and enjoying a few delightful malt beers (I couldn’t
give them away and could only manage to struggle through a couple – it was like
someone had mixed together a beer and coke, two things I quite enjoy on their
own, but shit the bed they taste like ass when chucked in a can together), we
headed off. After fighting traffic to get out to the Fan Fest, we were
scrambling to make it in on time for kick off. After getting the run around to
get wrist bands (and having to off-load Nic’s lunch from our bags) we were
informed by some annoyed Australians that the Fan Fest was showing the
Netherlands v Chile game (the other game from our pool). It is beyond me why
FIFA had decided to do this as there was not a Chilean in sight, and besides my
good self wearing my recently acquired Dutch flag, the Oranje were all in Rio
marching towards Estádio do Maracanã.
Yes fair to say FIFA may have
assumed that all the Australians and Spanish in town would be going to the
game, but given this particular game was one of the first to sell out during
the ballot stages, it would be a safe bet that some fans would have missed out
on tickets but still wanted to be in the area to get amongst the atmosphere.
Anyway, as I have learnt over the years, not everyone shares my opinions.
Luckily for us, some other baffled
Aussies has stumbled across a small eatery selling froths and some sort of
buffet, but more importantly contained a small box TV purchased in the 80s, and
even luckier for all, Brazil hasn’t phased out analogue TV.
So with about 30 Aussies crammed
into this tiny restaurant we cheered on the Roos amidst reception cut outs (often
fixed, or attempted at least, with the good old fashioned whack to the side of the
tele), actual customers trying to eat their meal in peace, and what appeared to
be half the police force assigned to control the Fan Fest.
 |
| An excited bunch! |
We did hear that the officials
running the Fan Fest were alerted to their misguided game choice, more than
likely through some choice words by some irritated fans, but more so due to the
fact that the place was empty. So at half time they changed over to the Aussie
game, but the majority of us decided to stay in our little restaurant – A: because
FIFA are useless, and B: because they had cheaper beverages here.
With the Aussies bowing out in
(somewhat) respectable fashion, we all navigated to the Fan Fest, where Nic and
I were again stopped for trying to smuggle food (and yes it was only food) in.
We took up position for the Brazil v Cameroon game and attempted to enjoy the
pre-game entertainment which consisted of a Brazilian comedian who didn’t get
many laughs from those who understood him, and then a samba band which did in
fact get the crowd into game mode.
The Brazilians strolled over the Cameroonians
(yeah it’s a word, I looked it up), with the local hero (possibly soon to
become legend) Neymar Jr scoring twice to the roar and appreciation of the crowd.
In fact some were so stoked with the performance that a few flares were let off
– standard for a Brazilian football game, but given I couldn’t smuggle in a
packet of chips and some chicken drum sticks, I can only imagine where they hid
the flares!
 |
| Get your Samba on |
Nothing much of note happened for
the rest of the night, but Big Al did use his spider senses to sniff out a food
market selling delicacies from all over the world.
All in all glad we made the trip and no one
can say the Socceroos didn’t give it their best shot. Most people we have met
have been happy to find out we are Australian so we can only credit that to the
way the lads have performed – let’s hope the rest of us don’t ruin their good
work!
 |
| Tasty late night treats |
No comments:
Post a Comment