Brazilian pride trumps civil unrest during early stages of World Cup
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RIO DE JANEIRO — By the time Saturday’s knockout round game between Brazil and Chile begins, the streets in Rio will be empty.
Most businesses — sans bars and restaurants — will be closed, children will be off playgrounds and Brazilians will flock to whatever television they can find to see the Brazilian national team try to advance in their goal of winning this year’s World Cup.
This is a very different picture than the one that was painted prior to the start of the tournament.
Planned protests and regional strife were supposed to be the pictures of this World Cup, not families gathering in town squares dressed in green and gold. And initially civil unrest was the theme.
Smallish protests brewed outside of stadiums in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but that was early in the tournament before Brazil finished first in its group and Neymar became the tournament’s leading goal scorer; before the love of the beautiful game trumped civil unrest.
According to the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, the number of protests dropped 39 percent in the 12 days following the opening match on June as compared to the 12 days before it.
[Photos: Candid moments inside the World Cup tunnel]
It’s helped that the Brazilian government has made concessions to groups with some of the biggest clout, including MTST, a group that supports homeless workers and marched in front of the Sao Paulo stadium prior to the opening match between Brazil and Croatia. The Brazilian government promised the group that following the World Cup it would begin building houses for homeless workers near the Sao Paulo stadium if the group would stop its protests.
“When the government attended our demands, we had no interest in harming the games,” said José da Silva of the MTST told the Washington Post. “If the project is not voted, we will circle the chamber with 20,000 people until they do.”
In other cities, such as Rio, massive police and military forces have thwarted protests and violence almost before it begins.
And some protestors have been met with opposition from their own people. Protestors in front of a fan fest at Copacabana Beach in Rio were booed and spit on by locals, who just want to enjoy the Cup in peace.
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Despite the pride in the national team, there is a strong feeling that all of that could change very quickly if Brazil falters against Chile on Saturday. Brazilians have high hopes for their national team and anything less than a World Cup title — especially with billions already spent to put on the tournament and billions more spent to keep it running — could cause the unrest many expected at the beginning of the Cup to rear its ugly head.
“It’s a letdown, this is Brazil,” Brazil fan Eduardo Boccaletti told Yahoo Sports of the possibility of losing in the tournament. “People get bummed, really bummed. We’ve been facing this political turbulence right now. People say that they’re not into the World Cup, they’re not watching it, but we’ll always watch the World Cup. This is like our foundation. This is like one of the only times that we gather as a nation. We’ve got a lot of problems, but when it comes to World Cup, that’s when we’re together. That’s why we have a lot of expectations and it will be a very serious issue, and it always is a very serious issue, when we don’t win. Because we tend to win it a lot.”
If Brazil doesn’t win, many fans will wonder why the country spent all that money putting on a tournament that doesn’t include the host nation in the final.
According to FiveThirtyEight.com, the Brazil World Cup would be the most expensive World Cup in the last 20 years with very little return after the tournament concludes. That means, the usage of the 12 stadiums that hosted World Cup games would be so low in some areas — Brasilia, Manaus and Cuiaba — after the tournament that it wouldn’t justify the cost it took to build them. This had been a major point of contention for protesters, who claimed the money spent on World Cup should have been used to build homes and hospitals and strengthen the country’s infrastructure.
The “What has the World Cup done for me?” feeling also has intensified for some Brazilians who have been shut out of seeing any teams play in person simply because of the skyrocketing cost of tickets on the secondary market.
Still, many rejoice.
Hours before the kickoff against Chile, fans were parading through the streets blowing whistles and horns, setting off fireworks and showing pride for a country that for a few hours can set aside political differences in favor of enjoying the game that's ingrained in its culture.
Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter Follow @Yahoo_Graham
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