BELO HORIZONTE // The city chosen to host Tuesday night’s semi-final between Brazil and Germany was curiously quiet the evening before the day of reckoning.
It was almost as if there was too much riding on the result to even contemplate celebrating early. Brazilians were restrained in the popular district of Savassi, while Germans were few and far between. Yellow shirts were at a minimum.
As it turned out, the locals appeared to have merely been resting their lungs.
[ Click here to visit The National’s World Cup 2014 landing page ]
As the sun arose on match day, the air horns sounded and fireworks were let off. Walking to the stadium, firecrackers exploded like gunfire, making even the most hardened tourists cringe. There was no hint of animosity, simply a means of releasing tension ahead of what arguably represented the biggest game in Brazil since 1950.
Outside the stadium, a sea of yellow No 10 shirts and faces covered by cut-out Neymar masks flooded the streets, like some sort of odd cult gathering merged with a binary convention. Everywhere the eyes were drawn were 1s and 0s and grinning cardboard faces.
David Luiz’s parents walked past, their shirts signed by their son. His mother, Regina, wore a big curly blond wig and revealed the secret to her son’s height and strength was a local dish called “angu”.
She predicted Brazil would win 4-2. Husband Ladislau said he did not care if Brazil only won by half a goal, he would be delighted. We now know how those predictions played out.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
