Brazil vs Canada

Enjoying the Venice of Ottawa: the Rideau Canal

If FIFA 2014 in Brazil bent the participating cities into soccer party spots for a few weeks, in Canada the smaller number of fans means it feels more like regular tourism with a soccer game built in. The soccer games, however, have been exciting with lots of beautiful play!

Ready to understand how Queen Elizabeth II really runs Canada

In front of Parliament

Building up my tourist stamina...

So I can participate in my own personal soccer dance fest!

You know you're in Quebec when....you find working phone booths!

Lac Tremblant from the summit of Mont Tremblant

Poutine!

Welcome to Montreal, next FIFA site! Can you see the soccer ball in front of City Hall?

Poutine is here, too, folks!

Le simple repas: cheese, bread, wine

Vieux Montreal: Early Medical Care by D'Youville Sisters

Sharing?

Fathers posing on Fathers' Day

Mothers posing in Old Montreal

Olympic Stadium in Montreal

Allez les Bleus!

France 3-South Korea 0

World Cup Part Deux

Starting off in Buffalo for  some family time with the Ruszczyk clan, we have set out for our second World Cup vacation- the Women's World Cup in Canada. Four days in Buffalo included some much needed outdoor time for Eloise in spite of  80% rain,  surprisingly safe permit driving by me, a family celebration for newly inducted Dr. Ruszczyk, and the ever satisfying Buffalo wings.

Good times were had and we embarked on the second leg of our family vacation with an overnight stop in the Thousand Islands. I was once again impressed by the beauty of New York. We caught a great view of  five of those miniature islands during a romantic sunset and cool breeze before heading back to our lodging for the night where we rooted for a winning US team against Nigeria.

Thousand Islands

The next morning we set off to cross the border into Canada, headed towards Ottawa. We arrived at our charming airbnb house in the small and quaint city. How gigantic New York City is in comparison to just about anywhere, let a alone a city of 850,000. There are houses. Real houses with trees, and parks and just enough traffic to feel that things are happening, but not enough to feel oppressed by congestion. And space! there is space! and Latinos! There are a bunch of Latinos in this part of Canada to my pleasant surprise, but I digress. After quickly dropping off our bags we headed to our first game France vs. Mexico. True to ourselves we rooted for opposing teams. Stephen goes for les Bleus and I support Mexico even though I know they have a slim chance of winning this game.  I was hoping that some Cinco de Mayo magic might ensue. No chance. Eloise, in her first real life official soccer game roots for Mexico to begin. Chanting "Si se puede" and shaking her Mexican maraca purchased in the Brazilian Men's World Cup in Salvador last year. As if realizing she needed to make a shift for the winning team, she soon changed her tune to "Allez les Bleus." Traitor! Traitre! The game ended with a sad 5-0 score and a victorious France. Good thing we didn't bet on the loser doing a household chore for the entire year this time!

Let's talk about 2 year olds for a second here. As a parent I romanticize the family road trip, the bonding, the exposure to different places, and taking my daughter to women's soccer games so that she may look up to these female athletes and perhaps one day play as well. Two year olds may appreciate all these wonderful intentions for about 2 seconds yet sure enough they ultimately have their own plans. That plan is to be a two year old. Like your fun and favorite, but drunk uncle, two year olds start off enjoying the game, being funny, chanting the chants, ooing and aaaahing, and chatting it up with the others. She might laugh and get excited at moments of the game.....and all of this lasts for about 30 minutes 35 max. Then that drunk uncle becomes belligerent, gets hungry, and sleepy, leans on you with dirty ketchup hands and steps on you and starts falling and dropping things. He (she) cries a little, wants the hot dog and then throws it across the room. That is how your fun and favorite drunk uncle/ two year old at a soccer game.

Lansdowne Stadium, Ottawa

Priority Status

A Great Cup for the Cafeteros

Maracana at 90% Colombian

Before leaving Brazil we caught one last game between Colombia and Uruguay in fabled Maracana. Like all the games, the Wave (invented in the 1982 World Cup) was actually scary and intense. Tensions were running high and "Los Cafeteros" won the game advancing to the quarterfinals. Since then we have returned to New York and a few more teams including "Los Cafeteros" along with "Los Ticos" have sadly and excitingly bit the dust leaving a few teams still standing (Brazil, Argentina, Holland & Germany).

Outside Maracana

Trying the Marfrig mystery meat while representing most of South America

View from Rio's Botanical Gardens

As we continue to partake in World Cup fever, I wanted to share some final thoughts on our Brazil trip. It certainly was the trip of a lifetime. We felt pretty fortunate to take trip to this amazing and diverse country, during one of the most exciting sports events, and share this experience with our mothers and our baby. It was a first time to Brazil for me and the moms, and Eloise's first foreign travel. 

Fabian Marcaccio's Amazing Exhibit at Casa Daros

We took in amazing sights and sites and met wonderful people. Not all was smooth though. The mothers sometimes did get tired of touring and walking around the cities, and spending all day outdoors with now 15-month Eloise also required a lot from her and preparation from us (food on the go-check; snacks-check; change of clothes-check; my little seat-check; sunscreen-check; insect repellent,diapers, wipes, toys, hand sanitizer...). Also, keeping dietary restrictions under balance is tough with all the rodizios and buffets abounding, and at times homecooked meals. Oh! and all the beer...the ice cold beer.

Beautiful street art

One aspect that made this trip manageable was that we experienced most everything under priority status. Pretty much everywhere we went, we had priority status (Cue Chamillionaire's  "they see me rollin, they hatin").  But this status wasn't due to our travelling in the lap of luxury.  Rather, it was because Brazil, unlike many countries I have experienced, seems to actually care about the needs of the elderly, women with babies, pregnant women, and those with disabilities. I mean, most companies and governments claim to care about this part of the population, but how many actually show you (Cue Extreme's "More than Words")?  Pretty much everywhere we went, we were able to bypass an insane line of patrons by strolling through the priority line. From the airports to museums, to landmark sites, and World Cup events like Fifa Fan Fest where we bypassed lines 150+ long and 15 people wide. Even the concession stands in the stadium had priority lines... but we were without Elo!

Separating color from form and Eloise from the carrier

I also often noticed small parks and recreation areas throughout the city and often these had senior activity spaces in Rio with swings and bar stuff for older folks. Not a shabby place to consider retiring.

Culture outside of futebol?

Some soccer games feel like this...

Wonder of my World

Lovely

Polish-French-Brazilian Production

More than a photo op

Looking down on Ipanema and Leblon

I failed my tryout as the samba group's tambourine man....

Samba Party in Santa Teresa

While folks in Salvador were especially into babies, the sidewalks in the city did not help much and pushing a stroller was like being in a motocross competition. Thank goodness for the carrier and a strong back.

While we were able to spend some quality time getting to know both cities, we did spend a lot of time coordinating around the futebol games on screen and in the stadiums. We may have missed some good sites in both cities, but it was nearly impossible to miss any matches pretty much every tv and every establishment broadcasted the games. Pretty much every taxi had a tv with a match going on. Yes we are pretty lucky we survived Brazilian driving in Brazilian traffic while a game was on (the driver is not looking at the road but no one is on the road, so it kinda balances out!).

Elo Learning o Jeito Brasileiro (how to be Brazilian)

Praia Vermelha

Music for the beachgoers

It has now been a week since we have been back in New York and can't believe that all the planning, and the two week journey into a Brazilian World Cup is over. The thrill and relaxation are slowly thawing away and settling back into New York on-the-go routine. It helps that New York is home to an increasing futbol fan base from all over the world where the "passion" can be felt in the streets of Jackson Heights much like it was in Brazil. But alas, the saudade for Brazilian ways of life has kicked in as much as it has for the teams that have now returned home.

Eloise flexing her new cheering skills in JFK

Is the World Cup a good or bad thing?

At the FIFA Fan Fest on Copacabana Beach

In his splendid read Soccer in Sun and Shadow Eduardo Galeano recounts the response of a German psychologist asked to define happiness. She says you cannot define it but give a child a ball and you will see it. We set it to the test with Eloise in Brasil, with several hours of living room training each morning before her milk break.

"Balle ... balle," Eloise says as she sees the ball near the couch and moves in to strike. "Ayyy!" cries Eloise as she kicks the ball far into the couch ahead. Her still-rudimentary goal celebration involves clapping for herself with a baby tooth grin that expresses the essential joy of kicking a ball that soccer is based on.

Fast forward to our 30-something eyes following the action on the pitch below. The France-Switzerland game treated us to eight beautiful goals, but the last one didn't count. As time expired, Karim Benzema one tucks a curving ball into the upper corner and out of the goalie's reach (watch below). It is a moment of perfection. As a former player, you mentally place yourself in that position (a lot cheaper than training all those hours!), receiving a ball as the clock winds down. With one stroke of synergy, Benzema created a moment of harmony between his teammates, the ball, and all the spectators imagining themselves in his place. The moment becomes poignant as we imagine that we participate in such a beautiful act: joy!

In international competitions, these personal indulgences lead to collective feelings of pride, frustration or chagrin. Fans wear the colors of their national selection and hope that the national team performance will leave a residue of triumph on their bodies. Crowds roar as Davids take down Goliaths. Costa Rica toppled Italy and Uruguay. Chile shut out its former colonizer Spain 2-0 and underdog Greece managed to beat Cote d'Ivoire. In the streets of Algeria people chanted, "One, two, three, Vive l'Algerie!" after they qualified for the next round (where they nearly beat Germany).

Ecuadorians Storm the Sugarloaf!

For all the cutthroat competition, the World Cup also gives peoples of different languages and cultures a month-long bridge of commonality. Whether on a square in Salvador's Pelourinho or on Copacabana's long stretch, scores of striped and solid jerseys intermingle. On the top of Pão de Açúcar, Mery mixed with the scores of Ecuadorean fans and even allowed a little friendly rivalry with me. The cable car on the way down rocked with the chants of Mexican pride and Colombian confidence.

Colombian, French, Dutch, and Mexican jerseys in action

Looking forward to the game

Representing on the Pao de Acucar

France and Colombia: Both still fighting for the Rimet Trophy

One of a million reasons to come to Rio!

Some fans choose only to support their national squad. I (Stephen) always pick a handful of teams to cheer for based on the beauty of the team's style (France), the personal connections (France, US, Ecuador, Mexico, Brasil), if the coach likes to take selfies (Mexico), the national music (Brasil), and being an underdog (Costa Rica). This in-depth article even made me want to root for poor 'ol Messi. And sometimes your team might conflict with your wife's team. And the only way to up the ante and settle the score is ... betting (see below).

Whoever Loses Does the Dishes for a Year

Tension Is High
 

Thank God that game ended a tie! The games, though, are about more than just soccer and the joy of the ephemeral art of shooting and safeguarding. Suspicious of the overlap of politics and mass culture, Jorge Luis Borges wrote that "Soccer is popular because stupidity is popular." The powerful overlap of collective emotions and World Cup soccer can cut in different ways. Soccer nationalism from Iran inspired protesters to struggle against the current regime. When France won the Cup in 1998, many hoped the "Black Blanc Beur" (Black, White, and North African French, more or less) victory would lead to more inclusion for French minorities. To little avail, however, as the ever-increasing power of the racist National Front party in France shows the limits of sport to bring about substantial change.

Political parties and governments are not the only ones to exploit the World Cup to strengthen their power. At each of our games, evangelical religious groups used clever strategies to increase their membership (see the photo above). Civil rights and leftist groups also challenge the power of FIFA and of the thick corruption in Brazilian politics and business. In Rio, we came across about seventy five anti-Cup protesters--surrounded by police on both sides (see below)--marching during the Brazil-Cameroon game. 

FIFA Go Home

The Brazilian government uses police and military force to intimidate would-be protesters. Crowd control tactics by police quickly take on a fascist hue when the government tries to squash democratic practices and political rallies. Brazilian police use the same infiltration and suppression tactics used by the NYPD during Occupy Wall Street. The NYPD even sent some officers to Rio for the Cup.

Cavalry post-game in Rio

On our last night, we took a cab home from a samba party in Santa Teresa. We spoke with the cab driver about the day's Brazil-Chile encounter.  Unenthusiastic about the game, he sided with the protests about the costs of hosting the World Cup. He articulated every syllable, saying that the Brazilian government had spent "33 billion" on the World Cup. There is too much corruption amongst Brazilian politicians, he said. His estimates may be exaggerated (public infrastructure and security costs are closer to 9 billion dollars) but Brazil's World Cup is the most expensive ever, with stadiums costing four times the original estimates. He let us out of the taxi and we saw this graffiti (below) near the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. It says: "Occupy the Cup," "Go Home FIFA," and "The World Cup for Whom?"

The World Cup for Whom?

More and more students are graduating from college in Brazil (with public help), and the country has made other impressive strides to open up opportunity in the past decade. With its War on Poverty, the poverty rate has dropped to half its 2005 rate. Will the long-term effects of infrastructure investment last longer than the thrill of a World Cup victory?

In the end, the opaque governance of soccer seems at odds with the joy of those that take such pleasure from it. Do we see a dictatorship of spectacles? The players get little say in their working conditions (though they are improving) and the benefits of the host country are lopsided. And the billions will still watch the games of the final stages, imagining themselves delivering the coup de grace as the players feign, flick, and flutter their way to the goal.

Gooooolll!