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Walking to the Fan Fest from
Taguatinga Centre. |
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| Reporter and I! |
Brazil was playing their second group match today, against Mexico. I met Fernanda's dad in the morning and he predicted a 4-1 score line in favour to the host!
Bart, Leornado, Antonio and others were planning to the Fan Fest to catch the game this afternoon. It would be a pity not to join them.
The Fan Fest was actually at Taguatinga park, which was near my place. The Belgium game started at 1pm. I left home around 12pm but could not get any buses that Google map suggested after waited for more than 20minutes! Eventually I just took one that stopped at the town center and walked a longer distance there.
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| The Mexican masked men! |
I still had time to top up my phone credit and bought a snack to survive the long afternoon. My 30 days internet access just ended this morning and it was perfect timing to renew my plan for just $R12. Glad that the subscription renewed automatically once my credit was sufficient.
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| Fan Fest at a glance! |
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Fan Fest's 2nd and 3rd (behind it)
screens! |
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| Fan Fest's ......(fill in the blank) |
On the way to the Fan Fest, I met two Ecuadorian who lives in the States. It was good to have someone to talk to which made the walk a lot faster.
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Belgium, Canada, Argentina,
Singapore! |
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With my Mexican buddies, Antonio,
Leonardo and Beto! |
When we reached, I was glad the security just stopped my water bottle and allowed my apple and other tit-bits to go through.
The Belgium-Algeria game has already started but the place was still pretty empty. The Fan Fest wasn't too big, with three huge screens and several booths selling beverages and food. I took a quick tour around the place and went back to the main screen to catch the game while waiting for the guys.
Soon later, I met Bart and Antonio. They came from the Volunteer Centre with a few other guys, including Marcus (another Brazilian volunteer) and his girlfriend.
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| A fan from Syria! | |
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Father and daughter enjoying
the game under the sun! |
Bart was wearing his Belgium flag wig and carrying a Brazilian flag in Belgium's colour! He was definitely the main attraction of the night! Inviting two radio stations and one TV station interviews! Because of him, I got myself an interview too with a reporter, Lucas Neto, from a local radio station. And thanks to Marcus's girlfriend helping to the do the translation, Mr Neto started the interview by saying "We will only ask you 50 questions!". I replied to him in Portuguese, "Brincadera?!" He laughed, surprised that I knew this word.
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Same hair style, just different
colours! |
Shortly later, Leonardo reached with his friend, Beto from Mexico as well. We all cheered for Belgium together and were happy that they won 2-1 against the Algerian.
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| Let's football unites the world! |
After the Belgium match, more and more people were arriving. There was some performance on stage while we waited for the Brazil vs Mexico game. Everyone was dancing and cheering! The atmosphere was great! Bart and my Mexican friends in their masks were catching all the glim light, attracting interviews and photographs from reporters, not to mention those Brazilian and foreigner fans as well. I was also having a moments or two, being asked to have a photograph. There was also this young man asking if I liked to exchange my Singapore jersey with his. I felt a little bad to turn him down, because I noticed his jersey was pretty old of poorer quality too! Bad me... =p
Later, more volunteers from the Ticketing team arrived in their Brazilian supporter's attire as well. Antonio even saw Kobe Bryant on TV catching the game live at the stadium!
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| I'm on TV (with Bart's prominent flag) |
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Leonardo, the new FIFA
World Cup mascot! |
As the match was getting closer to kick off, the atmosphere got more intense. A group of fans were yelling the country of other supporters from different countries. "Colombia, Colombia...". They were many Colombian around that day too. Then, I heard them shouting "Syria, Syria Syria...." And when they saw me and asked where I'm from, we started to shout "Cingapura, Cingapura!" together!
The guys were divided into to two groups. Bart was with the ticketing team supporting Brazil while our Mexicans friends were with a group of other supporters from their home country cheering at another end.
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| Happy ending for both supporters! |
It was a great match indeed and the Mexican keeper was probably the crowd's (at least the Mexicans point of view) Man of the Match. He made so many incredible saves that somehow the match ended in a goalless draw! I guessed that was the best result after all for everyone to be happy.
We stayed on after the game for a while to enjoy the performance on stage. The singer was a Brazilian favourite from a singing competition. After that, all of us walked to a nearby restaurant to have local food for dinner. They were talking about a Mexican TV show called Don Ramon and I'd mistaken it as Doraemon, making a mockery of myself!
After dinner, Beto who rented a car, stopped me along the EPTG main road. It was a fun night. I bid them good night and walked home happily.
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