HIGHWAY TO POA
Michelle Rojas B.
Traslation: Alex Somervell
Porto Alegre. July 9th, 2014. After almost a month of passion, joy and tears, the world sat down to watch Brazil play Germany for the match that would decide the finalists of the World Cup 2014. Of course, Germany had a great team that was made the European team slight favourites, but Brazil had something more: an entire nation roaring their team on from every home in the country and the motivation of keeping the famous cup in Brazil.
The Fan Fest was packed with people, the line of people reaching the Beira-Rio stadium, almost 2 kilometres and people in Green and yellow kept coming with the hope that their team would make the final.
More people arrived as the seconds before the beginning of the game ticked away. The initial whistle blew and fans jumped with excitement, waving their flags in the air. A short-lived joy as after exactly 12 minutes Germany scored the first goal, out of seven.
Hope for a comeback didn’t disappear until the 24th minute when Germany had already scored another three goals. Brazil’s hopes crushed and it’s people heartbroken and Germany scored their fifth on the 30 minute mark. Unbelievable. The crowd were shell-shocked, it was as if they were in another dimension.
With the fifth goal, the people who had believed so fervently in the hope that football and the millions of dollars invested in it represented for the country started to well-up as what was once a dream became a nightmare.
People started to leave with a mix of disappointment, humiliation and anger. They left the FanFest, as fans left the Mineiro stadium, turning their backs on their team and cursing football, their team and their country. In a matter of minutes the Anfiteatro Pôr do Sol was half empty.
No happy ending for a country who had given so much for football. The World Cup dream came to an end and now only sorrow remains.
The day the cup was ripped from Brazil’s hands
