“No sport generates extremes of passion like football. And for football, there’s no bigger stage than the World Cup finals, every four years. The road to Brazil 2014 started in 2011 with hundreds of qualifying games in every corner of the world. For teams, players and fans, the games represent national identity, sometimes against backdrops of war, riots and revolution. ‘Thirty-One Nil’, a new book by British author James Montague, chronicles these extremes of hope, joy and despair — sometimes very personal, sometimes felt by entire nations. … Nick Wrenn, editor-in-chief, CNN” CNN

amazon: Thirty-One Nil: On the Road With Football’s Outsiders: A World Cup Odyssey by James Montague

Thirty One Nil: A Book About The Ones We Won’t See in Brazil: Book Review

“In this floating village, there is only one way to travel. Students go to school by boat. Pentecostals go to church by boat. Taxis arrive by boat. Even the soccer field is often a boat. There are three homemade fields on land, but they are submerged now in the annual flooding of the Black River, which meets nearby with the Solimões to form the Amazon. If the wooden goal posts had nets, they would be useful this time of year only for catching fish. So young players and adults improvise. They play soccer at a community center that has a roof but no walls. They play on the dock of a restaurant. And they play on a parked ferry, a few wearing life jackets to cushion their falls on the metal deck and stay afloat while retrieving the ball from the river.” NY Times

“Don’t believe journalists who tell you the tournament is going smoother than expected. In a normal month of June, Rio de Janeiro hosts at least 16 first-division soccer matches. São Paulo will typically see the same number. Salvador usually has around 8; ditto Recife, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, and Curitiba. None of these cities will host more than seven during the World Cup.” Fusion

“Jorges Leon Brasil is not lost. He started chauffeuring tourists and businessmen and urban adventurers all over Rio 26 years ago, when he was 18. His time-tested version of GPS is to squint his eyes in deep thought and—pop!—Ah yes, I know this place. He’s just not sure where he’s going this morning. A rest day during the World Cup has turned into a driving tour of Rio’s burgeoning graffiti scene, and I’ve asked Brasil—Junior to his passengers; he was named after his father—to be my guide in finding some soccer-inspired art. He has experience, after all. As a young boy growing up outside of Rio in the 1980s, in Vista Alegre (‘Happyville, you would say, in English’), Junior would join the local children at night during World Cup summers and literally paint the town center yellow and green, with Brazilian flags and soccer imagery celebrating his generation’s stars: Zico, Romario, Bebeto. . . It’s part of a tradition that carries on today.” SI

“It was as Atlético Mineiro trailed 2-0 at half-time in the second leg of last season’s Copa Libertadores final against Olimpia of Paraguay that one of their supporters, wired on a cocktail of nerves, frustration and booze, decided to pop out for a smoke. He needed it. The Mineirão in Belo Horizonte was a maelstrom. Tears and prayers were seemingly everywhere. Another fan further down the row bawled his eyes out as he bellowed to the heavens. It was as if he were having an argument with the Big Referee upstairs. Atlético had never previously won the Libertadores. Their hated rivals, Cruzeiro, were on course to take the Brazilian league title. Atlético had to win this game.” Guardian

June 13, 2014. “FIFA’s 50 billion dollar war on Brazilian people, started with the first worker oppressed, the first poor black person killed by police, the first indigenous forcefully evicted, the first teacher beaten by police, the first journalist or social activist attacked, the first protestor clubbed, the first kid in the favela murdered by state uniforms, the first sex worker raped by police, and the first child sold into sexual slavery. The World Cup is for the rich, the cops are for the poor. It started with the first home stolen, with the first rent raised, with the first law changed for FIFA’s sponsors, with the first patient left to die at the hospitals’ doors, with the first worker killed in their stadiums.” Revolution News (Video)

“The sight of young men in board shorts and flip-flops holding high-powered assault rifles is one you never get used to. A few weeks ago in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most violent favelas, half a dozen such young men were sitting on plastic chairs around a small TV set that had been brought onto the street. They drank beer and chain smoked bagulhos, fat conical joints. One guy wore a thick gold chain with two plastic baggies dangling off it, one filled with white powdered cocaine, the other crack. A couple of others, we noticed, accessorized with grenades strapped to their belts. Just a few miles away, thousands of fans from around the globe were gathering at Fan Fest on Copacabana Beach to watch the opening World Cup match between Brazil and Croatia.” Fusion (Video)

“If graffiti is the voice of the street, what better way to take a nation’s pulse than by gazing upon the walls of its inner cities?  In Brazil, like many nations, graffiti has long been a way for urban artists to decorate their neighborhoods, voice an opinion or tag prominent buildings with their signature style.  As the 2014 World Cup approached, however, many works began to take on the role of a complex social commentary.  Like the diverse spectrum of emotions and opinions surrounding the hosting of the event itself, graffiti appeared that was both aggressive and welcoming; political yet playful.  Brazilians love their football after all — as evidenced by the passion displayed inside stadia throughout the World Cup so far — but many remain appalled by the amount of money being spent to host the tournament.  We asked Cranio and Paulo Ito, two prolific graffiti artists from Sao Paulo, to explain how the sentiment of the Brazilian street has impacted their work and been transported onto walls and buildings across the vast country.  Interviews and captions by Eoghan Macguire, for CNN.” CNN

“There is a saying in this coastal city of mixed religious heritages and many creeds that goes more or less like this: If superstition decided soccer matches, all matches would end in a tie. Still, that has never kept fans here from turning to rituals, magic, prayer or just odd practices to give a helping hand to their club, or to the Brazil national soccer team, which plays Chile on Saturday in the Round of 16 at the World Cup. Whether it is wearing the same shorts for as long as the team is winning or leaving a sacrificial chicken and other offerings on a street corner to some African deity, fervent soccer fans in Salvador and beyond believe the outcome of the matches is somehow in their control.” NY Times (Video)

“Twenty-four hours before getting arrested on Friday night, Filipe Peçanha, one of the founders of the media collective known for its edgy citizen-journalism coverage of street demonstrations in Brazil, warned of the dangers of increasing police repression and the criminalization of protests. ‘With the increasing wave of repression, we’ve seen an emptying of the streets. There’s been a criminalization of the movements,’ the founder of the Midia Ninja collective Rio de Janeiro told Fusion in an exclusive interview Thursday evening.” Fusion

“It seems to have been Brazil’s left-back Marcelo who came up with the idea. When the national anthem was played before a match, he told his teammates, they should keep singing after the music stopped. It would be a display of patriotism for the fans. It has become a ritual. At Brazil’s matches here, crowd and players belt out the words together a cappella. For a minute, the nation is made flesh.” FT – Simon Kuper

“The metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, never lacking for spectacle and chaos, is presently welcoming the thousands of visitors squeezing into the city to be a part of the 2014 World Cup. Two years from now, its 6.3 million residents will have to share their city with even bigger throngs when the Olympics come to town. Already, they are feeling the strain of the put-upon host. As new facilities, retail, and accommodations pop up with each passing week, the cost of living rises along with the pace of construction. But rapid development isn’t Rio’s only stressor: To make the city presentable for international spectators, the military and police have been deployed in a program of slum clearance. In the favelas, heavily armed tactical units have engaged in pitched battles with squatters and local gangs as recently as last month.” New Republic

“By the time you read this, it’s possible that every single person on the planet will know who Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior is. The image above is of Neymar from five days ago. … You could come to any number of conclusions from Neymar’s remarkable transformation. For instance, you could conclude that race doesn’t exist in Brazil, which is the favourite line of a specific tribe of Brazilians – impeccable liberals all, who just happen to be upper-class, white and at the top of the heap. Or you could conclude that everyone in Brazil is indeed mixed – which is, incidentally, the second-favourite line of the selfsame tribe. Or you could wonder what happened to this boy.” Africasa Country

“As midnight approaches on Rua do Salsa, crowds gather outside an open-air mall, the walls out front painted white and splattered with posters. The place is called Placa Jardin. It’s Friday night. Placa Jardin looks like any of the other numerous bars and clubs and restaurants in this reveler’s paradise on a cobblestone street near the beach. The lights outside alternate blue and green. Strobe lights inside flash red. Music played at maximum volume reverberates down the block. Dozens of women stand out front, clad in so many miniskirts and tube tops, lips dressed in the brightest red lipstick, feet stuffed in the tallest high heels. They spread down the street, in front of bars, clubs and cars. Some stand next to family members. Others cluster in packs of three or four. These women are prostitutes, and this is the side of the World Cup no one talks about.” SI

“It appears to be true, what everyone keeps saying. Last year’s massive civic unrest protesting the Brazilian government’s prodigious World Cup spending — which erupted during the Confederations Cup, and saw a million people throughout the country take to the streets — has left Rio de Janeiro working through a bit of a hangover. The pre-Cup festivities were muted: Any of these beautifully scruffy Rio streets might feature a rippling mini-flag canopy, but for every bit of street art depicting David Luiz as an ethereal sun god, there was another with hasty graffiti reading, ‘FIFA GO HOME.’ Still: No one told the seventysomething dude bombing down Copacabana beach, stunting out his limousine sunroof with a bottle of champagne, slicked-back Calipari hair, and a technicolor dreamcoat while screaming, ‘CHILE! CHILE! CHILE!’” Grantland

“Rotting, crumbling, covered in graffiti, overrun by weeds, the hulking wreck of a building known as the Aldeia Maracanã would make an unsightly addition to any neighborhood. But it happens to stand next to Rio’s Maracanã Stadium, the soccer cathedral that will host some of the World Cup’s most important matches, including the final. To get to the stadium, tens of thousands of fans will have to pass the Aldeia Maracanã’s ruined walls, now unattractively shielded by a 10-foot mesh fence. If the Maracanã is the celebrated face of Brazilian soccer, the Aldeia Maracanã is the scab on its nose.” NY Times

“The 2014 World Cup is finally underway. Soccer-loving host nation Brazil plays Croatia inside São Paulo’s Arena Corinthians Thursday afternoon. Like so many tournament story lines formed around excessive government spending on the event ($11.3 billion total), the $525 million stadium has been a source of embarrassment for Brazilian politicians and World Cup organizers. Three workers were killed building the facility. Completed six months past deadline and $150 million over budget, today’s game will be the first it hosts at full capacity.” City Lab

“Brazil’s heroic midfielder from the 1980s had a political conscience that’s needed today. You have to wonder what Socrates, the legendary socially-conscious Brazilian midfielder, would have made of what is happening in Brazil. Soccer and socioeconomic issues defined his personality and his career. Were he still alive, he would no doubt be helping us contextualize the craziness of this World Cup. They don’t make Brazilian players, or athletes in general, like Socrates these days. This Seleçao team follows the lead of coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who, when the team bus was surrounded by striking school teachers last month, dismissed the issue and said the problems of his country are not his concern. Not yet, anyway.” Fusionn

“The metro strike has ended in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, for now. Jerome Valcke, FIFA’s Secretary General in town for the FIFA Congress, says there is no Plan B to get 61,000 fans to the nearly finished Itaquerão stadium. Of course, there might be a general strike across the country on Thursday, but it’s maybe, probably just a rumor. Panic has ensued. Calm Down! Hurry up! Slow down! How do I get to the stadium?” Fusion

“The Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro has a special, rueful place in the Brazilian psyche. It is beloved by all who have seen it, even at its rundown worst. When it came to be renovated for the first time, it was feared it was an impossible task. So much human urine had been expelled over its concrete foundations that it had made the stadium structurally unsound. It was also the venue of an event that Brazilians had never forgotten, from the last time the country hosted the tournament: the 1950 World Cup final. Those who weren’t born then have never been allowed to forget it either.” CNN – James Montague

A protester argues with police during the Sao Paulo demonstration on June 12. Two CNN journalists sustained minor injuries at the scene.
“A Brazilian policeman stands behind shields during clashes with protesters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Thursday, June 12. The buildup to the World Cup has been plagued by mass demonstrations over the estimated $11 billion cost of staging the soccer tournament. Many protesters, angered by the state of Brazil’s public services, believe the money would be better spent elsewhere.” CNN

“Just days before Brazil kicks off the World Cup against Croatia, warm-up matches and training sessions around the country reveal the two sides of Felipe Scolari and regional feelings about the team. June 3, 2014; Brazil v Panama; Goiânia, Brazil. Luiz Felipe Scolari is answering a question about Neymar. Scolari answers a lot of questions about Neymar. And about David Luiz, and Hulk, and all the other members of the Seleção. He also answers a lot of questions about pressure, and preparation, and a thousand other subjects connected with the most important, and least answerable, question: Will Brazil win its sixth World Cup this summer.” Fusion

“Brazil’s list of feats since ending authoritarian rule in the 1980s is as long as it is varied, including antipoverty programs pulling millions into the middle class, the democratic election of presidents who suffered indignities under the dictatorship and the surging growth of tropical agriculture to help feed the world. But instead of coming together to extol such triumphs on the global stage as the host of the World Cup, the soccer tournament starting on Thursday with teams from 32 countries, Brazil is marked by rifts, with some people genuinely excited about the event while others are simmering with resentment over its ballooning costs and a sluggish post-boom economy.” NY Times

“As the world focuses on the World Cup, which opens in Brazil in less than a fortnight, many Brazilians are wrestling with painful discoveries about the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. The BBC has found evidence that the UK actively collaborated with the generals – and trained them in sophisticated interrogation techniques.” BBC (Video)