Kívia z São Paulo: All roads lead to... Brazil! (1)

Olá!

I'm Kivia. I'm a 28-year-old Brazilian journalist, divided between the passion for travelling and for my soccer team, Atlético Mineiro. I have just returned to Brazil after one year travelling around the world, just on time for the World Cup. Back in São Paulo, I'll be telling you what fans from all over will be doing in the largest South American city during the tournament.

World Cup in Brazil is always the same thing. The same good thing. An overwhelming party and soccer-proud mood seems to be in every single corner of the country. Tvs tuned in the games and national team's t-shirt are found even in the homes of the less passionate about football. The national green and yellow flag in so spread throughout offices' tables and cars' windows that many say we are Brazilians only during the World Cup.

There is a kind of non-written law that, that about two hours before a match everyone is off of work. The intere country just stops. In São Paulo, the time during the game is some of the few moments when nearly 0 km traffic is registred on the streets. A remarkable happening for the largest South America's city, which is used to be waken up by 150, 200 km of cars' queues.

This year I'm afraid World Cup won't be the same thing. This feeling of football pride has been replaced by disappoitment and fear. A great deal of Brazilians don't want the country to host a tournament that has spent three times more money than its original budget and protests against corruption have been happening for over one year now. World Cup is no longer a reason for party and jokes. It became a serious social and political discussion. Perhaps it will be different, after we scream "goal" for the first time. So far, people seem to find it hard to surrender to the old “yellow-and-green” spirit, when the matches were just excuses for going for a freezing cold beer and a bit of samba.