Well, the first phase in Le Coupe du Monde is winding down.
Yesterday was a big disappointment. First, the US had a chance to go through to the second round but was defeated by Ghana 2-1 and thus eliminated.
… And then, the Japan-Brazil match…
We went out to watch the match in the evening between Japan and Brazil. We spent the first half at a pub along the Seine, across from Notre dame. It was a nice pub and not many people were there, certainly no Brazil fans. However, midway through the first half, a group of noisy Americans arrived and started louding going on about their raucous sexual exploits and strategies to “gangbang” (in their own words) various girls. That was a bit disturbing so we moved during halftime to a different place to watch the game. The new place was more like a café, but it had a large screen TV. It was filled with people, but mostly people having dinner, though the people engrossed in the game were mostly cheering for Brazil. We were the only ones rooting for Japan, so it was a bit lonely for the Japan cheering section.
Japan actually scored first in the first half, which was a bit of a surprise, but it actually gave us a fleeting hope that Japan might be able to pull off an upset. However, up until that point, Brazil didn’t really seem to be trying, even though they made a number of nice shots on goal that forced Japan’s keeper to make a number of nice saves. So, having first gone one down, Brazil picked up the pace and got a demoralizing equalizer in the last 20 seconds of stoppage time before the half.
Brazil scored three more times before the end of the game and, needless to say, it wasn’t all that fun to watch from Japan’s side. Better luck in four years, I guess…
… the only team we have left to cheer for is France. Next up: vs Togo!
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