Kevin Whitcher
So, England v Uruguay in Sao Paulo. It was a grey day with occasional rain. We took a taxi to the nearest metro station and then took the train to the stadium. It was nice, whilst queuing for tickets, to bump into a couple of friendly faces from home. They had been in town since Sunday and described the place as 'a right sh*thole'. Hmmmm... I hadn't seen anything to say different from what I had seen of the place in the two taxi rides (one in daylight) and a short stroll with Sanj so he could buy his cigarettes near the hotel. The weather obviously didn't help create a favourable impression. It felt like a dank late autumn day back home. Still, this is winter in Brazil, and the south is a long way from the north. And on a football level, surely the conditions suited England down to the ground. No need for a Miami training camp for this one.
On the train journey, we passed a lot of very poor graffiti spray painted on countless walls. Nothing of any quality, just those armed with cans announcing they had been there. It was an eyesore. When we left the metro station to head for the stadium (we had been told to get off one before the end of the line as the one closest was not open yet, which proved not to be the case), in spite of there being signage indicating the direction to the stadium, it looked like there had been no attempt to clean up the area, to even pretend it was something better than it was. However, at least on the walk there, we passed some blocks which had some quality artwork spray painted on their side, depicting the years when Brazil had won the World Cup with some tasty artwork, including a rather cruel image painted large of Roberto Baggio skying his penalty in the 1994 final shoot-out.
We reached the stadium itself nice and early. From the outside, it looked rather bland. A bit like the Allianz Arena, but rectangular and with just white colours. After the game, these huge bland surfaces were used, as it had fallen dark, to relay messages in vivid colour, and the design suddenly made sense. We wandered around the circumference of the stadium and I caught the Colombia v Ivory Coast game on a big screen from the point at of the first goal in Colombia's 2-1 win. Ivory Coast should still go through as they play Greece in their final game and a draw should be enough unless Japan can beat Colombia. Gervinho scored a good goal and it is a mystery as to why Arsene Wenger did not get more from him when he was at Arsenal. The screen I was watching was part of a Budweiser erected construction. In front of it, a DJ was pumping out music with two dancing blondes either side of him. If the football got boring, you could just watch them instead.
Our seats were in the lower tier, but near the back, affording an excellent view of proceedings. The time between the end of the Colombia game and the start of England's went by quickly enough. The stadium itself is magnificent. The upper tiers behind the goals both look to be temporary constructions, which is a shame as they really add to the feel of the place as something special. However, the city's clubs probably doesn't need the extra 12,000 or so seats they bring, and enough money has been spent on the place without a doubt. There were traces in the concreting on the steps where it had been evident that it had been finished in a bit of a rush, but I never felt that it was at all unsafe. There has been some significant money spent in some of the areas, which frankly isn't justified, such as some very expensive flooring. Holding the opening ceremony here undoubtedly made it a showpiece stadium, but it is quite evident that the high standards in some places did not come cheap, and symbolise what is wrong with investing so much money in new football stadiums in a society such as Brazil.
As for the game, the same starting eleven for England as against Italy, but Luis Suarez was present for the first time in these finals for Uruguay, and was always likely to shape the narrative of the game. I haven't read any reaction from back home as yet, but my impressions were that England did not play as well as against Italy. Granted, they did fashion some danger and had enough chances to win the game, but I felt a lot of the passing was very poor, especially the final ball when opportunities did arise. Uruguay seemed to have less opportunities but made the most of them. That is the difference in having a world class striker. Their first goal had echoes of the one scored by Balotelli against England in the game last Saturday. Simply too good for England's defence. Wayne Rooney went close twice from a free kick and a close range header that hit the bar. Dare I venture that Suarez might have converted such attempts? Uruguay were cynical and seemed to know how to buy fouls from the Spanish ref in a way that England couldn't.
In the second half, more England pressure and another great chance for Rooney fired at the keeper. Eventually though, the equaliser came when, for once, Glenn Johnson produced something meaningful from the right flank and Rooney finally got his goal. The game opened up with both sides going for it. However, England were undone by a typical goal of the sort you'd see every Saturday at the likes of the Britannia Stadium. A hoof upfield, apparently headed on by Steven Gerrard, to set up his switched on club team-mate Suarez who didn't need a second invitation to score. England tried manfully to get back in the game again, but I don't recall them coming close. Frank Lampard was warming up at one point and I would have been tempted to bring him on to score one of his scrappy goals. It felt like the kind of game where such an opportunity might fall to him. England are, of course, not mathematically out of the tournament if Italy beat Costa Rica later today, but it felt like it as the clock ticked down. When all is said and done, they do not have any players in the team you could describe as world class at the moment, and you do need a couple to win games against the likes of Italy and Uruguay in these big tournaments. England rarely win such matches and when they do, it tends to be a one off that does not lead to better things.
The crowd was strange around us. I sensed a lot of them were not even really football fans, including some from England. They were shouting out daft stuff, such as 'Give it to Sterling' ten minutes after he had been taken off. There was a lot of going out and coming in for food and drink and a general feeling that it was more like a baseball type of audience who weren't going to sit through 90 minutes of a football match. At one point, a cameraman was in the aisle to get shots of fans waving at him and too many people were more interested in getting in his shot than watching the match. He pointed it at some fans in front of me and I gave him an extended one fingered salute so he would go and point the damn thing somewhere else. If we are having crowd shots, why not get people acting naturally by filming them from a distance and not putting them live on the big screen so we can avoid that horrible moment when they realise they are being broadcast and start acting like demented idiots. Anyhow, back to the football...
I have to say, I do not emotionally invest in England because I have become accustomed to their failure. I don't believe any more, so although I am pleased when they do win, when they fail, it is simply confirmation of what I expect. Sadly, I have started to feel this way about Arsenal in recent seasons, although my emotional investment there is greater. I do not expect England to win another World Cup in my lifetime, although I would like to think Arsenal can secure a few titles before my time is up. With a new manager, even a Champions League is possible one day.
After the final whistle we did not hang around. We headed back to the metro where we had initially boarded the train to the ground. There was a fan park near there, so we figured there would be places to eat, drink and kill time. We found a bar which fitted the bill, although it was a bit rough. We sat outside to watch the first half of Japan v Greece on a big TV and at one point, a beggar with a carrier bag came and tipped some leftover food from a vacated neighbouring table from the plate into his bag, before he could be warned off by the owner. There were a lot of quite obviously desperate people wandering up and down within yards of where we were eating. Given this was the area where FIFA chose to hold their fan park, one has to conclude that other areas of the city are even worse than the rather unappealing one we were in. It later transpired that some England fans had been attacked before the game here by Brazilian hooligans armed with knives and knuckledusters, which explained the police presence although we simply assumed it was precautionary. It was obviously dark by this time, which didn't help.
The overall impression I formed of Sao Paulo was that it was something like Batman's Gotham City. A lot of grime, a lot of darkness, a seedy atmosphere amidst the tall buildings and a large number of ne'er do wells - although I fully accept circumstances have created the social problems all too evident. I was glad to catch a taxi back to the hotel where we killed an hour in reception using the wifi before collecting our cases and heading for the airport. I think it's unlikely any of us will ever return. The stadium is great, a fantastic place to watch a game of football, but Sao Paulo confirmed what I was told months ago at the early planning stages of this trip. A dangerous place to be avoided. It isn't on the coast and does not seem to have any real saving graces. It's a monster out of control and a real contrast to what we have seen elsewhere in Brazil. It might sound exotic on the tongue, but it simply isn't. Even the females do not seem particularly attractive.
Next up, a middle of the night flight to Recife and at 1pm, Italy v Costa Rica. The temperature will be in the high 20s and I am confident the place will feel more like somewhere we want to be. And in the vain hope that three points might see England through to the last 16, we are backing Pirlo's boys for a convincing win. Forza Italia!
