Independence Day

You remember that Will Smith movie from a long time back? You know, the one where he punched an alien and uttered the witty line "Welcome to earth"?

Good.

Now, do you remember that scene when those pesky invading aliens floated their giant spacecraft over the US capitol, fired a powerful death ray of some sorts and destroyed the White House?

Good.

That's exactly how I felt after the USA lost that heartbreaking match against the Red Devils a few days ago.

If I carry this silly analogy forward, does that mean Tim Howard was playing a version of Will Smith's character, Captain Steven Hiller?

Granted, Timmy wasn't able to "blow up" the Belgium mothership at the end of the match nor did he have the chance to deliver any witty lines. He did, however, keep the USA alive in that unforgiving onslaught of Belgium shots at goals, saving a record 16 in all.

Now, who would be his Jeff Goldblum sidekick?

Would it be Geoff Cameron?

Geoff vs. Jeff: Separated at birth?

Um.

Okay, never mind.

To make a long story, short: I was really bummed by the exit the US made, especially when we had a few (albeit a small few) chances to score our own goals and we missed the opportunity.

Case in point, Wondo's missed "golden goal" attempt in stoppage time:

Not "Wondo-ful": Biggest miss in USMNT World Cup history?

Well, at this point I'm over my mourning period as I need to get ready to support my ass off for my beloved (and MLS table toppers) Seattle Sounders FC, as they attempt to go for the domestic treble of U.S. Open Cup, Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup.

Oh, and thanks to my dual-soccer-citizenship, I have the honor and luxury of still having a horse in this race with Brazil.

Well, the horns are a blowing and (I'm sure) the streets will be alive over the next several hours as the city of São Paulo prepares for the big match in a few hours time.

Brasil flag all lit up!

Vai Brasil! And, GO USA (in the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup)!

Soaker Bowl (Or, How I Learned to Survive Recife)

Fret not, kind and loyal blog follower.

I have not succumb to an unexpected landslide or samba party.

I am still alive and well, and partaking in the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals here in Brazil.

Oddly, I'm now back at a location with very reliable Internet connectivity (yay São Paulo!), yet I have not used this bandwidth to post a single update. Flashback to just a few days prior--while we were on the road following the US Men's National Team around the group stage leg of the World Cup--and you would have found me trying to fashion a tinfoil rabbit ears aerial to get the equivalent of a 300 baud modem's worth of access to the "tubes".

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Abundance makes you care less, I guess.

Speaking of flashbacks, as I last shared our time in Recife was quite nuts. And, I'm not just referring to the drama we had upon our arrival.

After (re)securing our basic human need for shelter, we turned our attention to getting ready for the third and final match versus Die Mannschaft.

Recife made things way more challenging than the previous two locations. This was mostly due to the fact the stadium (Arena Pernambuco) is located about 20 km from our hotel in Boa Viagem (and pretty much all of Recife). Unlike Natal or Manaus, where the arenas were effectively in the middle of the city, Arena Pernambuco was in the middle of nowhere. It's not even located within the city of Recife, but instead a place called São Lourenço da Mata.

In the end, we didn't feel too troubled by this little quirk of this large host city. Maura had secured us two spots on a hotel shuttle van during the craziness of solving our hotel reservation woes. A side benefit of standing right next to the hotel staff for more than hour while they worked out how to get our reservation resurrected.

What did trouble us was the friggin' monsoon that slammed into this city in the northeast of Brazil.

"Epic" was used to describe the insane amount of rain that was falling overnight and all through the match on June 26th.

All night, the windows in our "semi-classy" hotel rattled from never-ending abuse and torment of wind and rain. It didn't make for a very restful sleep and it was compounded by the fact we needed to get up and at 'em early to ensure we made the shuttle van. They front desk changed our departure time to even earlier to account for the flooding and horrific road conditions this rainstorm was causing to areas in and around Recife.

9:30 am we go; come hell or high water.

A few folks asked me (after they learned we survived the epic journey) if the media was overhyping the situation. As your humble "on the ground" reporter, I can confidently say, "NOOOOO WAY!"

Here's a little video of our time in the van (and not on a boat, mind you) trying to reach the stadium:

Yup.

This is what we experienced for most of the trip through the metro portions of Recife. Once we hit "the open road", we only had to worry about other cars.

In the van heading to Arena Pernambuco

A trip that should have taken 45 minutes or so, ended up taking more than double that. At a few points during the ride these guys seated in front of us in the van considered bailing out and trying to catch a train to the stadium. They also believed the match started at 11 am, and not the actual start time of 1p.

On a sad note, we learned while having our post-match meal at Ponteio Grill that many family members of the USMNT were unable to reach the stadium in time to actually watch the game. All of the families happen to be at this very same churrascaria when we arrived and one of the waiters told us about this unfortunate side effect of the terrible storm. I also saw Jozy's brother again, but decided to leave him be considering all the trouble they had just faced earlier in the day.

Back to our van trip to the arena: we were once again lucky enough to see the USA team bus. This time, it was parked in front of the Golden Tulip Hotel in Boa Viagem waiting for the team to board. As we faced these horrible conditions and traffic en route, we started to worry if the teams themselves (who had not yet left for the stadium) would make it in time. Considering there was some chatter about FIFA potentially delaying the match, I'm really surprised they pulled off this game.

Upon arriving at Arena Pernambuco, our driver had to leave us about 1 km from the gates due to security and the need to find a parking spot he could stay for several hours.

Maura and I donned our ponchos (the very ones we searched high and low for in Natal and likely bought the last four in city) and made the hike through the rain, mud and street vendors selling ponchos, beer, water (for some reason) and odd versions of USA and Germany flags. The ponchos mostly did their job, but let's be honest, we were still getting soaked thanks to the intensity of the rain fall. As we rounded the last turn before entering the stadium parking lot, we witnessed the arrival of the USA team bus. I guess they had a lot of help from their police escort to clear a path (at least through the traffic) to make it to the stadium.

Waterlogged and ready to root inside Arena Pernambuco

With the rain still falling, and the crowds growing, we cleared security and the gates to happily learn that our seats were 100% covered. Thank the lord!

A few pre-match "double cheeseburgers" (A/K/A meat cooked until hockey puck state) and beers (and a nice chat with some dudes who just made it in from Texas to see this match), we prepared for the 1 pm kickoff.

Arena Pernambuco in all of its glory

Arena Pernambuco was my least favorite of the three stadiums. Maybe it was the rain or mud caked between my toes, but the place lacked a lot of the character our previous two venues offered. Our seats were similar to the match in Manaus, just a little more centered and a few more rows back. Many of the same characters from the American Outlaws kept us USA supporters singing up a storm (pun not intended). My personal fav was the dude all dressed up as Teddy Roosevelt as a Rough Rider.

The USMNT starters warmed up right by the corner flag close to our seats and I think we did our small part pumping them up with our signing and chanting "I BELIEVE WE WILL WIN!"

Following the team warm ups, which did appear to happen much later than the previous two outings, this solitary FIFA commissioner walked the pitch to see if it was truly ready for 90 minutes of futebol.

FIFA match commissioner surveys the state of the pitch to see if it's green lit for kick-off

Needless to say, he approved the conditions and we had us some football!

It was a fun match, albeit bittersweet that we advanced after the loss.

Look, I'm not complaining.

I would have loved to kept the 0-0 draw to the conclusion of the game. Just wasn't in the cards. Our shooting boots lacked the finishing necessary to do our own damage.

Still a great way to end the group stage by escaping the "GROUP OF DEATH!"

And, we escaped the floods and returned to our hotel in Boa Viagem with little trouble. The rain did finally subside towards the end of the game and amazingly the drainage system cleared most of the streets of Recife by the time we arrived.

The next day was the yang to the Thursday's horrific weather yin. It was sunny and bright, and we used our last day in the city to do a little bit of sightseeing. This included a tour of the nearby historic city of Olinda. This 477 year old city still maintains much of the look and feel of its historic roots...which consists mostly of churches and places that became churches.

One super neat tourist spot we stopped by was the Caixa D'Aqua. It serves a dual purpose of being a water tower for the historic city and 360 degree viewing platform of the beach, churches and surrounding areas (of more churches).

Olinda from Caixa D'Agua

Before heading off to the airport, we took another stroll along Boa Viagem beach.

As you may have read, the northeast of Brazil (Recife in particular) has a lot of sharks in the waters. Therefore, it was none too surprising to see this clear set of warnings about "how not to be eaten by a shark" displayed about ever 100 meters or so:

Shark Warnings in Recife

Maura asked me if I wanted to walk on the sidewalk or the beach. After reading through all of these warnings I elected to stay off the beach. Call me crazy, but I am still alive, ain't I?

We completed our picture perfect post-match day with a smooth trip over to the airport and then back to our base of operations in São Paulo.

We may be out of match tickets, but we are staying put in Brazil through most of what's left of the elimination phase of the tournament. This included watching the nail biting Brazil vs. Chile match, that could have completely broken the spirit of the Brazilian people had neither Júlio César or the crossbar stopped multiple Chilean goals.

As with the opening match, the streets in and around Vila Madalena were filled with revelers celebrating another step closer to returning the FIFA World Cup trophy to Brazil (or it was just a really excuse to go drink in the streets).

Celebrations in the streets throughout Vila Madalena

With the group stage now complete, it's back to remote working from our base of operations. It was fun experiencing all of this road tripping, but I'm glad to be back to our little slice of "civilization".

I'll certainly need to do some meeting shuffling to ensure I can watch our next USA match against Belgium for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Luckily, the Brazil vs. Colombia match is on July 4th. It'll be a holiday in two countries that day.

Let's just hope it's one both nations will want to celebrate!

The Day After Opening Day

Wow. What a rush it was to experience the kick off of the world's game's biggest event--the FIFA World Cup Finals--in the very city that the opening match took place!

Yesterday was a day filled with anticipation by all involved, especially the fans and teams from Brazil and Croatia. A late morning walk along Avenida Paulo VI (known locally as Sumaré) provided a great view into the pre-match build up of excitement and host nation pride in their Seleção.

This guy was out quite early, armed with Brazil flags and a number of vuvuzela like horns (even though vuvuzelas have been banned for the 2014 tournament).

As the day continued, more flags, horns, firecrackers and fans made their way to the streets. At least 1 out of every 10 cars had some form of the Bandeira do Brasil. It even got challenging to conduct meetings from my remote location, as both the noise from the streets and the flakey Internet connectivity made for some interesting conditions on my Lync calls.

Things hit a crescendo shortly after the mediocre opening ceremonies which took place about 2 hours before the kickoff. No offense to Pitbull or J.Lo, or the lovely representations of the wide cultural diversity from across the beautiful land of Brazil, but folks were more interested in seeing some football! (Queue the association football and non-racist version of Hank Williams, "Are You Ready for Some Football?!?")

We watched the match from the comfort of our São Paulo base of operation, complete with a healthy spread of treats and tasty caipirinhas. The match got off to an inauspicious start thanks to Marcelo's horrid own goal in the 11th minute. I'd be lying if I said spirits weren't low, bordering on worried until Brazil's jewel Neymar netted an equalizer 18 minutes later. I don't need to recap the match's storyline, which included some questionable calls that leaned mostly in the host nation's favor. Instead, here's a peek at what happened in the streets near our viewing party after Brazil's 3-1 victory.

About 15 minutes following the final whistle and a little bit of clean-up, we headed out to experience the celebrations along the bar area of Vila Madalena (a nearby neighborhood). The police had cordoned off several blocks to allow for outdoor viewing of the match and consumption of adult beverages. The party continued until late in the evening.

Everyone was good natured and while it was no small task to navigate through all the masses of humanity gathered, we didn't feel unsafe for one minute. We were even able to score a table at Bar Genésio where we ate some Brazilian pizza and chopp (Brazilian draft beer).

Bar Genesio late evening after Match #1

After our late snack, we headed back out into the sea of celebrating humanity to make our way back home. The experience was fantastic and has served as a great personal kick off for our own World Cup adventures.

Celebrating Brazil's victory in the streets of Vila Madalena

Bright and early tomorrow morning, we head out to Natal to start the process of following the USA in the Group Stage. Stay tuned!

World Cup Security and Staging for the "copas das Copas"

Last night before we headed out for a late dinner at a tasty local restaurant, the evening news broadcast showing on the living room T.V. was interrupted for a televised address from Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. Thanks to the closed captions, my rudimentary Portuguese and help from my in-laws, it was clear this speech aired the evening two days prior to the opening ceremonies was meant to rally the nation to support the Copa do Mundo with the same passion and gusto Brasileiros have supported their Seleção to a record five World Cup wins over the tournament's 85 year history.

As you've may have noted from the coverage of the ramp up to the World Cup, the host nation has suffered both protests and strikes, raising issue with the level of investment made in building stadiums over investment in the needs of the citizens. Dilma's speech was aimed solely at addressing this criticism and as this post to ProSoccerTalk sums up nicely, "urged [citizens] to support the World Cup."

While I have no designs on commenting on who's right or wrong here, this NBC News Infographic did catch my attention. Sourced from the government's own facts and figures, it details the amount of money being spent on just the security for the 31 visiting national teams and the expected 3.7 million tourists coming to witness the games first-hand (like me).

Infographic: Security for 2014 Brazil World Cup

As a "citizen-in-law" to Brazil, I do hope the growing divide between the rich and poor sees improvement over these coming years. As an outside-ish observer, you hope with both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio bringing the world's attention to Brazil, this will motivate the government to take the right action. Just like Justice Louis Brandeis has been credited to have said, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."

Our short discussion on this topic over dinner last night (which included linguiça, bolinho de carne seca com arroz, and carne seca), my wife did comment that the level of excitement was much lower than she's experience with past World Cups. That the streets, while adorn with Brazilian flags, are not as decorated as she expected. Maybe once the games get started, and memories of Brazil's successes in the World Cup warm-up during the 2013 Confederation Cup are rekindled, enthusiasm will be at expected levels in São Paulo and across the nation.

I'll keep you posted, especially as we travel to other host cities.

In the meantime, I think it's time to dip into the leftovers from last night's feast before my Seattle time zone meetings get started for the day.

UPDATE: Just finished watching this "funny as all hell" yet also sad commentary by the "funny as all hell" John Oliver and thought it somewhat apropos to this post:

   

A Slow News Day

Heading to Brazil for the World Cup Finals isn't all Brazucas, caxirolas and caipirinhas. We've also had a few other items on the agenda ahead of the opening match on Thursday.

The nerve, right?

Since arriving, we've spent some time getting acclimated, logging time with family and I've been working remotely.

Boy, do I have new found respect for folks who work remotely.

After spending 8 hours on Monday--4 times zones ahead of everyone else--participating in an offsite over Lync, I can truly appreciate the impact of a good remote meeting experience. Fortunately, Lync performed like a champ and my colleagues up north were kind to my situation.

Today has been more of the same, sans the marathon meeting. At least my "remote home office" view is a bit more interesting than the normal Microsoft parking lot outside my office on the Redmond campus.

SãoPauloPano

As you can see, the weather is very Pacific Northwest like to make sure I don't get too home sick or distracted by local atmosphere. At least the forecast for Thursday shows sunshine and a good chance of WCF (World Cup Fever).

To keep with the whole "World Cup theme" in the absence of something more exciting to share from my own first-hand experience, here's my bracket for the Finals:

2014 FIFA World Cup Bracket - Vai Brasil!

Some bold predictions, I suspect you'll say. Yup, I have the USA snag the two spot in the "Group of Death!" and meet our cold war pals Russia in the Round of 16. And, I guess I'm being a homer picking Brazil to prevail over the defending champs in the final match.

What the hell, right?

It's WCF time and I've got me some...on a slow news day.

Back to work.

Boa viagem para o Brasil!

It's truly hard to believe it, but the day has finally arrived!

After marking our calendars years in advanced.

After planning and securing travel arrangements.

After early morning attempts to grab tickets via the mad dash lottery.

After cramming everything possible into a handful of suitcases.

After finally getting match tickets for the U.S. Men's National Team's group stage campaign.

After weeks of hard work to get things buttoned up at the office.

After cramming even more stuff into suitcases.

After selecting just the right gear to represent the U.S.A. and Brasil.

And, after trying to teach Maura all of the American Outlaws chants.

After all of that, we are finally heading to Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals!

The "Stars and Stripes" and "Seleção Brasileira" shirts are ready for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals

We are off on a crazy, once in a life adventure to witness the world's game on its biggest stage. To share with my wife and her family the national passion and pride that comes with hosting the finals on their own soil for the first time in 64 years. To have the opportunity to watch what I've only witnessed on T.V., a World Cup match, in person. To (hopefully) support the Yanks through to the knockout stage and to celebrate with millions of Brasileiros as their (our) Seleção, their Canarinhos open the 30 days of football championship battles to win the prize of joining the small fraternity of eight nations that have won the coveted trophy in this nearly 85 years old tournament.

The long and the short of it: it's going to be f-ing amazing!

I hope to share the experience through pictures and blog posts, and I do hope you'll tag along. Maybe you'll even lose your voice screaming at the T.V. like I plan to at a match, after our own Seattle Sounders FC Clint "Captain American" Dempsey puts one between the pipes for a game winning goal. (NOTE: I'd be happy if any of the 23 USMNT have this opportunity...I'm not picky).

Wish us luck and boa viagem!