Dublin rocks to samba beat as football fever grips

A WAVE of Brazilian national colours moved to a beat as hundreds of fans celebrated the 3-1 win over Ivory Coast in a Dublin city centre pub last night. With yellow T-shirts and hot pants, green belly tops, shiny capes, wigs and facepaints, Brazilians cheered, danced on tables and banged drums to celebrate.

“Football is like carnival in Brazil,” said an excited Mayk Nascimento from Mato Grosso.

“It was an amazing game,” said Vinicius Fedrizzi, who thought if Brazil continued to play like that they could win the tournament.

There was a celebratory atmosphere in the packed Odeon pub on Harcourt Street throughout the game. Fans danced to the salsa band at half-time and after each goal sang the Brazilian national anthem and “Olé Olé”. “I am so excited. I love football. It feels the same as in Brazil,” said Gabriela Carboso, who was expecting a late night.

Aside from the gasps at Didier Drogba’s goal for Ivory Coast, the only bad moment came minutes from the end as Kaka was sent off for a second booking and the annoyed crowd sang repeatedly in Portuguese that it was not fair.

“It wasn’t just, he didn’t foul,” said Elder Trindade.

The passion Brazilians have for football was clear. “Since I was born I watched football. Young people, old people, everyone loves it,” said Silas Lima from Sao Paulo. He was certain that Brazil would win the World Cup “They are more prepared this time, the team has no stars like Ronaldo, just good footballers.”

However, the enormity of the occasion made Gabriel Silva homesick for north Rodonia, where she would have a big party and celebrate with family and friends.

Earlier in the afternoon Italian ex-pats watched the champions take on New Zealand.

“The weather is good, the beer is chilled, it looks like Italy,” said Gabriele Merola as he watched the match from the piazza in Dublin’s “Italian quarter”.

“Back in Italy business is suspended, nobody talks, thinks about anything else and even corruption scandals are forgotten for 2½ weeks,” Merola said.

“Watching from abroad is special, you feel more close to your country,” said Emanuele Allegrezza from Ancona. “I would never have bought this jersey when I lived in Italy,” he said, pointing to his shiny blue top.

However, yesterday’s match was a win of sorts for the “all whites”. At the antipodean Woolshed bar on Parnell Street Kiwis screamed and chanted as the final whistle gave them a stunning 1-1 draw.

Wrapped in a navy flag and jumping around the pub, Shaun Bosher from Wellington could not believe the result. “I expected us to lose 3-0,” he said.

New Zealander Kylie Livesey said having many Italians in the same bar made it “so much more exciting”.

Shocked-looking Italians scuttled out of the pub as soon as the match ended. “I’m a bit disappointed because we needed to win,” said Roberto Sanasi from Lecce. However, he still had hope and said sometimes Italy “just has to suffer through to the end”.