WHERE'S THE PARTY?: Fans of Brazil watch the game. |
These days, every time somebody finds out that I’m from Argentina, I get some variation on the same comment: “Argentina? Maradona! Great soccer, right?” You could say that, yes.The U.S. has been slow to catch World Cup fever, that work-skipping, flag-waving, hoot-and-hollering obsession that spreads around the globe in an every-four-year epidemic. In the rest of the world, all that matters during the World Cup is the World Cup. Here, that’s not yet the case -- although it seems that maybe the States’ immunity to the fever is growing weaker. Because there are certainly pockets throughout Boston that the soccer spirit can be found.
Sure, some of the big sports stores and fancy shops on Newbury Street have joined the marketing season of the World Cup, and a number of bars in town promote that they’re screening all the games. But the spirit is particularly evident in the Brazilian neighborhoods. Just as every Walgreen in mid-February is all pink-and-red sweet hearts, the shops and restaurants around Allston and Union Square in Somerville festoon the storefronts and spaces with Brazilian team paraphernalia –- t-shirts, hats, posters, and stickers.
I decided to go hunting for some of that spirit, and a Brazilian friend suggested some possible spots -- only after he asked if I wasn’t trying to cast some kind of “spell” against Argentina’s main rival. For Sunday’s game between Brazil and Australia, I joined a crowd in bright yellow and green watching a giant screen at the Green Field restaurant in Allston.
Thousands of miles away from where the match was being played, the ambience was intense: around 200 pairs of eyes, entire families, and groups of friends stared at the screens. Voicing directions to the players with anxious shouts of “Agora! Agora!” (Now! Now!), they asked a player to shine, to make a marvelous pass, to score. It appeared the scene was set for a true “Brazilian Party,” but for some reason, for the first 40 minutes of the game, there was no party at all.
I asked Alex Santos, 34, a Brazilian who’s lived in Boston for the past five years, why they weren’t singing, screaming, cheering, or standing up and he said: “Wait until Brazil scores.” Brazil beat Croatia in the first match in a tight 1-0 victory that, according to most reviews, had lacked the magic that the world’s favorite and five-time champion team was expected to show. An instant after Santos said that, he proved himself right. When the almighty Ronaldinho played the ball forward and Ronaldo served Adriano with a perfectly weighted pass, everybody stood up. The first “Goal!” was celebrated -- as is often the case in soccer -- a couple of seconds before Adriano actually scored. After that, as Santos had anticipated, everything changed.
After that first goal, people shouted at every pass. Now, the expectations of “jogo bonito” (beautiful play) were expressed aloud, with the pride and sense of community that perhaps only soccer can create between Paulistas and Cariocas, between the high and lower classes, between perfect strangers, no matter where, if in Allston, Germany, or Brazil.
