Quality of Experience: 10/10
Great atmosphere, good mix of fans, great to be there. Loved the Eu Sou Brasileiro song - goose bump giving. Click here for an example (not a video I took).
Quality of Game: 0/10
It was SHOCKING. Brazilians cheered for Nigeria for 60 minutes, at which point they started booing them. Best chant: "Segundo division" over and over. It means second division, which says it all.
Team Iran hotel pre-game:
Not quite sure how I ended up here, but I know the guy with the lime green mohawk. Apparently some of these people are with the Iranian team delegation, but I am not totally convinced I understood that correctly.
Lots of armed military police by the Iran team hotel for some reason. Their main job involved giving directions to the stadium (by saying 'la' [there] and pointing. Oh, not with their guns, pointing with their fingers).
Arena da Baixada
Very impressive btw, mostly finished, with fresh cement dust on all the seats, which I wiped off before sitting of course. Toilets near me were functioning perfectly pre-game but, rather worryingly, were out of service before half-time. Despite this, one pertinent observation I noted was that it was a very nice smelling stadium. A lovely mix of deodorant, perfume, and the sweet nectar of beer on people's breath.
Crowd
Gentleman in the first row appears somewhat less enthusiastic than some other crowd members. Note that popcorn was available. Also, look at the empty seats and note how uneven they are. Bit like the shelves I put up in our old house.
'Fan Fest' Area (or Corporate Sponsor stuff section, if you prefer)
R$8 for a bottle of water, but you get a hard plastic cup to keep (maybe the water cost R$1 and the cup R$7?) You have to pour your drinks into the cup because, apparently, a plastic bottle of R$8 water is too tempting to use as a missile. Still, it was cheaper than an Oilers game (did I mention the free cup?)
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