Brazil World Cup 2014 - ENGLAND ARE OUT

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jjbd
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Brazil World Cup 2014 - ENGLAND ARE OUT

Post by jjbd » Wed May 21, 2014 10:16 pm

watch this space

no I mean really watch this space

bookmark this space

watch it live (well OK somewhere else)

but this is where we will pass independent and impartial comment on ............
Last edited by jjbd on Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:53 pm, edited 7 times in total.

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Truthiness2
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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be

Post by Truthiness2 » Wed May 21, 2014 10:53 pm

Will be watching from behind the sofa :s_cool
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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by jjbd » Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:11 pm

note change of thread title

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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by jjbd » Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:13 pm

I don't know if anyone has been watching the Brazil programs on BBC

Quite shocking the favelas

Over 1000 of them and the largest has 110,000 residents.

Run by drug barons

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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by jjbd » Sun Jun 08, 2014 11:07 am

For what it's worth, I think the England football team may have made a pretty big mistake by choosing Rio de Janeiro as their World Cup base - more specifically the particular part of Rio where they're hoping to spend most of the next month.

Initially, you can see the sense behind the choice of what some locals here know as the "cidade maravilhosa" - the "marvellous city".

Not wanting to be isolated in a plush resort, away from fans and "civilization", the England management listened to players concerns about boredom and sought out a city centre location.

It was a policy that, after all, suited the England team well in the 2012 European Championships when they chose the Polish city of Krakow as their base.

But Rio is different.

'Luxury' hotel

When in the city briefly last year for a friendly fixture against Brazil, England stayed in a hotel right on Copacabana beach, in the heart of the hotel zone, close to the big tourist attractions and the temptations of Rio's famous night life.
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Royal Tulip Hotel in Rio The Royal Tulip Hotel has been spruced up ahead of England's arrival
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View from hotel balcony Views from the hotel are simply breathtaking
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Hotel room The rooms are pleasant but the decor and furnishings are rough around the edges

But for the World Cup, that stretch of beach on Copacabana is exactly where Fifa's fan fest is belatedly being built - a huge cavernous beer tent and big screen where hundreds of thousands of football fans, without tickets for the stadiums, will watch the matches.

You can see why England officials wanted to move away.

But move away they have, to a beach area well to the south of the city, known as Sao Conrado. From a distance, it looks pleasant enough, and there are the facilities of the upmarket Gavea Golf Club to which the players will, presumably, have access.

Apart from that, Sao Conrado has very little going for it.

England's chosen hotel, the Royal Tulip, is nice enough and has been spruced up ahead of the team's arrival.

Its billing as a "luxury" hotel is pushing things a bit. The rooms are pleasant but the decor and furnishings are rough around the edges and multi-million pound footballers will be used to a much classier standard of accommodation.
Upsurge in violence

The biggest problem is that, golf apart, there is absolutely nothing to do or see in the vicinity of the team hotel.
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Rocinha favela in Rio Rocinha favela has become something of a tourist attraction in recent years

The beach immediately in front is, arguably, the most polluted in the whole of Rio. It's not so much the rubbish that gets washed up on the sandy shore as the tonnes of untreated sewage that pour into the sea from the nearby Rocinha favela or shanty town.

Rocinha is Rio's biggest favela and, like some of the city's other "pacified" shanty towns, has become something of a tourist attraction in recent years.

Spread out along the hillside above Sao Conrado, Rocinha will be an unmissable sight as the England players relax on their bedroom balconies.

But, apart from the odd choreographed goodwill visit, English players are very unlikely to be venturing into the favela.

In recent weeks Rocinha - and several other favelas in Rio - have seen a worrying upsurge in violence between the resurgent drugs gangs and armed police.

There has been clearly audible gunfire from inside the community and people have been killed, either deliberately or in the crossfire.

Recently interviewed by the BBC, the police commander in Rocinha said that despite the troubles the England players had no need to worry because "what happens in Rocinha stays in Rocinha".
Different reality

If, as they wake up in the morning, England players stand on their balconies and their gaze wanders from the hillside to the street, they'll perhaps be mesmerised by the endless river of traffic that flows each morning in the direction of the city centre.
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Training ground English players will be training on a secure military base, away from the prying eyes of the public and press

Like many other big cities, Rio has a chronic traffic problem. Public transport is completely inadequate and there is a heavy reliance on cars.

Commuters from Sao Conrado and Barra even further to the south can spend hours in the morning crawl to their jobs in central Rio.

That's in the same direction as England's daily training camp.

One assumes the team bus will be leaving each day after rush hour is over and returning before it begins. They'll also have a noisy, over-the-top police escort but the journey to the camp in the Rio suburb of Urca is unlikely to be traffic free.

Once in Urca, though, team England will have few complaints. Underneath the imposing Sugar Loaf mountain, it is one of Rio's most attractive areas.

They'll be training on a secure military base, away from the prying eyes of the public and press - something the England team management has always seen as a priority.

The FA has paid great attention to detail to help upgrade facilities at the base, which also serves as an army physical training centre in Rio.

The football pitch has been re-laid, gym facilities upgraded and there's even a (cleaner) private beach on which to unwind and to up the tans of those sun-starved English bodies.

The training camp aside, England have been lured by Rio's beguiling reputation - but the reality will be rather different.

Petty crime is rising alarmingly, so watches, expensive jewellery and designer clothing will have to be left behind in the hotel.

If wives and girlfriends come along, Rio has surprisingly few high-end shopping attractions (compared, say, with the much more modern metropolis of Sao Paulo) and all the beaches are public. There is always the military base where the players are training, but that might be a distraction too far.

How long team England stays in Rio depends entirely on how they fare in their group - and remember those group games will take them away from the delights of Sao Conrado from time to time.

Other teams have chosen much more suitable and diverse places to be based from Iguacu to Salvador to Belo Horizonte.

It would have been great had the England made the most of this huge country and realised there is so much more to it than Rio.

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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by jjbd » Sun Jun 08, 2014 3:35 pm

Image

World Cup 2014: England squad arrive in Brazil

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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by Truthiness2 » Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:34 pm

jjbd wrote:I don't know if anyone has been watching the Brazil programs on BBC

Quite shocking the favelas

Over 1000 of them and the largest has 110,000 residents.

Run by drug barons
I saw a programme a while ago :s_sad It was scary. Some residents complained when they tore some down :s_omg
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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by Truthiness2 » Sun Jun 08, 2014 5:40 pm

That article above makes me fearful for the players and fans :s_sad

We were watching an interview in Brazil the other night. A reporter was interviewing a woman on camera, and a man ran up and yanked the gold chain from around her neck and ran off. The camera didn't put him off at all. :s_sad
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:41 am

Image

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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:45 pm

Gnomes? GNOMES?? :s_omg
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:48 pm

I know you won't actually have noticed, jjbd, but J LO couldn't be heard :s_no #sackthesoundengineer #heispissedalready
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:49 pm

That Nike advert made me
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:51 pm

I am just hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that Balding is not there.

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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:52 pm

Truthiness2 wrote:I know you won't actually have noticed, jjbd, but J LO couldn't be heard :s_no #sackthesoundengineer #heispissedalready
I wasn't watching - opening ceremonies are not my thing

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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by urcrazy » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:57 pm

Truthiness2 wrote:
jjbd wrote:I don't know if anyone has been watching the Brazil programs on BBC

Quite shocking the favelas

Over 1000 of them and the largest has 110,000 residents.

Run by drug barons
I saw a programme a while ago :s_sad It was scary. Some residents complained when they tore some down :s_omg

Of course they will complain.

The promised alternative housing never materialises, and they know it.

A slum is better than nothing, and at the least there is great community spirit.

By the way jjbd, you missed nothing. The opening ceremony was pants.
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:57 pm

jjbd wrote:I am just hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that Balding is not there.
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:57 pm

Image

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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:59 pm

jjbd wrote:
Truthiness2 wrote:I know you won't actually have noticed, jjbd, but J LO couldn't be heard :s_no #sackthesoundengineer #heispissedalready
I wasn't watching - opening ceremonies are not my thing
This was dire by anyone's standards
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Re: Brazil 2014 - This is the place to be- Nearly there

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:00 pm

urcrazy wrote:
Truthiness2 wrote:
jjbd wrote:I don't know if anyone has been watching the Brazil programs on BBC

Quite shocking the favelas

Over 1000 of them and the largest has 110,000 residents.

Run by drug barons
I saw a programme a while ago :s_sad It was scary. Some residents complained when they tore some down :s_omg

Of course they will complain.

The promised alternative housing never materialises, and they know it.

A slum is better than nothing, and at the least there is great community spirit.

By the way jjbd, you missed nothing. The opening ceremony was pants.
Ah, that would explain it.
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:02 pm

and we're off - this is going to be a game of two halves and the team that scores the most goals will win (end genuine quotes from commentators in the past)


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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:09 pm

jjbd wrote:and we're off - this is going to be a game of two halves and the team that scores the most goals will win (end genuine quotes from commentators in the past)
:s_laughat
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:13 pm

and BRAZIL score the first gooooaaaaaaal

own goal


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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:16 pm

jjbd wrote:and BRAZIL score the first gooooaaaaaaal

own goal
Cynical me thinks someone just made an absolute mint:

What are the odds on the first goal of the World Cup being an own goal by Brazil?
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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by jjbd » Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:20 pm

yep I'm sure someone had a punt on it

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Re: Brazil World Cup 2014

Post by Truthiness2 » Thu Jun 12, 2014 9:24 pm

What a save!!
“‎"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”
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