Day 26: Brazilians love their air conditioners. You go from a freezing taxi, open the door and its sweltering, a freezing airport, a freezing plane, to hot and humid. The cleaner keeps turning on the air con in your room and you return to an ice bucket. I dont like air con. In a car I prefer to have the window open and take in the natural air. Also if I leave it on in my hotel room it causes condensation in my lenses, which is what happened when I got to Recife last week. As soon as I took my camera in the humidity outside, my lenses steamed up. I had to turn them face up into the sun and wait for them to clear. Its supposed to be winter on this side of the planet and in the north of Brazil, its anything but. The south, though, is a lot cooler. So you end up travelling from hot to cold, to air con, to air con off; add to that a virus that was spread on the Avianca flight on the way up here and you have the cause of Man-flu. The last thing I need is Man flu over the next couple of days. Weve got a gruelling schedule awaiting us. Anyone that says this job is glamorous has no idea. Yes you get to travel and see great places, meet amazing people, without sounding patronising, its not for the faint hearted. Sometimes it really is blood sweat and tears to get your shot. This morning it was blood sweat and tears getting out of bed as man flu kicked in. I stuffed myself with as much mango, apples and pears to boost my energy. Big game today. Brazil v Colombia. Thousands of Brazilians were in party mood outside the stadium. I was not. Just couldnt get into it. Felt like my head was in a vice. Screaming fans jumping up and down in front of my camera and shouting really really loudly, just in case I couldnt hear them properly, made it even more…fun! As we walked into the ground from the media centre, the Colombian team came out to warm up. The whole stadium jeered. And it was a loud jeer. Really loud. The stadium was full to the rafters and out of the 60,000 there were only a thousand Colombians. They could not be heard. The circular design of the stadium ensured that the cheers of the vociferous crowd wasnt lost in the skies above. The Brazilian National anthem played and the crowd were on their feet, singing their hearts out. Men, women and children, wrapped up in emotion and national pride, tears in their eyes. All of a sudden an officious person demanded that Greg leave the pitch. Camera crews werent allowed to have a producer with them, especially behind the goal. We spent the whole of the first half arguing with them. Eventually after a phone call they found out that that rule doesnt apply to all crews and we were one of those special crews. But it was frustrating and unnecessary. It affects your work. Security guards and officious people. I love em! The game was…well, it wasnt great. In fact I thought it was rubbish. It was stop start. Too many fouls. The ball spent a lot of time in the air. Brazil were really nervous and on edge, their passing was wayward, whereas Colombia couldnt string more than four passes together. They were worse than England! Brazil were tough, strong and quite dirty off the ball. They reminded me of Stoke City. It ended 2-1 to Brazil with a spectacular free kick from David Luiz, who ran straight past me to celebrate with the fans by the corner flag. I really thought Colombia was going to be a game too far for Brazil, but they got their tactics right and out-muscled them. With Brazil through, everyone is happy and the tournament fever lasts into the next round. No protests just yet. Am stuffing my face into a risotto in my room while I wait for all my cards from the camera to digitise onto the hard drive. We have four hours before a taxi takes us to the airport for a 3am flight to Salvador!!! Tomorrow its Hup Hup Holland v Costa Rica. Lets hope man-flu clears up by then.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 02:43:42 +0000
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