A Migrant’s Desperate Day Chasing Work at the World Cup
I am at the Rio final, watching the teams. I am trying to watch the match with some kind of dignity, not looking at the players. The match is over. The Brazilians won. Nobody cried, people in the stands walked out or laughed. The media, of course, did not report the fact that the Brazilian team lost the match. I have been on the ground for it all. I saw everything. I saw the match. Of course it was not a loss, not the way the referee saw it, but it was a good match. I do not think that people in this country will say that the Brazilian team lost. But it can never be the same again. The Brazilian team will never lose again and never win again. I will see the Rio final, but nothing will prepare me for what will unfold today in the Arena de Sao Paulo.
The first match of the first round was between Mexico and Honduras at 8 am (local time). Two teams with an identical story. The Mexicans are led by a man known as the FIFA president, who has no previous experience in the sport. The Honduras team is led by a man who has played in four World Cups and has been elected in a second time to lead the country. They will both play against one another on 7 September on the other side of the Rio final.
Mexico has won only one match in twelve World Cup games. The other, the 2010 final against Germany, they lost 2-0. And this is the first time a Mexican team has won the World Cup. They are very confident and seem to have a clear strategy. Against the Brazilians, they are going to send Diego Maradona against his old friend from the Mexico side, Pele. The Brazilians are going to send, in the first game, the only player from South Africa who has never won an individual medal in the sport at all, and who was