This time in Rio de Janeiro but as much connected to football (or ‘futchibol’ – as the locals pronounce it, but the also call Michael Ballack ‘Ballaki’) as last time. Brazil just lots the quarter final match against france and that led to an atmosphere of intense sadness in the streets (against the backdrop of lots of firecrackers exploding in the streets but i guess these have to be used anyway). People are crying, some of them are dancing and i have seen the first Portuguese flags hanging out of windows.

What a contrast to the last game when the city erupted into a spontaneous party after the win over Ghana, which even made people miss flights and will be remembered for some time. Also at some point during that party i discovered that the Cariocas have much more style when it comes to pissoirs than the dutch:

Anyway the world-cup just downgraded itself to a euro-cup. I really wish the argentinians would still be in, they did not deserve to loose.