All Eyes on Brazil: Scenes from the Opening Days of the 2014 World Cup
On June 12th, attention turned to the world’s largest sporting event: the World Cup. Hosted by a
On June 12th, attention turned to the world’s largest sporting event: the World Cup. Hosted by a country that has held the Beautiful Game in high regard for much of the sport’s history, the opening match between host country Brazil and its stylistically-similar European counterparts Croatia kicked off to what will amount to over a month’s worth of games and excitement. While the event has come increasingly under both domestic and international microscopes for its ongoing on-and-off the field disruptions, many fans were nevertheless able to tune things out for the some 90-some minutes as the respective teams — including adopted countries — went to battle.
Despite the lack of a common language and very different cultures at hand spanning the globe over, the common denominator — a love for football — has offered a compelling reason for fans to come together regardless of international differences as well as creating a sense of Brazilian pride for locals. Similar scenes across many of the matches included regional representation from Brazilian clubs, flags of all shapes, sizes and countries, and of course a sea of canary yellow shirts.
HYPEBEAST was granted backstage access by Visa as well as the opportunity to watch the opening match between host country Brazil and Croatia as part of the Fanbassador program. The match saw a two-goal effort from Brazilian and Barcelona superstar Neymar create the difference amidst some controversial reffing decisions. Several days later, we took in a game of contrasting styles, a physically dominating Ivory Coast fell behind thanks to a Keisuke Honda thunderbolt in the first half. However, as the game wore on, and the Samurai Blue began to tire, Didier Drogba’s substitution in the latter stages of the game made all the difference. Despite nearing the end of his career, Drogba’s ability to play with his back to goal quickly opened the game up for a quick two goal outburst.
As HYPEBEAST continues on the road to the World Cup, stay tuned for more updates both here and on our Instagram.
