RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — If there is one thing even Pele cannot beat, it's the traffic that plagued many of the country's cities as Brazilians rushed home from a half day of work to watch their national team play Tuesday. For the first time in my life I had to watch the first half in a car! Pele told Globo TV from a World Cup watch party in Brazil's biggest city of Sao Paulo, famous for its mind-numbing traffic jams even on normal days. CUIABA, Brazil (AP) — Hours before kickoff in the second World Cup match staged in Cuiaba, excited Russia and South Korea fans were in high spirits as they flocked toward Arena Pantanal to watch their teams' debut in the tournament. A handful of workers in thick, blue overalls trudge along a seemingly abandoned railway line, towels over their heads to shield themselves from the sweltering heat as cars whizz by the adjacent highway and planes land in the nearby airport. Costing more than $600 million, a 13-mile light railway system was meant to be helping football fans get around the city during the World Cup, including to the stadium and the airport. Back in January, however, officials acknowledged that what was widely seen as the crowning jewel of the city's World Cup infrastructure projects — albeit not one requested by world governing body FIFA — would not be ready in time for the tournament, or indeed for the rest of the year. [...] traffic ground to a halt in Sao Paulo as people left work early to go home or get to restaurants and bars to watch Brazil's match, which started at 4 p.m. local time. OLINDA, Brazil (AP) — The nearly 500-year-old coastal community of Olinda is a UNESCO World Heritage site where narrow, cobblestone streets climb a hillside past stucco-sided buildings painted in cheerful shades of yellow, orange, green and blue, finished off with white trim highlighting old-world architectural detail. [...] one might find a handful of residents wearing Jacoby Ellsbury Red Sox shirts or baseball caps commemorating the team's 2013 American League Championship Series victory. Named after the late Argentina player and coach Renato Cesarini, the academy has seen several national team players rise through its ranks, including Javier Mascherano and Martin Demichelis.
Reported by SeattlePI.com 10 hours ago.
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