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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Thu Jun 12, 2014, 08:26 AM Jun 2014

Problems starting for Brazil World Cup

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/jun/11/world-cup-2014-brazil/



Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin vowed Tuesday that the strike-plagued metro here in Brazil's largest city will function normally for this week's opening match of the soccer World Cup.

Problems starting for Brazil World Cup
By Mark Zeigler
7:39 p.m.June 11, 2014

SAO PAULO — The U.S. soccer team had planned to hold a closed-door scrimmage against Belgium on Thursday morning at its Sao Paulo training center, a final tune-up ahead of its World Cup opener Monday against Ghana. Belgium called Wednesday and cancelled.

Coach Marc Wilmots’ team is based only about 30 miles away but he has been in Sao Paulo long enough to know that traffic here is among the worst on the planet, and that’s when the subway workers aren’t on strike, which they threatened to do again Thursday.

“I don’t want to sit in a bus for five hours,” Wilmots explained.

He’s not engaging in convenient hyperbole. Fans began arriving this week for the 2014 World Cup that opens Thursday when Brazil plays Croatia at Arena de San Paulo, subway drivers and angry protesters permitting. Those landing at dawn at Guarulhos International Airport after overnight flights slogged bleary-eyed through an unfinished terminal, retrieved their luggage, cleared customs and boarded pre-arranged transport to downtown hotels.
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