A look to the past: FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.

The other I was thinking about the last World Cup, 4 years ago sounds like a long time ago, a lot of things have happened since then in football, especially in this edition of the World Cup. For the first time in years, we’ve seen a tournament quite odd, without having the presence of those countries we’re used to see shining in this kind of competition; we’re talking about Netherlands and Italy.

I had the opportunity back then to travel to São Paulo and experience the World Cup vibes from the country that held the tournament! Even though I didn’t have the chance to buy tickets for at least one match (I remember they were re-selling the tickets in almost 1000$), I went to all the FIFA Fan Fest I could! Why didn’t I get tickets with anticipation? Well, to be honest I didn’t know I was going to be able to go to Brazil and even less in the eve of the World Cup.

I’m sharing some photos I took back then, when I wasn’t that interested in photography or tourism per se, at the moment I just wanted to enjoy a cold beer and watching the games with some excitement around. Also.. I was a little bit odd at the time; I was 21 years old and was less interested in looking good for the photos that I am now.

At the time, Brazil's president was Dilma Rousseff, the country was passing rough times like Venezuela (Chávez and Dilma had the same socialist ideals) and certain number of people wasn't okay with the fact that they hosted the World Cup in those conditions, so they started protesting at the same time the tournament was happening. I got close once to one protest and made myself with one information brochure about the causes of it.

That tournament felt "more normal" than Russia 2018, because it had the usual presence of teams that normally get far in this competition. The number of Chileans was incredible, I remember seeing a lot of red shirts even in the metro! My favorite group of fans was the Dutch, omg they were so full of energy and so extroverts, it was contagious. One day a Japanese guy approached me and my cousins just to ask for a picture with the Venezuelan flag (I don't get the point, but was nice at the moment); a couple of days later, a couple of Brazilians asked for the same. I was surprised when I met a group of Venezuelans, who just like me, had the luck to find cheap plane tickets and a cozy hostal to sleep it, just to experience this epic event.

The energy in Brazil's street was amazing, they were hosting a World Cup and Brazilians love football! The days Brazil played, no one worked, those days were decreted as non laborable days, so people could go to the stadium of the Fan Festivals. It made me think.. Why do we like football so much? Well, we fall in love with it because it's an irresponsible love, that needs little of us, mostly fidelity and fuss. We like football because it'srational, but also because it's wild. Each match begins identical to all the other matches we have already seen, but a second later, the ball barely moves and the initial order is broken, it's different and unrepeatable.