Japan v. Greece: Why people who hate soccer hate soccer

Japan's Samurai Blue blew it

Quinta-feira, Thursday, was the last of the World Cup games for this World Cup trip.  And it was the perfect game on which to end the soccer viewing part of this trip:  Japão contra Grécia nas Arenas das Dunas in beautiful downtown Natal (actually, south of downtown).

We had been lucky so far with the games we saw.  Mexico 1, Cameroon 0, featured far more action and excitement than you would expect from a one-goal game.  Ivory Coast 2, Japan 1, in Recife was fantastic if for no other reason than to see the bolt of electricity shoot through Ivory Coast when they scored two quick goals immediately upon substituting their talisman-star Didier Drogba. And USA 2, Ghana 1, was an absolute classic, made even better by knowing the eyes of America were finally on USA international soccer.

This game would have none of that.

Pregame practice

Arenas Das Dunas once again was looking great.  And the opening ceremonies are always well done.

Japan and Greece come out onto the pitch

Then the game started.

Getting ready for the opening kick

The crowd was largely made up of two groups.  Japaneses.  And Japan-o-philic Americans who stayed over after Monday's Ghana to cheer on Japan.  The Japanese had completely taken over Natal by game day.  Which meant no seats at the upscale shrimp restaurants.   More on that later.

Japan, known as the Samurai Blue, were in fact wearing blue.  The Greeks were in Corinthian Column White.  Which is fitting because Greece plays like Corinthian Columns.  They are these giants, towering over the Japanese, who play an almost immobile, impenetrable defense in front of their own goal and rarely (if ever) play offense.  Not only is not exciting soccer.  Greece is then precise reason that people who hate soccer hate soccer.

Well look at that! A shot on goal!

Occasionally Japan would maneuver through the tight defense.  And the crowd would go wild:

The crowd.  Going wild.

In the second half, down to 10 men and desperate to get a win in this game to keep their World Cup hopes alive, Greece even went on offense.

Greece on offense

And the crowd went wild.

The crowd. Still wild.

The game was coming down to the wire, with both teams desperately needing the win:

Japan tries to play Greek-style defense

And the crowd went wild:

Still wild. After all these minutes.

Actually, I'm being unfair.  The Japanese crowd was wildly enthusiastic throughout the game.  It's just a shame that they traveled all this way for a nil-nil tie.  Mexico and Brazil had played a 0-0 draw a few days earlier that was absolutely as exciting as sports gets. Sometimes 0-0 doesn't mean "no action," sometimes it means out-of-this-world defense.  Japan-Greece?  It meant boring soccer.

It looked like a father-son game with Japan the sons.  They were so much smaller than the Greeks, and yet they tried to score with headers off set pieces when their advantage was maneuverability close to the ground.  I'm guessing both of these teams go home after group play.

And with the closing whistle the World Cup soccer portion of this trip has ended.  Four games were great, but a fifth would've been too much.  If I do this in 2018, I will set a three-game limit.  And with the closing whistle, it meant it was time to walk back to the car, parked at Shopping Natal.  And of course the walk would be in the rain.  But the rain was brief and not at all hard.  It ended well before we got to Shopping Natal.

One of the great things about Shopping Natal is that it has an upscale fine dining restaurant right in the mall food court:  Camarões.

Camarões Shopping Natal location

Tripadvisor.com rated Camarões the first and second best restaurants in Natal (two locations).  Since the shrimp-loving Japanese were in town, we could not get a seat at the location closest to our hotel.  Then I remembered Camarões had a location at Shopping Natal.  I thought it would be a regular restaurant.  No.  You order at the counter and, 10 or 15 minutes later your beeper goes off telling you you can pick up your food.  On china.  With silverware.  In a mall food court.  It was AWESOME.  Without a doubt, it was the finest meal I ever ate in a mall food court.

And with the World Cup portion of the trip coming to a conclusion, the Natal part of the trip has come to a conclusion.  Friday will be a travel day.  Off to Belém.

Side trip to Recife for Japan v. Ivory Coast

Opening ceremonies of the Japan v. Ivory Coast game

The first full day in Brazil was dedicated to going to the Mexico v. Ghana game.  And I cannot emphasize enough how great the Mexico fans are.  They're fun.  Loud.  Enthusiastic.  Helpful.  Despite the weather conditions, it was a great start to the World Cup part of the trip.

The second full day was dedicated to the drive to Recife for the second game of the four-game trip:  Japan v. Ivory Coast.  In fact, three of the first four days of the trip feature game attendance.  And, after that, only one game.

So let me tell you about Recife.  One of my favorite Swedish indie pop bands, The Mary Onettes, do a song where they filmed the video in Recife.  The song is called:  "The Evil Coast."

The Mary Onettes: Evil Coast

After getting soaking wet walking home from the previous night's Mexico v. Cameroon extravaganza, it made sense that the drive down to Recife would be in a rainstorm.  Only one wrong turn, in the kind-of-purulent city of João Pessoa, and we were in Olinda.  Google maps functioning as a GPS proved helpful in getting from the main highway (BR 101) to the Hotel 7 Colinas in Olinda, an old and interesting colonial town north of Recife.

View of the Hotel 7 Colinas from the parking lot

The hotel is best described as a compound up a hillside a few blocks inland from the ocean in Olinda.  It is walled off from the city proper and really has a colonial era feel.

View of the parking lot from the room

We were going to leave for the game at 8:00pm, two hours before "kick off," which we thought would give us plenty of time.  But, at 7:30pm, a young couple from Connecticut was talking about leaving right then and there.  So we grabbed our stuff.  Stuffed four of us in a cab.  (Fortunately, the couple, especially the girl, were petite.)  We headed off for Arena Pernambuco, which was placed like we did in the United States a few decades, way outside of the city in undeveloped suburban territory based on the hope it was spur development.

This meant the cab ride was long.  And the cab didn't even take us to Arena Pernambuco, as cabs are not allowed to do that.  Based on the hotel recommendation, we took a cab to the Recife metro stop "Rodoviária," where we took a metro train for one stop.  Which still was a long distance.  Then we caught a shuttle bus to take us to the stadium.  Did I say "to"?  I meant "near."  We got off the bus and did not see a stadium.

But we started walking in the same direction everyone else was walking.  Then finally:

Arena Pernambuco.  Somewhere on the same continent as the City of Recife

Arena Pernambuco!

Did I mention it was pouring rain.  Even though the forecast said 10 percent chance of rain.  I guess that's why 10 percent is a percentage greater than zero.  But the weather forecast did say zero percent chance of rain by 10:00pm, the scheduled start time.

Yes, that is a rather late scheduled start time.  But it was necessitated by this being the only day of the World Cup that required four separate game-start times.  And the home viewers in Japan probably appreciated it.

In the house.  And in the dark

We had seats under the overhanging roof.  The field and the expensive seats are exposed to the elements, but the cheap seats are protected.  I like redistribution of wealth when that's the form it takes.

The game started at 10:00pm and, sure enough, the rain had stopped.  Maybe this incessant drenching rain would finally end.

Opening ceremonies begin

Of course, by 10:15, the rain starting pouring again.  Well, they were right about the zero percent chance of rain right there at 10:00pm.  And at 10:00pm, the opening ceremonies were nice.  They brought the national flags of the competitors.  The rising sun flag of Japan, and the green white and orange stripes of Ireland.  Oh wait.  That's Ivory Coast.  Why they compete under the Irish flag I don't know.  (I'm joking.  I take national flags seriously.  The Ivory Coast and Irish flags are very similar.  Maybe the green and orange are reversed, but that's it.)

The atmosphere at these World Cup games is electric.  The constant pounding of the drums from the small Ivory Coast contingent really did add to the atmosphere.  And the Mexicans were in the house, loudly singing that "ay yi yi yi" song that was so thoroughly co-opted by American marketing in the 1960s so that I still to this day think of it as the Frito Bandito song.  So the party was there, even if the Japanese contingent was too reticent to have brought the party all by themselves.

The game itself was awesome.  Japan took the lead midway through the first half, on its only real shot on goal.  In the second half, Ivory Coast substituted into the game its super-duper-star Didier Drogba.*  It was a bolt of energy went through the Ivory Coast team, who then got two quick goals.  They held on to win 2-1.

Right before the closing whistle

The crowd was mostly Brazilian.  Few Japanese or Ivorian Coastians were in attendance.  And maybe it was the 10:00pm start time.  Or the downpour outside.  But I thought I was at Dodger Stadium, with so many people heading for the exits little more than halfway through a tight, competitive contest.

Ivory Coast looked great.  Japan is in trouble in the group.  We stayed until the end of a great game.  And the adventure began of trying to get back to the hotel in Olinda, reversing the convulated inward journey.

We did make it back to the hotel by 2:30am.  And it only took one-half hour in the pouring rain, at 1:30 or so in the morning, with visible gridlock on the road outside, to hail a cab at the Rodoviária metro stop.

"Down at the coast.  Down at the EVIL coast."

_______
 * Why do I call Didier Drogba a "super-duper-star"?  Yes, I know he is in the twilight of his career, and cannot even play a full game anymore.  The man once single-handedly ended a civil war in hihs native Ivory Coast by demanding that the two sides meet with him and talk.  And no one -- neither rebels nor government -- wanted to cross Drogba.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is a star.