Brazilians, Germans hope to meet in World Cup final

SAO PAULO, Brazil, June 10: An ocean away from the live action, fans of World Cup hosts Germany and favorites Brazil partied together in Sao Paulo as the most celebrated global football festival kicked off.

Fueled by beer and sausages, German expatriates, German-Brazilians and Brazilians who happened to like Germany gathered in clubs and institutions in this city to watch the broadcast of the first game of the tournament between Germany and Costa Rica.

Several hundred people packed into the Goethe Institute -- the German cultural center -- to watch the opening ceremony and game on a big television in the beer garden and a giant screen in the auditorium, which had been laid with fake turf and painted with soccer murals to resemble a stadium.

The place was festooned with green and yellow Brazilian flags and the red, black and yellow German colors.

Among the fans was Athie Benevenuto, an 18-year-old student with dreadlocks in a Deutschland soccer shirt. Though Brazilian, he said he was supporting Germany.

''I was born in Germany but I came here as a kid,'' he said.

''I would prefer that it would be Brazil and Germany in the final, but that Germany wins.'' Brazil has a sizable community descended from German immigrants, especially in the southern states. The town of Blumenau in Santa Catarina is famous for its Bavarian architecture and boasts of having the world's largest Oktoberfest beer festival outside of Germany.

At the Goethe Institute, Carlos Narcy Mello wore a black Germany T-shirt and a green-and-yellow Brazil bandanna around his head.

''I'm studying here at the institute,'' the 46-year-old lawyer said, clutching a tin of Lowenbrau beer.

He said he planned to go to Germany for the later rounds.

What if Brazil fail to reach the second round? ''That possibility doesn't exist,'' he said.

The head of the Goethe Institute, Joachim Bernauer, said the match day parties were part of a program of cultural events tied to the World Cup called Copa da Cultura. It included such things as photo exhibitions and film shows.

The director of the German Tourism Center, Adriana Martins, said that as a Brazilian married to a German, she was suffering badly and was hoping the two teams would meet in the final.

REUTERS