"Go Korea! Shoot! Yeah!"

Howdy, everyone! First things first: the health update. Quinn had a slight fever before bed last night, so I ran (not literally) to the pharmacy and got Tylenol, in a format I hadn't seen before: Drops. You count the drops and drop them directly into the mouth, no swallowing of pills or mixing with water. It was very efficient, too - Quinn felt better almost immediately. Slept long and well, and had another dose in the morning. Felt so good that we finally hopped aboard the metro and saw the  Mercado Municipal. 

I got a pic of the map on the wall of he subway just for old time's sake. I know I could just keep the map we've been using, but then you wouldn't know what it looks like, would you?

We got off at São Beto, right across from the cathedral (which we still haven't been in; it looks so modern and Batman-ish, I'm really not that keen on it), consulted a big tourism-friendly map on a wall, and saw we'd have to take our first right, first left, and then our second right, and we'd be there. Our first right led us down this street:

It's steeper than it looks. But then we were there, and this is what it looks like:

Big, impressive, cool. Lots of shops that don't mind you sampling their wares, lots of locals doing their shopping and getting their midday meals. I thought this business' name was funny:

"Porco Feliz" - "Happy pig". Which is dead and has been cut into pieces. Quinn loved the fact that the guys behind the counter gave the thumbs-up for the camera. I hadn't noticed. 

Here's where we ate:

Here's the view from where we sat - add the Mercado to the list of businesses displaying all 32 flags of the participating nations in the Cup:

And here's what we ate:

Thin-sliced ham, cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes. Yum. 

We were back at the hostel in time to watch USA-Germany. I 'bout had a heart attack at the end there when the US almost headed one in. We lost, but we're moving on. To face Belgium. So Quinn and I decided to go do some scouting of our next opponent. Quinn had another shot of Tylenol, and we headed to he stadium for Korea-Belgium.

Here's our view of he field from our seats. Are we in the last row? Ha! Don't be ridiculous. This stadium is huge. It just looks like we're that high up.

We were in the second-to-last row. 

Still, you could follow the game very closely - totally unobstructed view, and you get to watch plays develop more when you can see the whole field. I liked being close enough to see faces the last 2 games - and I have to say, if we had to have "meh" seats for one game , this was the one. We were close enough to Rooney, Robben, and Suarez to see the whites of their eyes. And I couldn't even have named any of hese players in this game today if you'd put a gun to my head.

The flags at the beginning. Game-wise, the stadium, mostly populated by Brazilians, seemed above all to want a good game. So they set out to cheer for Korea, figuring the highly-regarded Belgians were the overwhelming favorites. And they cheered mightily every time Korea had a chance. 

Notice I didn't say "every time they shot". Because for some Unknown reason, the Koreans simply refused to shoot. Every time they got near, it wasn't near enough, and they'd dance around some more, looking to get an even better shot. We were going crazy, the whole stadium, howling "shoot!" In various languages. But they just wouldn't . Always looking for ONE more turn, ONE more step to get a slightly better angle - and then the chance is gone. They've lost the ball.

Their worst offender in this regard, #9, was subbed out in the second half after an especially egregious waste of an opportunity, and I noticed that when it was over, and Korea had lost, and the players had walked to the end of he stadium where most of the Korea fans were, he hung way back when it came time to bow, as if to say "I don't deserve to be up here". But his teammates dragged him in, hugging him and forcing him to take the cheers along with his teammates. Kind of a cool thing to see. 

There was a Korean man in our row, about 50, there with his daughter, probably 20, who never sat down, practically, and cheered wildly the whole time. Nothing obnoxious- just loud, and in English, for some reason (it wasn't his first language).  "Go!" "Shoot!" "Yeah!" "Oh no!" Quinn asked me surreptitiously if I thought he was happy, or crazy. He was definitely just happy, and I was happy for him. Cheering on his team with his daughter, who clapped politely and followed the action, but with far less passion. I found myself inventing whole story lines behind them. It was hard not to think about them, what with his cheering interjected into every action we witnessed. You came to expect it. In fact, I think I"ll let him help me out, in his shrill and clipped voice, with my scouting report, with some of his favorite cheers:

Belgium is a very good team ("Oh no!") with a lot of skill ("Stop them!") and incredibly accurate passes ("Cut them off!"). They never lost a header to the Koreans ("Jump! Jump!"), but were susceptible to a fast attack down the sidelines ("Go! Go!") and to well-placed crosses ("What a kick!"). One of their players got a red card ("Bye bye!"), which the Chileans at the hostel, who saw it in replays on TV, say was well-deserved. I don't know if it was one of their preferred starters, but whoever it was will be banned from he USA match ("Yeah! Yeah!").

Back to he hostel on the metro. On the way out, we saw this, on the eastern side if the stadium, which we saw for the first time today: 

Hard to tell, but that sign is all along the outside wall, and is probably sixty feet high. That's how the other side is unfinished, I'll bet: the sign there isn't working. 

We're going to try to hit the beach tomorrow. Wish us luck! ("Go! Go! Go!")