Pretty damned fun- and soccer-loving!

I watched the Brazil game at Cervejaria Bar and Grill (Ossington and College).

Brazilian fans come with a sense of manifest destiny (Oilers fans in the 1980s or NY Yankees fans at pretty much any any point in history know what I mean), so it caught them offguard when Japan scored first on a brilliant shot by Keiji Tamada from within the penalty box. Even worse, Brazil had been outplaying Japan to that point, but Japan's netminder Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi had a great first half.

All the better then, when Ronaldo -- accused of being a big, do-nothing, tub-'o-goo -- scored on a header early in the injury extra time of the first half.

That gave a litle more impetus* to the Brazilian samba-drum performance on College St. -- which ended pretty much to the second the second half started.

* And unfortunately, since people went nuts when Brazil scored, some news photographer felt he had to push me out of his way to get a better picture. There was certainly no post-rudeness excuse me from this guy. But then again, I guess some members of the news media don't wonder why people think they're assholes.

Brazil pulled away in the second half. Ronaldo potted a second, and two reserve players scored, making for a 4-1 final score.

With each subsequent goal, the noise level in Cervejaria grew louder and louder -- and not just peoples' voices, but drums and whistles too.

"BRA-ZILL!!" (thump, thump, thump)  "BRA-ZILL!!" (thump, thump, thump) was a favourite, as well as singing along with the Ole, O-le-o-le... song.

You can see some video of the place from CTV.ca Toronto. Look for 'World Cup Video' down on the right side.

For atmosphere, you can't beat them, although the Korea-Spain quarter-final in 2002, won by Korea in a shoot-out, may well be comparable.

Korea plays tomorow, so we'll see how their fans are in 2006. :)

P.S.:

At 4 p.m., the bar staff let people know they should move their cars off the north side of College or risk getting towed. There were lots o' cops to keep traffic moving. However, on Dovercourt, just west of the party area, there was another small mounted unit on standby at the intersection of Shannon St. and Dovercourt, just south of College (14 Division police station is just a few blocks further south).