Security Update: Fifa World Cup

Another exciting day on the pitch with Ghana’s stunning tie with three time tournament winners Germany.  That game also saw the tournament’s first streaker or pitch-invader, but this only paused the match for less than a minute. Nonetheless, the media will remained focused on embarrassing FIFA by continually reporting the same stories with an added layer of butter. ABC news have written a good summary of how things have gone from an organisational point of view so far: here.

Sunday’s matches are mostly the unimpressive group H.  The big game will be the USA vs Portugal, the former coming out a victory against Ghana who has knocked them out in the previous WC and the latter who were crushed by the Germans in the first match of the group stage.  If the Americans win it will be the third giant slayed in the first 2 matches!

Today’s matches are in Rio De Janeiro (29C, 88% humidity, slight chance of rain), Porto Alegre (19C, 100% humidity, clear), and Manaus (29C, 89% humidity, good chance of rain (it is in a rain forest…)). If you’re going to the match in Rio, the police cordon has been significantly widened to avoid fans getting into the Maracana as has happened in the last two matches.  FIFA will be making significant efforts to avoid further embarrassment, so get there early, as the subway station will be packed and the route from the subway station even more so.