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World Cup Final Kicks Up Frenzy Around Globe
"It's like a festival," said Zhang Jing, 26, a television producer who recalled that classmates mourned Italy's loss to South Korea four years ago. "We get to be wild; we get to be mad. I don't think Chinese people have a very outgoing personality, most of us, so it's great to get an opportunity to get away from the routine daily pressure."
Interest has waned in Mexico City with the lack of a Latin American team in the semifinals. World Cup hats, T-shirts, cups -- even soccer-ball-shaped televisions -- have been moved to the back racks at grocery stores and corner shops, and banner advertising for drink specials on game nights has dwindled.
  Soccer fans at Didi's Tavern in Cape Town, South Africa, cheer Brazil's first goal against Ghana. Now people have to choose: France or Italy. (By Obed Zilwa -- Associated Press) |
"We would have rather had Brazil or Argentina in the final," said Felix Mendes, 32, a street vendor who sported a World Cup hat while chatting with friends in the Colonia del Valle neighborhood. "I'm just not interested anymore."
But most Latin Americans still have World Cup fever.
"Soccer here is kind of like the NBA in the United States. It doesn't really matter to us who is playing in the World Cup finals; we will follow every minute of it," Gabriel Cabrera, 21, a gas station attendant in Buenos Aires, said as he kept one eye on the semifinal between Germany and Italy.
The strong cultural connections between Argentina and Italy mean that Guillermo Rojas, 47, a city employee in Buenos Aires, will be rooting for the Azzurri on Sunday.
"All of Latin America is in pain right now," Rojas said. "Ecuador gave us a little bit of happiness because they went further than expected. But in Brazil they burned down a statue of Ronaldinho. Can you believe that? Here in Argentina we can criticize our coach and our players, but the fact is we just couldn't get the job done."
Even in Baghdad, the World Cup is providing rare common ground. On satellite television, soccer updates have competed with the latest on politics or insurgent violence, and militiamen, schoolchildren, soldiers and foreign civilians are all sporting colorful team jerseys. The violence prevents Iraqis from gathering after dark and in public, so most fans watch from home.
"We'd like to watch in restaurants or parks like the Europeans do, but it's not really a choice here," said Karam Sabah, 27, who runs a currency exchange. "We cheer and shout at the TV. Everyone will be talking about it the next day, so you have to watch, even alone."
Correspondents Monte Reel in Buenos Aires, Manuel Roig-Franzia in Mexico City and Jonathan Finer in Baghdad, special correspondents Mariana Grebler in Sao Paulo, Brian Byrnes in Buenos Aires, Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi and Faiza Saleh Ambah in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, and researcher Jin Ling in Beijing contributed to this report.
