Published: 01:17 AM, 26 May 2018
Brazilian fans downbeat ahead of World Cup
Brazil fans before an international friendly with Germany in Berlin 2018. Many Brazilian fans don't even know that the 2018 FIFA?World Cup is taking place in Russia. -Reuters
Three weeks to World Cup kick-off and the Brazilians are downbeat, underperforming, and generally hangdog -- Brazilian fans, that is.Their team may be hot, steamrolling Latin American rivals in the qualifiers and gunning for a record sixth world title in Russia.
But the yellow-shirted fan base is decidedly blue. Souvenir sellers report slow business. Newspapers obsess over the state of superstar Neymar's health.
And the ghosts of the disastrous 2014 World Cup lurk.According to an opinion poll by the Parana Institute, Brazilians are bullish about the actual football, which starts mid-June.
----AFP, Rio De Janeiro
