Juvenile soccer fans on street – Brazilian jersey burnt

by Qamarul Hassan Bablu
July 3, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/843/juvenile-soccer-fans-on-street-brazilian-jersey

Thousands of soccer fans [mostly fans of Argentina] came on the street on Friday night to celebrate the defeat of Brazil in FIFA World Cup 2010, while supporters of Netherlands chanted joyous slogan wishing the world cup for their favorite team. Dozens of youth danced on the streets in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barisal and other parts of Bangladesh, waving Argentine or Dutch flags. A number of angry supporters of Brazil burnt their fan-jerseys on the street.

Just before the match, several Brazilian fans in Bangladesh offered special prayers in mosques for the victory of their favorite team in the FIFA World Cup 2010.

It may be mentioned here that, a few thousand flags of various teams, who participated in the FIFA World Cup 2010 were sold in Bangladesh. A flag vendor told Weekly Blitz that, almost eighty per cent of such flags were of Argentina and Brazil, who are two hot favorite teams in the country.

"Now world cup has no more importance to me", said an angry fan of Brazil after his team was defeated.

"As our team is no more in the World Cup, we shall support Germany in the next match against Argentina. If Argentina will win, we shall always support its opponent teams in the remaining matches", said another fan.

"Argentina will snatch the World Cup", said a fan of Argentine team. "It has magic and no team can defeat Argentina", he added.

Mukta, a student of Dhaka University and a fan of German football team said, "Our team is very strong and well set. They will crash the Argentine dream during Saturday's match."

She said, amongst all the teams, German is the best, because of their standard of performance and extreme discipline.

Wesley Sneijder headed a second-half winner as Netherlands battled back from a goal down to beat ten-man Brazil 2-1 on Friday and secure a place in the World Cup semifinals.

Brazil, the five-times champions, took a 10th minute lead through Robinho and dominated the first-half against a Dutch team which initially looked outclassed.

But the Dutch levelled out of the blue in the 53rd minute after a rare mistake from Brazil's usually impenetrable defence, as Felipe Melo headed Sneijder's cross into his own goal.

Then Sneijder headed a winner as the Dutch, battling to their 13th successive World Cup win to maintain a perfect record in the qualifiers and finals, avenged a quarterfinal defeat in 1994 and a semifinal defeat four years later.

"In the changing-room at half-time, everyone said to each other 'let's give everything' and that's what we did. We fought for each other," Sneijder told a television reporter after the match.

"In the second half, we put a lot of pressure on their defence and to score twice was fantastic."

He added: "We're in the last four of the world. To beat Brazil 2-1 in the quarterfinal, you have to be pleased with that. But in the next days, we will have to get our heads in focus again."

Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk said the comeback showed how mentally strong his team were.

"In the first 20 minutes, I was happy that the score was only 1-0, and I told Frank [assistant Frank de Boer] that we still have a chance. In the second half we showed how good we are," he said.

Related Topics:  Bangladesh News receive the latest by email: subscribe to weekly blitz's free mailing list