It’s Brazil’s party but guest list includes Argentina

Brazil has been flooded by Argentines, who have streamed across the border for today’s World Cup final between Lionel Messi’s Argentina and Germany.

Some estimates of the number who have come range as high as 100,000.

That may be conservative.

Organizers say just 4,461 tickets for the final were sold in Argentina, which means a lot of the visitors are in Rio just to be close to their country’s first appearance in a World Cup final in 24 years.

The area around the Maracana Stadium, site of the final, is closed for several hundred yards in every direction. To get through the security checkpoints you need to show a ticket. (And speaking of security, there are almost as many police and Army personnel in Rio today as Argentines. Approximately 70,000 people have been mustered to provide security in the city.)

But back to the Argentines. Most are sleeping in cars parked in parks or other public places and thousands are expected to watch the game at a beachfront fan fest. However, fans wearing blue-and-white Argentine jerseys and carrying flags were also out in force at the stadium. And with Brazil having been eliminated in the tournament semifinals, the fact that Brazil’s rivals to the south are playing for the title hasn’t sat well with many locals.

One stadium worker, tired of the incessant chants of the Argentine fans, finally snapped.

“Go Germany!,” she said in Portuguese. “I don’t want Messi to win a World Cup. No!

“Poor Messi? How about poor Brazil?”