19
Jun
Recife
Recife
Photo: Jamie Trecker / FOX Soccer
By Jamie Trecker
BRASILIA, BRAZIL
Raymond Chandler portrayed Los Angeles a sun-blasted city where dreams were scorched away. He could have been writing about Brasilia, a modernist fantasia where the heat and the light are unrelenting.
It’s winter, and the sun sets just after 5:30 here – but this is the hottest time of the year. There isn’t a trace of humidity in the air, and the red clay throws up whorls of dust that cake the streets and the buses. At noon, it is 27ºC and cloudless. Lucia Costa’s grand esplanades sweep five lanes of traffic to the Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge on the Eastern end, past the Cathedral, past the museum, and past the vast plazas of raw concrete.
Brasilia’s architect, Oscar Niemeyer, was many things: a genius, a modernist, and also, it appears, a brutalist. His expanses are meticulous, and his designs are awesome in the truest sense of the word. They are also unrelenting in the afternoon, with the heat reflecting off the white facades and up that perfect Roman surface.
Photo: Jamie Trecker / FOX Soccer
By Jamie Trecker
BRASILIA, BRAZIL
Dawn. The city lies below the 757, an outpost on a craggy steppe. It looks like a toy, or maybe a prop until the plane descends further. The arcs of the city form two giant wings – or perhaps Orion, clutching a bow and firing an arrow toward Brazil’s coast.
Brasilia was to be Brazil’s great leap: a city that erupted whole cloth, perfectly planned. It was to be a utopia of sorts, but it is not. It is, however, an architectural marvel, a modernist edifice that fifty years after its construction has the power to shock and amaze. It is also one of the places I had always wanted to visit.
I’m here because the Confederations Cup, something of a modernist construct itself, will kickoff here this Saturday. There is a lot of pressure on the hosts both on and off the field. Brazil’s staging of the 2014 World Cup has been somewhat star-crossed; budgets have been blown, strikes have been waged, protestors have marched and there is a weary sense that the government funds have been looted by this tournament.
Photo: Thomas Hautmann / FOX Soccer
By Thomas Hautmann
On Friday, the FOX Soccer crew headed to Wembley for a walkthrough ahead of Saturday’s big game. The stadium is quite a sight: you can see the whole of it as soon as you get off the Underground stop at Wembley Park. I’ve never been to London before, but I do have seen plenty of modern stadiums and have to say Wembley is amongst the finest I’ve been to. Sadly, I’d never been to the old one.
Rob Stone, Eric Wynalda, and Warren Barton, visibly jetlagged yet looking dapper as ever, made their way to their little studio, the press box and finally on to the pitch, where I reverted back to being 10 years old, feeling as happy as a clam. And then depressed because I never realized my dream of actually playing on such a perfect pitch.
Photo: Thomas Hautmann / FOX Soccer
By Thomas Hautmann
The trip to London couldn’t have started any better. I succeeded in getting about two and a half hours of sleep on the flight, which is pretty much a minor miracle when you consider I sat only three seats away from an ominously wide-eyed baby girl who seemed ready to burst into tears at any second. Next there was no wait at the border patrol, and then I was startled to find my suitcase already waiting for me at baggage claim, which never ever happens.
A colleague of mine arrived on the next flight, so we cabbed it together to our hotel in Trafalgar Square. Besides finding constant amusement in the fact we were driving on the other side of the road, we were thoroughly entertained by our cabbie, Warren. While he gave us a “free” tour of all the famous London spots on the way, he also tells us, upon my asking, that he is a huge Millwall supporter and used to get into fights pretty much after every game. No really, straight out of Green Street Hooligans.
After winning the Copa Del Rey in dramatic fashion against arch-rivals Real, Atletico Madrid are in Singapore ahead of a charity exhibition match in the country.
So, how would you expect them to train and warm-up for the event? Well, by facing 128 kids in a preparation match, of course!
In the hilarious video, you’ll see Atleti taken to task by over a hundred youngsters. The sight of one of the best strikers in the world, Radamel Falcao, blazing over the bar with a ton of kids surrounding him will certainly stay in the memory!
Image taken from our colleagues at 101 Great Goals
Photo: FOX Soccer
By: Jamie Trecker
BRUSSELS, BEGIUM
The conductor called the train: “Lille, Calais…and Chelsea FC.” The platform gave off a small roar of approval. Chelsea fans were headed home with another piece of silverware in their tuck. They seemed underwhelmed.
They should not have been. The Europa League final marked a number of firsts for the denizens of the Bridge: they became the first English team to have won all three major European titles (including the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup); the first European team to hold both European titles on offer simultaneously, and surely the first team to win back to back titles with, ahem, “interim” managers.
But as warmly as Roberto Di Matteo was regarded by the fans, his replacement, Rafa Benitez, is despised. Last night the ArenA and the arena of social media alike were filled with the moaning that has characterized Chelsea’s season.
Commentators made passing reference to the plastic flags that littered the away ends and a comment Benitez had once made about despising them. Unforgivable! The team started slowly – perhaps a reflection of the fact that they have now played more games in a season than any other English side since the Arsenal of 1970-71. So what! Chelsea’s now secured European play and won a major title under Rafa and erased a dangerous mid-season swoon. He was greeted by bedsheets and cardboard with the same message: “WE WANT MOURINHO.”
Photo: FOX Soccer
Photo: Jamie Trecker / FOX Soccer
By: Jamie Trecker
AMSTERDAM – In what is becoming a habit on my travels, I’ve ended up in a strange place. I’m parked in a houseboat along one of the main canals in this city.
‘Why, Trecker?’ you ask? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Other “good” ideas of mine have included: traveling from Berlin to Warsaw on a Soviet-era sleeper train; going to El Salvador at the tail end of the guerra sucia; and visiting Scotland in July. It has been argued, frequently and loudly by my partner, that my travel plans suffer from too much whimsy.
However, I am happy to report that despite bobbing about on the Ringvaart van der Harlemmermeerpolder, that this is hardly the worst decision I’ve ever made. I’ve got a windmill to the left of me, a pumping station to the right and water out my front door. It’s quite peaceful. There are rabbits and ducks about. People row past and wave. One could get used to this.
Houseboats are fixtures along Amsterdam’s canals. The potted history is that, after World War II, there was a sharp housing shortage in the city combined with a surfeit of suddenly decommissioned naval barges. The Dutch are nothing but ingenious and today an estimated 2,500 families live along the inner waters of the city. Then, it was cheap and practical. Today, it is not: there are no more moorings left for sale and the cost of a houseboat has gone through the roof. What was once bohemian has gone upscale, meaning that today you can find “boat-els” and private lessors throughout the city.
Photo: Jamie Trecker / FOX Soccer
The canals form a web across the city, creating nearly a hundred small islands with nearly 2,000 bridges. They make Amsterdam a maddening city to navigate even with a well-thumbed guidebook, a cellphone and a sextant. (Every landlord I’ve met here opens their spiel with “when lost, please do not call me and tell me you are ‘on a bridge.’”) But if you’re going to get lost, you might as well do it the way the Dutch do, on a bike. I got a blue one, with a basket and a bell. The bell is important: the bike has no brakes.
Photo: Getty Images
By Jamie Trecker
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
Bank holiday. It’s the hottest day of the year to date in England. Shops are closed. Englishmen, and their dogs, are recumbent across the nation. There is absolutely nothing going on, and that’s exactly how this nation likes it.
I took a walk from Salford round Manchester’s city borders and back. Greater Manchester’s about 500 square miles, but the old city, bordered by two rivers – the Irwell on the west and on the east by the Medlock — remains compact. Even an out-of-shape writer can go from Deansgate to the Rochdale Canal, then back from Great Ancoats through the Northern Quarter in a couple of hours.
Just across the river, tucked into a small neighborhood just across the river, is Castlefield, the old Roman heart of the city. A small reconstruction of the fort – which was originally made out of timber – stands on the site, dwarfed by the neighboring bridges. Some folks walked around to see it, but Castlefield is better known today for its vibrant weekend market and burgeoning bar scene. That Market starts on the edge of what once was called Mancunium in two weeks time.
