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Prayers And Lucky Charms As Brazilians Hope for Cup
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| Brazilian head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari (in yellow) talks to his squad during a practice session in Yokohama June 28, 2002.
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RIO
DE JANEIRO, June 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Brazilian fans
are summoning up prayers and lucky charms in a bid to help the
football-crazy nation bring home the World Cup for a record fifth
time.
It
seems as if all 173 million Brazilians believe that "a
penta" - that fifth triumph - is at hand in Sunday's final
against Germany and optimism has rocketed since Wednesday's semi-final
win over Turkey after fears that the team would flop after a poor
qualifying campaign, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
"We
are currently selling an average of 1,000 meters worth of Brazilian
flags per day," says Oswaldo Turuna, who owns "Casa
Turuna", a traditional style shop in Rio which sells all kinds of
carnival items.
"People
are coming to buy candles and clay dishes to make offerings to their
saint. The idea is to help the Brazilian players to play well or
‘tie together’ the legs of the players from the other team,"
Turana told AFP.
Turana,
whose family have owned the shop for 90 years, said that sales had
started to rise strongly once Ronaldo, Rivaldo and co. reached the
quarter-finals or as he put it "when Brazil started playing
better football."
"The
supporters got all enthusiastic and came to buy yellow and green
material to make t-shirts and banners.
"They're
also buying firecrackers, whistles and trumpets," he explained as
the fiesta-loving nation gears up to throw a big party in the
expectation that the "auriverde" will beat the Germans in
Yokohama, Japan.
But
sales are still lame compared with some previous World Cups.
"There's
unemployment and an economic crisis, but it's also to do with the
kickoff times," says Turuna.
Some
matches have kicked off as early as 3 a.m. while the final starts at 8
a.m.
"So
a lot more people stay at home," Turuna explains.
"And
a lot of Brazilian people wait until the last minute. I'm sure that on
Saturday the supporters will come and have a rush on candles and
incense 'to pray and ensure that no evil eye falls on the side."
Meanwhile,
Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had his first choice line-up
practicing penalties Friday as he fine-tuned preparations for the
World Cup final against Germany.
Brazil,
who won the 1994 final against Italy on penalties and beat Holland
from the spot in the semi-final at France 98, are clear favorites to
win Sunday's final inside the 90 minutes. But coach Luiz Felipe
Scolari is clearly leaving nothing to chance.
Ronaldo,
who finished the semi-final win over Turkey complaining of pain in his
left thigh and lower legs, took part in the Brazilians' training
session but appeared to be taking things easy for fear of aggravating
his niggling injuries, AFP said.
As
usual, the Brazilians were divided into two groups for most of the
session with Scolari's first choice line-up training separately from
the reserves.
The
division indicated that Brazil will start the final with the same team
that began against Turkey in the semi-final, except with Ronaldinho
returning from suspension to replace Edilson.
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