The World Cup hosts still insist they can win the trophy without their star player but on the beaches fans are already in mourningYesterday's papers said it all. Brazil may have reached the semi-final of the World Cup on Friday night, but yesterday the full cost of their quarter-final victory over Colombia was being counted. Neymar, the 22-year-old star of this tournament, the player who has borne the weight of Brazilian expectation with extraordinary calm and good grace, is out of the World Cup, having suffered a fractured vertebra. Perhaps it was coincidence, but when somebody in an apartment in Copacabana, four blocks from the beachside fan park, began playing Barber's Adagio for Strings on a loop, it seemed entirely in keeping with the general mood.
To look at a newsstand was to see image after image of Neymar in agony, being stretchered off the pitch. As he departed down the tunnel, a hush fell over the stadium in Fortaleza, and over fan parks across the country. "Won the game, lost the star," reflected O Tempo. "To win the cup without him?" asked the headline of O Povo. "Play for him!" demanded the front page of Lance!
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To look at a newsstand was to see image after image of Neymar in agony, being stretchered off the pitch. As he departed down the tunnel, a hush fell over the stadium in Fortaleza, and over fan parks across the country. "Won the game, lost the star," reflected O Tempo. "To win the cup without him?" asked the headline of O Povo. "Play for him!" demanded the front page of Lance!
Continue reading...
More...