Chapter 32. Cup.
Natal is a port city in Brazil. Natal is the easternmost city in Brazil, at the far-right edge of the Brazilian triangle jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to take a boat from Brazil to England, Natal is your launching point. Gegic and Telly Gurdic, known to the world by their adopted names, Matteo Graciano and Dominic Chastain, sat at the Conquistador Bar in Natal, drinking bottles of Skol beer. It was eighty degrees, which was cool for Natal. In January, Natal was frequently over one hundred degrees.
"He's late," said Graciano. "Figures."
"Let's give him fifteen more minutes and then we're out of here," said Chastain.
Behind the bar, a television was blaring in Portuguese, the most spoken language in Brazil. The ESPN commentator was standing in the newly expanded Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro.
"Rick, I am standing here in Estádio do Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This football stadium is the eleventh largest football stadium in the world. Although the official capacity, after renovation, is just over 84,000 spectators, in the final game of the 1950 World Cup, the paid attendance was 199,854. That tells you how many people can fit into this monster of a stadium. This year, the stadium will be host to the final soccer match in the FIFA World Cup. Stadium employees here are frantically preparing for the World Cup, to be held in Brazil in twelve different host cities between June12 and July 13, only a month and a half from now. Rick, according to Brazilian officials I spoke with here, this year's World Cup is expected to draw the single largest television audience ever for a single sporting event, possibly as many as 1.2 billion viewers worldwide. To put that in perspective, Rick, the viewing audience for Superbowl XLV in 2011 was 111 million viewers, so that is roughly ten times the audience of the most watched United States Superbowl. That's a lot of viewers."
"Manny, what event holds the current record?" asked the ESPN anchor from the studio. "The current record," said the on-site reporter, "is the 2011 World Cricket Semifinal between India and Pakistan, which drew just under a billion viewers."
"Hummm. That's funny. Who knew that many people liked cricket?"
"Ha ha. Yes, that was news to me, too. Teams from around the world have been competing for three years to be included among the thirty-two teams to duke it out in the FIFA World Cup Tournament. The United States Mens Football Team, ranked thirteenth in the world by FIFA prior to the Tournament, has successfully qualified again, so we will be looking to see those Americans give it their all. And we will be bringing all of those matches from the World Cup live on ESPN. This is Manny Tomas, ESPN, reporting live from Brazil."
Just then, Davy Branco, the Brazilian cousin of the Mexican drug lord Julio Cezanne, sauntered into the bar, oblivious to the fact that he was considerably late for the meeting. Like his cousin, he was fat, and he wore a white wife-beater under an unbuttoned, cheap, yellow short-sleeved sports shirt. He took off his straw fedora, put his Ray-bans on the table, and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. Branco recognized the two men from their pictures immediately and sat down on a bar stool next to them.
"You Davy Branco?"
Davy nodded. "You the geniuses my cousin sent to me to make us all rich?"
Graciano smiled uncomfortably. "Yeah, something like that."
"How's the shipment?" asked Chastain.
"I was just down on the dock. Oversaw the unloading myself. The merchandise is on an 18-wheeler now heading to the warehouse."
"Nothing got inspected?" asked Chastain.
"No, I told you guys not to worry. They never inspect anything down here. And even if they did, I know half the guys on the dock. Like shootin' fish in a barrel. I still don't get why we are doing this in Natal. You could make a much bigger splash in Rio. The attendance down there will be ten times Natal."
"And the security will be ten times tighter there, too," said Chastain. "Plus, this is the only place where we can guarantee a lot of American and Dutch spectators."
Davy Branco looked confused. "Dutch? What the fuck do we care about the Dutch? They don't have any money. All they got is fuckin' windmills and tulips and people stickin' their fingers in dikes or up their asses. Why do you give a shit about Dutch?"
Chastain looked at his brother. "We have our reasons."
Branco was still confused. "And how do you know you are going to get a lot of Americans and Dutch here?"
Chastain took out a copy of the World Cup brackets and laid it on the bar. "First of all, the American team rarely ever gets past the quarterfinals, so most of their matches are going to be in the Round of 32 and the Round of 16. Take a look at the brackets. In the first round of play, the Group play, the list of thirty-two teams is split into eight groups of four teams, who play a round-robin. Teams with the highest number of points, judged by the number of wins, draws and losses, proceed into the next round. In each group of four teams, the teams with the two highest point totals advance, thereby reducing the total to sixteen teams."
"Hey, Dr. Strangelove. I know how the fuckin' tournament works. I live in fuckin' Brazil, for Chrissakes!" said Branco.
"Well, this year," Chastain continued, "the United States Team (ranked 13) was bracketed in Group A with Germany (ranked 2), Ghana (ranked 23), and Portugal (ranked 14). Four of Germany’s star players are out with very recent injuries, so their high ranking is deceptive. The easy money says that, despite Germany’s ranking, the United States and Portugal would be the likely teams to advance from Group A, with the United States being the winner. The Netherlands (ranked 8), was bracketed in Group B with Spain (ranked 1), Chile (ranked 12) and Australia (ranked 57). The experts’ projection is that Spain and The Netherlands will advance, with The Netherlands being the runner-up. In the Round of 16, the tournament pits the winner of Group A against the runner-up of Round B. The most likely pairing in the Round of 16, then, has the United States going head-to-head with The Netherlands. And that game," concluded Chastain, "will be played in the lovely Brazilian city of Natal on June 29."
"Man, you scientists, you make football sound like fuckin' arithmetic. You're suckin' all the life out of the sport. Me, I got my money on Brazil again this year. I think we are going to do it this year, if we can get by Spain."
"Is security set up at the warehouse?" asked Graciano.
"Yeah, we got some good locals, real discrete. And the cops who walk the beat in that neighborhood are on the payroll. Shouldn't be any trouble."
"OK, well, we will be over tomorrow to set everything up," said Graciano. "Do you have the map showing where all the vendor stands will be? We wanted to do a drive-by later today."
Davy Branco looked around first to make sure no one was looking, and then he spread out a map on the bar. "This is the new Natal Stadium here. It seats about forty-five thousand people. There is going to be a long walkway, here, going down to the stadium. The booths will be all along here. Your booths will be right here. He drew a small X on the map. We'll have your uniforms printed up in the next two weeks. We should be ready in plenty of time."
"Thanks, Davy," said Chastain.
"Sure, no problemo. Anything for a good cause, as long as that cause makes me a lot of money!" He laughed and slammed his hand down on the bar, obviously believing himself to be much funnier than his co-conspirators. "Hey, you guys need any girls tonight? I have some really tasty treats here in town. You can pay them practically nothing. Hell, they'd probably fuck for a new pair of jeans. I could send them to your room?"
"No thanks," said Chastain. "We're good. Big day tomorrow."
"OK boys, whatever you say. If you change your mind, let me know. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go down to talk to the Natal Football Commissioner. Score me some seats for this weekend."
The brothers waved goodbye. He should visit the Natal Stadium now, while everyone is healthy, Graciano thought, because next month, most of the spectators will be dead.