BRAZIL BEAT: Waffle House vs Belgian waffles
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| A fan of the U.S. national soccer team walks by the seaside with a U.S. flag draped over his shoulders, in Salvador, Brazil, Monday, June 30, 2014. Salvador is one of the host cities of the FIFA 2014 Soccer World Cup. |
SALVADOR, Brazil (AP) -- Waffle House doesn't serve Belgian waffles and certainly won't start now.
The
Georgia-based restaurant chain took to its Twitter account Monday to
proclaim, "We don't believe in Belgium waffles." Or Belgian waffles, as a
follower quickly corrected. But the sentiment, a riff on American fans'
"I believe that we will win" chant," was popular a day before the U.S.
faces Belgium in the World Cup.
Restaurant
spokeswoman Meghan Irwin says it's all in good fun. Earlier, when a
follower asked for the restaurant's opinion on Belgian waffles, it
tweeted: "We dominate them."
Waffle House serves American-style waffles. Belgian waffles are bigger with a lighter batter.
In
Belgium, waffles have been a part of the diet for centuries. But
so-called Belgian waffles aren't really served in that country. There
are Brussels waffles and Liege waffles.
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CHEAP TRAVEL
SAO
PAULO (AP) - Travel doesn't get any cheaper than the Argentine fans who
have covered more than 1,000 miles in motorhomes and vans for days even
without having tickets.
Penniless musicians,
hitchhikers and other devoted fans began arriving Monday at the parking
lot of Sao Paulo's Sambadrome, a venue used for Carnival parades that
the city opened for them to camp. Argentina is playing against
Switzerland in the city's Itaquerao Stadium on Tuesday to advance to
quarterfinals.
Some fans wearing light blue and white were making noodles in a shabby pot.
"That's
what we have been eating every day," said 48-year-old Fritz Latzina,
who called himself a
"professional fan," putting nearly 3,800 kilometers
on his RV since he left Buenos Aires on June 11.
Mariano Bellotti, 22, had been hitchhiking with his friend for the past six months traveling from their native Mar de Plata.
"We
thought this year we will be champions, so let's make it a trip, work
odd jobs and live it to the fullest from the start," he said.
They couldn't afford the tickets, but they will hit the Fan Fests to support the players.
One
of the vans parked at the Sambadrome stands out because of a giant
sticker on its hood of Pope Francis with an Argentine flag to his right
and a Brazilian one to his left.
Anticipating a final between the South American rivals, van owner Jose Alberto Brizio, 63, said, "Let the best team win."
"But he is blessing the best one," said Brizio, showing with a cigarette in hand that the pope is waving at his country's flag.
- By Adriana Gomez Licon - http://www.twitter.com/agomezlicon
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WORLD CUP DOODLES
SAO
PAULO (AP) - A bright blue letter G boots ball after ball through an
O-shaped life preserver hanging from a palm tree in a makeshift version
of a World Cup shootout. A red "e" lounges on the sand, sipping a
tropical beverage through a straw.
The Google
"Doodle Team," as it's called, is having a blast on-site in Brazil for
this World Cup, offering up soccer-themed daily animations on the home
page. Multiple versions each day, in fact.
This
is the first time doodles are being created outside Google's Silicon
Valley headquarters in Mountain View, California. A small group of the
regular doodle team is on location in Sao Paolo.
"We're
basically compressing a process that normally takes a week or more into
a few hours in order to keep the doodles fresh and relevant to the
day's matches and football fever in general," said Ryan Germick, the
Google Doodle Team Lead.
Through the
tournament's initial two-plus weeks, Google had posted 36 doodles with
"everything from vine-swinging referees; to egg-laying, score-keeping
eagles; to a clairvoyant octopus from the great aquarium in the sky,"
Germick said.
Leading the efforts is doodler
Matt Cruickshank. Cruickshank, Germick and fellow doodlers Sophie Diao
and Leon Hong are working from a space they named the "inspiration room"
in Google's Sao Paolo office.
There are football collectibles, an
artificial turf floor and a record player with a stack of Brazilian
albums.
All of the doodles from the tournament can be viewed at http://www.google.com/doodles .
- By Janie McCauley - http://www.twitter.com/JanieMcCAP
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WARDROBE DILEMMA
TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (AP) - Neymar is having doubts about what to wear to his World Cup matches.
Brazil's
star attracted some attention in the team's second-round match against
Chile on Saturday after changing his cleats at halftime. Neymar played
the first half with a golden boot made especially for him for the World
Cup, but he came back from the dressing room wearing his regular orange
cleats.
Neymar said he decided to make the
change because he didn't feel comfortable with the newer model, which he
had been using for only a couple of days before Saturday's match.
The
golden boot was created by Nike in reference to the cleats Neymar used
when he was a kid. He liked the color so much that he spray-painted them
before matches.
Neymar's exclusive golden
model, which has the drawing of a spray can on its sole, is expected to
be sold for more than $500 in Brazilian stores.
- By Tales Azzoni - http://www.twitter.com/tazzoni
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HOWARD'S RECORD
SAO PAULO (AP) - Tim Howard never counts his caps.
Howard
broke Kasey Keller's record for appearances by an American goalkeeper
when he played his 103rd international match last Thursday, a 1-0 loss
to Germany.
On Tuesday night, he will make it 104 when the Americans face Belgium in the World Cup's second round at Salvador.
The
35-year-old Howard spoke with Keller, now an ESPN analyst, in the
leadup to the World Cup when the U.S. team played an exhibition game
against Turkey in the New York area June 1.
"Milestones
like that are important," said Howard, a top goalkeeper in England's
Premier League with Everton. "And obviously Kasey's dear to me in terms
of being a friend and a goalkeeping mentor. I never thought I'd get that
close, let alone break it. It's a proud day."
- By Janie McCauley - http://www.twitter.com/JanieMcCAP
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MIDNIGHT CALL
SAO
PAULO (AP) - Each time Alejandro Sabella was asked Monday about his
lineup - and there were many attempts in different manners - he politely
declined.
No hints whatsoever about Tuesday's
second-round World Cup match with Switzerland, and no predictions about
what style each team might play.
Sabella is
preparing Lionel Messi and Argentina to attack a swarming Switzerland
defense. The coach must decide whether to go with Ezequiel Lavezzi in a
three-man front missing striker Sergio Aguero. An injured left thigh
muscle forced him to leave in the first half of Argentina's 3-2 win over
Nigeria last Wednesday.
The coach insists he
might still be pondering his 11 players until midnight, and someone
suggested he could announce the lineup then.
"I'm
not going to say until the last minute. I think until this evening
until around midnight I will think about the lineup," Sabella said
before his team practiced at Itaquerao Stadium. "You can call me if you
have my phone number, but I don't know if I will answer my phone at
midnight."
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