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For the diehard World Cup soccer fan visiting Moscow, finding a way to see the world's most-watched competition can be battle in its own right.
Hours before Brazil was set to face Sweden on Tuesday night, Brazilian Pedro Netto was frantically searching for a way to see or even hear the game live.
Netto, 24, was wearing the same lucky Brazilian soccer shirt he's had on for days. "I'm upset. It is sad. I'd like to see it live -- not tomorrow."
Netto was also perturbed at the lack of excitement. "It is not the same emotion. At home everybody acts the same way, but here I don't know how to act," said Netto, who carries a Brazilian flag in which he wraps himself while watching games. "In Brazil during the World Cup, it is magic. There are no cars in the street. Everything stops."
Others sacrifice sleep and safety to follow their sides. Take Ronny Elaut, a Belgian Embassy worker who watched Saturday's game ag-ainst Holland at the Dutch Embassy.
"In peacetime we eat french fries. During these times we eat Belgians," Kees Ross, the Dutch assistant defense attach?, said before the Belgians scored the match's only goal in the 66th minute to win.
In the beer garden of the Art Hotel Moscow on Prospekt Vernadskovo, the nightly showings of World Cup games has boosted a usually listless summer trade with an international soccer crowd, said manager director Thore Schindowski.
"The Germans tend to be serious and the Americans get more into the fun," Schindowski said. "And the Russians, they don't watch it too much. They are more looking at the other tables to see what kind of chicks are around."
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