Well before the first kick-off, the World Cup was playing against the odds, with Brazil rushing to finish stadiums, chaos at airports and violent protests in the streets.
But a month after the first game, Argentina’s team is preparing to play Germany in Sunday’s (Monday AEST) final, capping a tournament where football reigned, with beautiful goals and drama on the pitch, while doomsday scenarios never materialised.
When the continent-sized nation won the right to host the Cup in 2007, it wanted to show it was not just the home of the “beautiful game” but also an emerging power that can organise the sport’s biggest events.
While Brazil’s national team was knocked out in a humiliating 7-1 semi-final defeat to Germany, the government is declaring the tournament itself was a success.
“We were able to do the Cup even though they said it would be chaos,” President Dilma Rousseff, who is seeking re-election in October, said.
FIFA and experts agree.
“Brazil is huge, it has a lot of defects and cities have big problems,” said Lamartine da Costa, a sports events expert at the Rio de Janeiro State University.
“But it is the world’s seventh economy. Amid the confusion, when there’s a need to get things done, things generally work out.”
While the stadiums were finished just in time, many of the promised public transport projects were delayed until after the tournament.
And the equal worst defeat in the five-time champion team’s history laid bare a football crisis in the country that gave the world Pele, Garrincha, Zico and Neymar.
While the Selecao was humiliated, the other teams put on a show that made it an exciting tournament full of surprises and goals.
“It was one of the best World Cups when it comes to technique, although it become a bit more tense closer to the final,” Brazil’s 1994 World Cup champion and former midfielder Rai told AFP.
Off the pitch, tourists were delighted by the warmth of the Brazilian people across the nation of sun, samba and picturesque beaches.
The tourism ministry expects to exceed a forecast of 600,000 visitors, double the figure from the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
“This is my 20th World Cup and I can say that this Cup is undoubtedly a great success,” FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. “Where are the problems that could have happened?”
The country did flirt with a major tragedy when an unfinished highway overpass that was part of the Cup-related projects collapsed on four vehicles, including part of a crowded bus, in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte. Two people died.
Fears of chaos came after the Confederations Cup was marked by massive protests last year, when Brazilians flooded the streets to criticise the World Cup’s record $US11 billion ($A11.90 billion) spending and demand better hospitals, public transport and schools.
But protests were small during the World Cup as football passion took over.
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