And Brazil exhales with relief...

The crowd was getting nervous.  80 minutes and Brazil and Chile were still tied. End of regulation ticked by. 15 minutes of extra time passed.  The Brazilians around us were getting more anxious with each passing minute.  15 more minutes of extra time.  Groans got louder every time Brazil missed a chance to score.  The crowd exhaled in unison when Chile's shot hit the crossbar.  Onto penalty kicks.  I was plenty nervous so I can't even imagine how millions of people across Brazil were feeling.  Part of my nerves came from being in the midst of thousands of Brazilians at Fan Fest and not knowing what their reaction would be should Chile prevail.  Brazilians fully expect their team to win this World Cup.  If they went out in the Round of 16... (There was tons of police and military personnel around, so I had faith it wouldn't get too ugly)

Luckily Brazil's goalie and strikers were better than Chile's during the penalty kicks, and the Brazilians (and many adopted Brazilian fans like me) celebrated together as they came out victorious.  Tough battle, and their next match against Colombia will be even tougher.  I'm glad I won't be there then, since I think Colombia has a legitimate chance to best Brazil in the quarter finals.  They're playing really strong soccer and have fantastic fan support (we've seen more Colombians than anyone else around the country).

Our flight has been delayed 12 hours for some unknown reason.  Luckily our pousada has our room available for one extra night (at half the rate of last night now that the World Cup groups are finished and the Round of 16 guests haven't yet arrived).  So we got to celebrate with Brazilians and grab one last dinner in town before heading back to the US (and one last caipairoska).  Annoyingly, we lose our Sunday at home before heading back to work on Monday (and no longer have an overnight flight so I'll be awake much of the 8 hours from Salvador to Miami).  On a positive note, traffic near our pousada is total crap right now as fans leave Fan Fest after the Colombia-Uraguay match, so we would have had trouble getting out of here to the airport.  Thanks, American Airlines!