By Steve Ritchie
Like millions of other avid American soccer fans, John and Hilary Cornwell watched the recent U.S. vs. Portugal World Cup match on the edge of their seats. Unlike most of the rest of us, though, the Cornwells were in the Arena da Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil that day, watching in person with 40,121 other fans.
“I’ve never been to a sporting event that had so much energy,” John said about the riveting match, which ended in a 2-2 draw as a result of a goal by Portugal in the last minute of extra time.
“I was jumping and screaming the whole time,” Hilary said. “I wish I could have inserted all my friends into the cheering section at the game. It was just so much fun.”
Both John and Hilary had trouble even talking about Portugal’s goal that stole what seemed like a sure win for the U.S.
“It was gut-wrenching,” John said. “I didn’t even see the ball go in the net. I had my hands over my eyes.”
“I’m not sure I can talk about that goal even now,” Hilary added.
Despite the tie, the United States team still advanced out of group play into the round of 16 at the World Cup before bowing out with a loss to Belgium, and, fortunately, John and Hilary had no trouble at all talking about the rest of their trip to Brazil.
Hilary (Jones) Cornwell, an Oregonian since age six, grew up playing and watching soccer, and was co-captain during her senior season at Silverton High School. In 2006, she and her brother, Parker Jones, also a Silverton High School grad who now lives in New Haven, Conn., went to Germany for the World Cup tournament, even though they didn’t have tickets to any of the matches. Instead, they went to the fan festivals in large public areas in German cities to watch the matches with thousands of other fans.
“I was young and single and we had a great time,” Hilary laughed. The siblings loved the passion of the fans, the welcoming atmosphere in Germany, and the coming together of so many people from countries from around the globe. When Parker heard the 2014 World Cup had been awarded to soccer-mad Brazil, it took him about two seconds to decide he was going. He rented an apartment in Rio de Janeiro for the whole month of the tournament and let the rest of the family know he was submitting a request for tickets in the FIFA ticket lottery.
Of the 12 cities in Brazil that were hosting World Cup matches, Hilary was most interested in Manaus, a city of 2 million people located in the Amazon rainforest. She had long been interested in visiting the Amazon and with her passion for soccer, this seemed like the perfect time to go, if they could get tickets.
The tickets eventually came through, with the group receiving four tickets for three games in Manaus, including the U.S. team’s match with Portugal, as well as a match in Brazilia. While Hilary and John could only go for 10 days, Parker and his girlfriend, Andrea Koploy, and mother Judy Bowker and her husband Robert Trapp went for an entire month. Bowker and Trapp are also Silverton residents.
John and Hilary admitted to having some mixed feelings about the trip as they were planning for it. Though excited, they had concerns about safety, communicating, getting around and about Manaus itself. Manaus is a route for drug smugglers, and there are parts of the city that have a high crime rate.
“Manaus is only accessible by boat or by plane,” John said. “It’s a huge city. A bizarre oasis in the middle of the jungle.”
However, Manaus proved to be welcoming, safe and enjoyable. The Cornwells appreciated the large number of concerts, art events and performances put on to showcase the local culture for visitors.
“The time we were there, I felt completely safe,” John said. “We even walked down dark alleys at night.”
No one at their hotel, and seemingly no one in the whole city spoke English, or Spanish for that matter, Portuguese is the language of Brazil, but people in Manaus were friendly and tried to help at every turn.
“There were things logistically that weren’t that great,” Hilary added, “but they would have been the same in a U.S. city, like (bad) traffic. Most of the infrastructure was great and we felt very safe.” They were impressed that the impressive new stadium was completed, and the security and checkpoints were efficient and adequate.
Maybe visiting Manaus is easier than visiting Paris, John joked. “I probably never will but I would definitely go there again.” They also were able to spend two nights at an ecolodge in the Amazon rainforest a couple hours out of Manaus.
Another reason for the Cornwells’ initial ambivalence about going to Brazil was shared by many others and was a focus of the media coverage leading up to the World Cup – the wisdom of a poor country spending precious public resources constructing soccer stadiums and infrastructure while schools, hospitals and other public agencies are woefully under-funded.
Manaus is a good example of this dilemma. The Arena da Amazonia cost $270 million to build and it was used for just four World Cup matches during the preliminary group stage. Its future use is uncertain. The professional team in Manaus does not play at the top level in Brazilian football, and likely cannot afford to use the new stadium.
John and Hilary offered different perspectives on the issue, while agreeing both viewpoints were legitimate.
“We didn’t see any protests of any kind but that may have been because we were in Manaus away from the (country’s main cities),” John said. “. . . A lot of people there had reservations about the World Cup . . . about the number of stadiums, the amount of money being spent on it, and the public unrest . . . but once it was underway it would have been worse if people didn’t come.”
“The flip side of that is Brazil hadn’t hosted the World Cup since 1950, and yet it is like the home of soccer in so many ways,” Hilary said. “They are so proud of their soccer heritage, it’s like another religion almost.”
While they really enjoyed sampling the local food and cultural events, and going on the jungle tour, attending the three World Cup matches were the high point for the Cornwells and their entourage. Decked out in red, white and blue U.S. gear, they were happy to oblige the “friendly, enthusiastic, constant requests to have photos with us,” and also enjoyed the friendly bantering with the Portugal fans on the day of the big match.
John and Hilary are such stout fans of the U.S. national team that they called the airline they were travelling on to schedule longer layovers both on the journeys to and from Brazil so they could see the U.S. matches against Ghana and Germany on those days.
They spent an extra four hours in the Atlanta airport on the way to Brazil so they could eat dinner and watch the US game before catching their flight to Brazil.
They weren’t alone, either. The popularity of soccer is growing rapidly in the United States, especially among younger people. Television ratings for the World Cup matches involving the U.S. exceeded those of the NBA Finals games between Miami and San Antonio, despite the fact that two of the three soccer matches took place on a weekday afternoon. John mentioned that between 2 and 3 billion people around the world will be watching the final on July 13. While they will watch that final match in Silverton instead of Brazil, Hilary is already talking up a “road trip” to Canada for the 2015 Women’s World Cup.
