Brazilians celebrate victory against North Korea

RIO DE JANEIRO - Fans of Brazil’s Selecao celebrated their team’s laborious victory over North Korea in their opening World Cup football match like the peak of Carnival Tuesday night on the Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro.

A crowd estimated at 20,000 people on the famous Atlantic Ocean beach watched the game on a 120-square-metre screen.

Banks closed early and many businesses sent their employees home for the day. Brazilian national team match days are often like holidays.

“When the Selecao plays, our employees’ minds are elsewhere,” a spokesman for a major factory in Sao Paulo said. “The accident risk goes up and productivity suffers.”

Ricardo, a Rio taxi driver, said that he would have preferred a more dominant victory than the 2-1 result against the underdog North Koreans, “3-0 or 4-0 like the Germans.”

“But OK: a win is a win,” he said.