Local Brazilians hope to celebrate

Brazil football fans, from left, back, Zelita Mahoney holds her son Dominic, 8, alongside Washington Almeida; front, Eduardo Mahoney, 8, Rebecca Almeida, 7, and Gabriel Rodrigues, 6. Photo / John Stone

Brazilians living in Whangarei were yesterday preparing to break out the caipirinha to toast their homeland's success against Croatia in the opening game of the Fifa World at Sao Paulo this morning.

Washington Almeida, trained in IT but working for an orchid producer in Whangarei where he has been living for two years, was optimistic Brazil would win its first game in the group A pool, which kicks off at 8am (NZ time).

But Zelita Mahoney, who has lived in New Zealand for 17 years, was emphatic that Brazil would trounce the Croatians.

"It has to be Brazil - they can't lose their first game at home," she said.

One of her 8-year-old twin sons, Eduardo, agreed. He was looking forward to seeing his favourite footballer - Barcelona's brilliant Brazilian forward Neymar - smashing the ball into the Croatian net on television before he went to school this morning.

Mrs Mahoney, whose husband Phillip is deputy principal at Kamo High School, said there were at least seven families with Brazilian connections living around Whangarei.

Her friend Donna Rodrigues, a New Zealander whose Brazilian ex-husband Jorge is a professional footballer in Hong Kong, said that Mrs Mahoney was a key person in the Whangarei's Kiwi-Brazilian community, inviting them all to dinner at her Kamo home and encouraging them to socialise together.

Mrs Mahoney said that after the victory expected this morning some of the group could turn up at her place this evening for a tot of caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaca (sugar cane hard liquor), sugar and lime.

It didn't taste strong, but if you downed it all at once you needed to find a place to sit, she warned.

With Croatia defeated, the Whangarei Brazilians will begin biting their nails over their team's next game, against Mexico in Fortaleza on Wednesday, kickoff at 7am.