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Will Rio rock to the dawn chorus?

Brazil fans are loud, colourful and passionate, and they expect success

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- This Brazilian squad may not be the best to have graced the world stage, but not even recent mediocre performances or the 12-hour time difference between home and Japan and South Korea can dampen the enthusiasm of fans.

But in a country where the minimum wage is less than US$100 a month, only a few privileged fans can afford tourist packages costing on average $6,000 for air tickets, match tickets and hotels.

Back at home, most people are willing to wake up at dawn to watch the games -- then eight out of 10 plan to go to work, whatever their mood, according to opinion polls. The surveys did not reveal whether the effects of alcohol might interfere with the working day.

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The appetite for the World Cup is huge. "I am willing to wake up at dawn and this is not only to watch Brazil's matches. It's worth to see England versus Argentina, for instance," says 38 year-old journalist Arthur Dapieve, also a rock critic and football fanatic. "Even South Africa versus Paraguay could be interesting.

"I work basically at home and am planning a routine of sleeping during the day and working at night. I will wake up at 7pm, read the newspapers, write a little, have dinner -- lunch, I mean -- write a little more and start to watch the matches from 3.30am. It's a sacrifice, but it's a rare sacrifice. It's worth it."

Not everyone is turning nocturnal. Luiz Alberto Niemeyer, a 23-year-old law student and a trainee with a consultancy firm, said: "If you ask me now, I would say that I am not willing to wake up so early to watch the matches.

"But everything would depend on the mood in the streets, if the people are talking about the team and if Brazil is doing well." Later, he admitted his "addiction" to football was likely to prevail.

Romario: Talk of the taverns

In the past Brazilians would decree their own "national holidays" to watch the World Cup. They are used to watching world beaters who entertain with extravagant style and skill -- especially the supreme 1970 team that won the cup for the third time in Mexico.

So far the class of 2002 has fallen well short of these standards, scraping through the South American qualifying group in fourth place.

Yet with just weeks to go, the mood in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, a good thermometer of what is happening in the rest of the country, is of contagious excitement.

The talk in the "botequins", Brazil's equivalent to pubs, concentrates on team selection and the tactics of coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, and less on a serious financial crisis threatening the city's "Big Four" clubs -- Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, Fluminense and Botafogo.

Most criticism of Scolari -- a tough-talking coach nicknamed "Felipao", or Big Phil -- relates to his decision to exclude 36-year old striker Romario, the hero of the victorious 1994 campaign who is still smacking in the goals for Vasco da Gama.

Supporters demand Romario's presence at the World Cup even though Inter Milan's Ronaldo, after more than two years of injuries and operations, has started to recapture the form that made him a sensation in Europe.

Scolari was jostled by fans in Rio but remained resolute, confirming Romario's exclusion from the 23-man squad announced on May 5. (Full story)

The coach could end the World Cup as a living god in the eyes of the supporters -- or the world's biggest dunce. In Brazil, football is simple like that.