When Mexico beats Croatia in Brazil, creating a situation for the LAPD...

For teams considered among the favorites in the 2014 World Cup, the meaning of each victory is held in abeyance. Brazil’s nervy win over Croatia, Argentina squeaking past Iran, Germany's demolition of Portugal -- and then its reality check against Ghana -- will only find their narrative place once those teams have either won the tournament, or been knocked out. But for nations with less grandiose ambitions, the glory of each victory is immediate and abundant -- often having a vivid impact in some unlikely places. And unfancied nations have had plenty to crow about at the 2014 World Cup.

Latin America’s new middle classes are making hay while the sun shines. Some have traveled club class, but many more are sleeping on the beach, eating cheap, blowing their savings and racking up debt on newly acquired credit cards. Their presence in the stadiums and the public spaces of host cities has been colorful and noisy; accusations of racist and homophobic chanting from Mexico and Argentina fans, as well as the storming of the Maracana by ticketless Chileans, have been less savory contributions.   Simply being in Brazil in such numbers has been a small coming out party for the significant cohort of Latin Americans who have made it out of poverty in the last two decades, but the strong showing of most of their teams has amplified the exuberance. 

In San Jose, Costa Rica, Los Ticos' victory over Italy was greeted by the peal of church bells and a flood of humanity into the streets, from babes in arms to President Luis Guillermo Solis -- who had  predicted the score on Twitter. The connection between the team and the imagined community is very real. As one local told the Observer, "Our muchaochos showed them who we really are. Every Tico, absolutely every Tico is out there with them."  And who are they?  "The truth is that we are better. We don’t have an Army, everybody knows how to read and write and all that makes us feel good… when we get into the final 16 of the world cup we know that the world knows that we are great too."

Colombians' celebration of their team's swashbuckling progress reverberates with other celebrations, not only economic growth, but also the prospect for an end of the country’s  long and painful civil wars and drug wars. The last time Colombia were this good at a World Cup, many of its clubs and players had been owned by drug cartels, and the rule of law was close to collapse. This time, Colombia held peaceful Presidential elections on the first weekend of the tournament, and has interspersed match commentary with adverts for weapon amnesties. That said, a final peace deal with the FARC guerrillas remains unsigned, and Colombian society has been scarred and brutalized. The nation’s victory over Greece in the opening game was accompanied by a bacchanalian bout of drinking, partying and mass flour-throwing, which in some part of Bogota descended into knifing and shooting; by morning three thousand fights had been reported and nine people were dead. Mayor Gustave Petro imposed a completely dry day in the capital for their second game against Ivory Coast.

Celebrations in Santiago have been even larger as Chile, with some flair, earned itself a round of 16 encounter with Brazil. Partying reached such heights that the government asked citizens to refrain from barbecuing to protect the Santiago’s air quality, while city squares were deluged by flag draped crowds.  Under the recently reelected  socialist President Michelle Bachelet, Chile is attempting to heal the psychological and social scars of the long years of dictatorship and austerity, an era that broke the confidence of many and made the poor invisible.  In this context the team’s uncharacteristic resilience, determination  has endeared them to the nation, while their widely advertised roots in the poor barrios of Chile is a source of pride.

France and the USA have both started well, with eight goals for the French and four points from two games for the Americans in a “group of death”. But French public opinion has yet to fully embrace this team, perhaps as a result of the  bad taste left France’s dressing-room implosion at the 2010 World Cup. U.S. fans are hardly flooding into the streets, but  interest is at all time high with their game against Portugal achieving record viewing figures for a soccer match.

Team USA may not repeat its quarter final achievement of 2002, but 2014 is certain to be an important milestone in the country’s journey into the global cultural mainstream.

In both France and the United States, the biggest street celebrations of the World Cup have come in immigrant communities.  Mexico’s passage to the knockout phase was big news in Tijuana, but it was the flag-waving parties in the Chicano boulevards south of downtown Los Angeles that brought out the police. The police have also been out in France, where Algeria’s demolition of South Korea drew boisterous but peaceful crowds onto the Champs Elysee in Paris, and the Old Port in Marseille. In Grenoble, Lille, Lyon and Roubaix, however, similar celebrations saw cars and buses torched, and shop windows smashed. In Grenoble police cleared the streets with tear gas.  An Algerian football match in Porto Alegre leads to street fighting in the South of France; a Mexican game in Recife puts the LAPD on the streets of Huntingdon Park; the explosive  euphoric potential of a Colombian performance in Brasilia requires their capital city to enforce temperance.

Walt Whitman could have been writing of the World Cup when he wrote these lines:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)