World Cup 2014 - Brad reports from Brazil

Brad Friedel enjoyed catching up with Spurs team-mate Paulinho at the World Cup this week.

Our popular goalkeeper, who also recently took on a role as a Club Ambassador with a particular focus on our work in his native United States, is in Brazil covering the showpiece tournament for a national broadcaster.

Having taken in the host nation’s goalless stalemate with Mexico on Tuesday evening, the former USA international enjoyed a chat with Paulinho after his 90-minute stint at the heart of Brazil’s midfield.

And upon subsequently checking in with us from his temporary base in Fortaleza, Brad revealed that our midfielder is relishing his opportunity on the grandest stage of them all.

The Ohio-born star also caught up with former Spurs colleague Giovani dos Santos, who has played a key role for Mexico in both their Group A games to date, and he says he’s looking forward to seeing fellow White Hart Lane stopper Hugo Lloris in action when he covers Ecaudor vs France next week!

Here’s Brad’s update from Brazil...

Out here I’ve been stationed in Fortaleza, which is a beautiful place. It’s right on the seafront and the people here are very friendly.

I covered the Uruguay vs Costa Rica game here on Saturday and also Tuesday’s game between Brazil and Mexico. I have to say, the atmosphere at the game on Tuesday night, especially during the national anthem for Brazil, was tremendous. In the game itself, Mexico performed well as a team and also their goalkeeper played very well.

After the match I got to speak to Giovani dos Santos for a while, which was nice. He played very well in the game and he was in buoyant mood after getting the 0-0. I also spoke to Paulinho after the game. He was in good spirits, he’s enjoying himself, and I think that in general Brazil were quite pleased. Some of the locals are perhaps a bit critical because it was 0-0 but, if you were to take out all the other factors and just watch the game, Brazil didn’t perform as poorly as some people in their country maybe want to believe. When they don’t score they just find it incredible!

In terms of levels of energy and excitement, you can see the difference with Brazilian players playing in Brazil. When Uruguay and Costa Rica were playing here, there was an influx of Uruguayans and Costa Ricans and it was a great atmosphere, but the Brazil game on Tuesday night was just on a different level.

Every time Brazil plays in a certain city it’s a holiday in that area, so all the stores are closed. Obviously the bars will stay open but it’s effectively a day of partying. The rest of the country gets half a day as well, so when Brazil play everything in the country stops and it really is all eyes on the Brazilian team. I see Brazil having a long run at this tournament.

Earlier in the trip I also flew to Rio and visited Copacabana, which is a beautiful place. I’m now back in Fortaleza and I’m actually speaking to you on my only day off so far! I’m just sitting down relaxing by the sea front – it’s probably the most touristy thing I’ve done on the trip!

Obviously I’m not here for the whole tournament. Our pre-season begins at the start of July but until then I’ve got Germany vs Ghana to cover, as well as Australia vs Spain and Greece vs Ivory Coast. Then I’m going to watch Hugo as France play Ecuador. It should be great and all in all, so far, the experience has been outstanding.