Brazil will come to standstill for final

Updated: Saturday June 29, 2002 11:47 a.m. ET

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SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- The World Cup final is Sunday and Brazil is in it against Germany.

Look for Latin America's largest country to be at a standstill.

Millions in this soccer-crazed nation will be watching the game at home, or in front of huge TV screens on major avenues or public squares. In Rio de Janeiro, sun worshippers will take in the show on the beach.

Everything will remain on hold if Brazil wins its fifth World Cup.

Aware that it won't be able to compete with the excitement of what the O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper said is "The Greatest World Cup Final Ever," the Roman Catholic Church has rescheduled it activities.

The secretary general of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops, the Rev. Raymundo Damasceno, said parishes could hold the traditional 10 a.m. mass after the game.

While some store owners, vendors at open-air food markets and newsstands plan to open after the game, some merchants are hoping to do a brisk business during the match.

Coffee shops and restaurants are luring customers with large-screen TVs and sumptuous breakfasts and brunches.

The Club Transatlantico, which caters to Sao Paulo's large German community, is offering "brunch that is 50 percent Brazilian and 50 percent German with entertainment by the Rosas de Ouro Samba School."

Brazilians from all walks of life, from President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to stonemason Paulo Jeronimo de Amorim, are convinced Brazil will win.

"When our team plays with determination and courage no one can hold it back," Cardoso recently told reporters. "We'll beat Germany 1-0."

Shortly after helping to hang a 70 square meter (84 square yard) Brazilian flag from a 19-floor office building being built on Sao Paulo's Avenida Paulista, stonemason Amorim said: "The team has made us proud of being Brazilian and this is what this flag is all about."

"It will probably be the toughest game of the World Cup, but Brazil will beat Germany 2-0," he added.

Apparently convinced Brazil will win, the Sao Paulo police department has made plans to control a crowd expected to swell to at least 500,000 on Avenida Paulista, where soccer fans usually gather to celebrate their team's victories.

"There is no way I will open," said Antonio dos Santos Martins, owner of a 24-hour newsstand on Avenida Paulista. "I want to watch the game at home, and after Brazil wins 2-0 it will be impossible to open because chaos will take over the avenue."

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