Every time Brazil’s national team plays in the football World Cup, normal life in the country comes to a halt. In rich neighborhoods or in poor ones, people gather together to watch the action.
Football can be the ticket out of the grinding poverty of neighborhoods like Tavares Bastos, a poor community built on a hill overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s famous Flamengo beach.
Jugo Bonito, as the game is often called, is part of life for residents of this favela, where most people work for minimum wage or in the informal economy.
VOA’s Scott Robb takes a look here.