Trending #WorldCup | Cheers, Tears and Football in Brazil · Global Voices

Fans in Rio de Janeiro watch Brazil defeat Croatia 3-1 on June 12, 2014. Photo by Flickr user Ninja Midia. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
It's been four long years since South Africa, but the 2014 FIFA World Cup is finally underway in Brazil. Fans across the globe are donning their country's colors in the hope that their team will come away from the premiere football tournament a champion.
The competition is fierce, but so are the celebrations. As the 32 teams duke it out for FIFA glory, the football faithful in Brazil and around the world are tweeting, photographing and blogging the happiness and heartbreak as it happens.
Global Voices’ network of bloggers and citizen journalists are on the story. Check out our latest coverage on the international mega-event.
Football fans buy jerseys of their favorite teams from Bangladesh's Dhaka ahead of the FIFA World Cup. Image by Md. Asaduzzaman Pramanik. Copyright Demotix (19/5/2014)
Looking for that perfect playlist to get pumped up before the big match? Thanks to Public Radio International (PRI), have a listen to these football-themed songs suggested by the site's readers.
For up-to-the-minute commentary, follow the hashtags #WorldCup, #WorldCup2014 and #Brazil2014.
Tweets about “#WorldCup”
Instagram is full of snapshots from teams, players and fans documenting the action. Not sure who to follow for the best visuals? Lists compiled by BuzzFeed (The 13 Instagram Accounts You Need To Follow During The World Cup) and Bleacher Report (30 Best Twitter Accounts to Follow the World Cup With) are good places to start.
Sports Illustrated has links to all the teams and players in Brazil (World Cup Instagram Master List: Every team and player in Brazil), so you can pick and choose your favorites. Star Brazilian footballer Neymar is just one of the many Instagram accounts recommended to follow:
What might have been a happy home turf advantage for five-time World Cup champion Brazil has been anything but. Millions of people have taken to the streets over the past year to protest the government spending precious resources on the sporting mega-event instead of on public services. Some demonstrations have ended in violent clashes between police and protesters. A Pew Research poll found 61 percent of Brazilians viewed hosting the Cup as a bad thing for the country because of the public money it takes away from things like education and health care.
Fueling the anger, neighborhoods have been razed and people made homeless to make room for World Cup infrastructure. Construction has triggered a process of gentrification in other areas, pushing out residents because of rapidly rising rent.
The hashtag in Spanish #NovoyaBrasilporque (I'm not going to Brazil because) was trending in the days before the World Cup kick-off on June 12, 2014, to counter the hype.
#NoVoyABrasilPorque Estas dos imágenes te lo dicen. pic.twitter.com/wqEqQYCYQl — Ayrton Gabriel  (@eeLPiinii) junio 6, 2014
I'm not going to Brazil because these two images explain it.
#NoVoyABrasilPorque supone desahucios, represión, derroche… Aquí te damos más detalles http://t.co/WDRBXVcp38 pic.twitter.com/ikOeMtHA8Z — Todo Por Hacer (@TodoPorHacer1) junio 6, 2014
I'm not going to Brazil because it means evictions, repression, wasteful spending.
Take a look at our coverage of this darker side of the World Cup:
Photo shared by Agência Pública.
Mascot of the 2014 World Cup by Carlos Latuff for Agência Pública.
Photo: Agência Pública
Fans celebrated the historic win on the streets of Sarajevo throughout the night. Image courtesy of Bosnia-Herzegovina national team's “Zmajevi” Facebook fan page, used with permission.