Our good friend and Brasilian City fan, Augusto Oliveira, went home to watch the World Cup this summer. He kept us updated with goings-on in Salvador (his home city) and beyond and here are his telegraphs to thenatchwall...

13 Junho – Sao Paolo – Brasil 3 Croatia 1 There have been no protests where I’ve been but there are football fans everywhere: Japan, Colombia, Mexico, Croatia, etc. Nearly every Brasilian is wearing yellow and/or green. Watched the opening game on TV. I think Brasil deserved to win but I wanted them to do so fairly, agree our penalty was “soft”. Neymar could have been sent off. Brasil supporters in the stadium reacted better than I expected when we went one goal behind.

After the 3rd goal the crowd sang 'Dilma, up yours' (Dilma Roussef, Brasil's president). and 'FIFA, up yours’. At least they waited until the game was won before starting any protests. Did you hear about Croatia players trashing their dressing room? Was on the news here - they broke tables, clothes-hangers etc & flooded the dressing rooms. Also reported - from the 62,000 capacity, no more than 25,000 tickets were sold to the general public, 60%+ went to sponsors, VIPs and Very VIPs. No surprise then that I couldn´t get a ticket. Know couple of people who paid around £500 from touts. Tomorrow here in Salvador (my home city), it is Spain v Holland. I’ll wear a Dutch shirt! Am against the boring tiki-taka - also taking my City scarf!

14 Junho – Salvador – Spain 1 Holland 5 What a game! What a result! And I picked the right team to support in this match, it seems.

Great game? Must have been the lucky scarf you took, Augusto! - pre-game nosh - empty VIP seats

No street protests as far as I know. Everything fine at stadium but don´t understand why there were so many empty seats. FIFA´s website said this game was sold out. Not cheap but lots of people interested - am sure empty seats not caused by price. ‘They’ said attendance was 48,173 and stadium capacity is a mystery. Depending on the source it’s 50,000, 52,000 or 55,000! (Are Les and Des involved, Augusto?)

Think there were more Dutch supporters than Spanish, but there’s a big Spanish community in Salvador, so Spain had plenty of support and they were louder than the Dutch for most of the game. Spain’s Diego Costa abused for entire match, even after replaced by Torres. Every time he touched the ball he was booed, with chants of ´Diego, you´re g*y´. There are lots of Brasilian players who’ve chosen to play for another country (Deco, Liedson, Pepe – Portugal; Amauri, Thiago Motta – Italy; Cacau, Kurany, Paulo Rink – Germany; Marcos Sena - Spain, Roger – Poland; Eduardo - Croatia) – and usually the Brasilian reaction is pride: even if these guys weren’t good enough for Brasil, they were good enough for other countries. With Diego Costa it is completely different. The problem for him is that he was considered good enough to play for Brasil but still chose Spain.

Reported: many complaints on Spanish social media about crowd, Spaniards attacking Brasilian fans celebrating Holland´s win, some Spaniards even calling Brasilians ‘monkeys’. Don´t know why they think they have divine right to be supported by other countries in a football competition, but there you go.

2 or 3 blokes behind me took 15 mins or more to figure out Spain were playing in white and Holland in blue. Bloody hell, couldn’t they identify 1 player from either side on big screens?! One thing I don´t like about the World Cup: people who don´t have a clue about football trying to pretend they know something. Fingers crossed England kick off on the right foot tonight. Come on England!!

25 Junho – Salvador – Bosnia 3 Iran 1 Can’t believe how lucky I’ve been with matches here in Salvador: Holland 5-1 Spain, Germany 4-0 Portugal. After these 2 I thought France v Switzerland had to be a boring 0-0! I hope strikers of Bahia (Augusto’s team in Brasil) are watching and get inspired by this. The strikers, not defenders... BBC referred to Salvador as Brasil´s goals capital. Nice!

Of all the supporters I’ve seen live the best have been the French. They created an amazing atmosphere from the start, singing their anthem, singing till end of the game. It was almost like club supporters. Leaving stadium I chatted to a few of them, they were really friendly. Maybe because they won! Apart from France, the South Americans are the loudest supporters: from Chile, Colombia, Argentina... And Brasil!

The Argentina FA apparently paid for travel & tickets for their ´professional supporters´ to make sure they’re loud in Argentina games. Argentina players have also been spotted singing a song to make fun of Brasil:- the lyrics go: ´Brasil, tell me how you feel/ having at home your daddy/ It is certain that we will never forget/ even if many years go by/ that Diego dribbled you/ and Cannigia screwed you/ and you´re crying since Italy till today. and you´ll see Messi bringing the trophy/ and Maradona is better than Pele´.

‘Daddy’ is Maradona, referring to Argentina knocking Brasil out in 1990, 1-0, with Maradona providing the assist and Cannigia scored. This may give you insight into why it would be so tragic for us to see this bunch winning here. Quite sad for England - I think they were unlucky this year, not as bad as in South Africa. I don´t think Italy & Uruguay were that superior to England. England didn´t deserve to lose both games. On the other hand my expectations prior to the competition were that England would beat Costa Rica easily. Now I´m not so sure!

26 junho – Salvador Iran: 0 goals in 2 matches elsewhere; 1 goal in 1 match in Salvador Bosnia: 1 goal in 2 matches elsewhere; 3 goals in 1 match in Salvador. I’ve been spoiled; fewer goals in Iran-Bosnia compared to the other games here (Salvador) but I can’t complain considering the stats above. As expected, this was the ‘worst’ game I’ve watched, but still reasonably interesting. Official attendance was 48,011 – but that must be incorrect based on visibly unoccupied areas. I would guess: 35,000 maximum. They must’ve given the ticket sales figure and not the actual attendance. Very disappointing considering this was also sold out on FIFA’s website and my cousin was trying to buy tickets for herself and her children but couldn’t find any. From what I heard, lots of people who didn´t get tickets for other matches decided to go to this one just to say they watched at least one World Cup match. This must be why most people weren’t favouring one particular side, so the crowd oscillated between cheering for Iran and for Bosnia. Good atmosphere considering the teams and the crowd.

When I was buying my tickets, I noticed that there was a ticket category for obese people and wondered if this meant you got 2 seats instead of 1. Wrong, as you can see from the photo (first, below)!

Obese seats for obese people – look closely: he’s taken the BH with him!! – Iran v Bosnia: PENALTY! (no)

At previous games, my beer has been served in a cup printed with the flags of whichever countries are playing. At Bosnia v Iran, the girl behind the bar who served me said Iran wouldn´t allow their flag to be used due to religious reasons, so only the soft drink cups were personalised for the match. Ironic as I saw quite a few Iranians drinking beer. Drink? Ok. Print our flag on a cup? We won´t have any of that!?

Also, every other country had images of their players on the big screens but not Iran – only the names of their line-up, subs, goalscorers was shown. No photos at all. Nobody explained this to me but I´m guessing it has something to do with religion as well.

Tomorrow I find out which last 16 match I´ll be seeing here in Salvador. My guess is Belgium (1st in Group H) v USA (2nd in Group G).

01 Julho – Salvador – Belgium 2 USA 1 First half was boring, second half was much better, extra time was amazing. I think most teams are saving energy for the end of the match now we’re into the knockout stages of the tournament. USA fans were noisier than the Belgians but they have the most annoying song I´ve heard in a stadium: ´I believe that we´ll win´ and they sang this over and over again. When they scored their goal and got some hope the atmosphere was really amazing: USA! USA! USA!

I now know the ticket I have for the Quarter Final here in Salvador will be Holland v Costa Rica. I’ll be supporting Holland. Usually I’d go for the underdog but this time Holland has the best chance of stopping Argentina before the final, so it’s a no-brainer. It´s a bit depressing with not so many matches to watch now. At least I can go to the beach...

05 Julho – Salvador – Holland 0 Coasta Rica 0 (4-3 pens) Attendance was 51,000+ again. Another match that was not very exciting during regular time, but with an amazing extra time. Two new chants broke out several times during the match: Neymar! Neymar! Neymar! (after he’d been injured in the QF against Columbia and ruled out of the rest of the World Cup) and our answer to Argentina fans which translates as:

1000 goals, 1000 goals 1000 goals, 1000 goals, 1000 goals Only Pele, Only Pele Maradona is a sniffer

I´m not sure sniffer is the correct translation of ´cheirador´ (a reference to his liking for white powders!). You can hear it on Youtube, just search Mil gols, Mil gols...só o Pelé!!!! Maradona cheirador.

Most of the Brasilians were supporting Costa Rica, which is illogical to me as we need to have Argentina stopped. I fear the worst if Brasil somehow manage a miracle and get to the final and face Argentina. Problems between Brasilians and Argentinians have been reported everywhere that Argentina have played. If we do meet in the final I cannot see it ending well. Especially if Argentina win and they try to celebrate on the streets.

What do you think about the foam spray markings at free kicks? Good idea? It has been used in Brasilian league for over 10 years. Also, what do you think about FIFA interfering with the team kits? Germany used to play with white top and black shorts and now they are all white. Brasil used to wear blue shorts and now almost every match they use white shorts. And there are many other examples (England all white as well instead of navy blue shorts...)

08 Julho – Belo Horizante – Brasil 1 Germany 7 A mate from Rio managed to buy a couple of tickets for the Semi Final, so I took the bus overnight from Sao Paulo to Belo Horizonte (8 hours) to meet him there. I got there 8 am, wandered around the city till match time (5pm), watched the massacre and then at 11pm spent 8 more hours of fun in the bus back to Sao Paulo. The feeling here is pure shock. Most reasonable people knew Germany was the better team (I always thought we would need a miracle to go through), but nobody expected the defeat to be that bad.

I'm sure Germany is not that good, Brasil collapsed – a very poorly trained team. The crowd supported the team up to 0-4, after that only the Germans were making any noise apart from Brasilians booing their own team and applauding the Germans at the end. I don't believe Neymar and Thiago Silva would have made any difference. The problem, I believe, is that several players (Fred, Paulinho, Oscar, Hulk, etc) were playing well last year when they beat Spain to win the Confederations Cup but Scolari stuck with them despite their dip in form.

Augusto, circled, at the 1-7 Germany semi-final

09 Julho – Sao Paolo Sadly, Argentina have made the Final. I'll support Germany with all my heart. Argentina winning will be a bigger disaster than Brasil losing 7-1. On the top of that the Germans have been nothing but kind, humble and sociable during their time in Brasil, the exact opposite of the Argentinians. I don't care about the 3rd place, I hope the substitutes play...

It’s been an amazing experience up until the Semi Final. Looking for a silver lining, I can say I was at the World Cup Semi Final with the most goals in history! Other than that, it’s too early to make sense of what just happened.

13 Julho – World Cup Final Before the World Cup, I mentioned the minimum for me to be happy would be Brasil getting to the Quarter Finals and Argentina not winning it. Goals achieved! Thanks Germany!!

I will not dare to complain about Brasil´s collapse in the end. Even after our pathetic end to the competition, we got to the Semi Final with a very limited team, which was not playing well and we do not have to endure any jokes from the Argentines. I´m very happy about the result in the Final, not only because Argentina lost. I think Germany deserved to win, they were the best team. Actually they were the best team in 2010 as well, so this victory was overdue.

Messi as player of the tournament? That award should have been given to Muller, Schweinsteiger or Robben in my opinion. What a joke to compare him with Pelé...I will never accept this. He is not even on the same level as Maradona. Probably you cannot compare him even with the second best Argentinian, the late Di Stefano. Messi did nothing in the Semi Final and Final.

I’m shocked Scolari considered hanging onto his job and our FA president saying before the 3rd place match there was a 99% chance of him staying. It would have been nice to get the 3rd place but if we had to lose, best to have another embarrassing defeat to make it impossible for Scolari to stay. I think the 0-3 defeat helped as I’ve just heard that he’s been sacked.

His replacement? There is a TV show that I like to watch here (from ESPN) and they’ve done an online survey about the next manager – several Brasilians mentioned plus the option of “a foreigner”, which got almost 70% of the vote. The next day they did another survey mentioning several foreigners (Sampaoli, Mourinho, Guardiola, Simeone, Anceloti, Bielsa, Klisman, etc) and Guardiola got more than 60%. I´m terrified with this. I’ve no problem with a foreigner, if it´s a good manager, but the last thing we need in my opinion is a team that’s coached to stop shooting at goal. I don’t understand people who admire his boring tiki taka. Can´t they see how much worse Bayern got under Guardiola last season.

In summary: I’ve had an amazing trip home, seen some great football played in general, and the tournament has been well organized, to my surprise. The only minor mistakes I saw in the organization were the anthems not being played at the France v Honduras match as they had a problem with the PA system and one match I went to where they ran out of food (it happened a few times, I heard).

Everyone was wondering how the stadium crowds would react to the presence of the president. She was booed a few times when she was shown on the big screens but not very loudly. There is a rumour here that the government analysed the images of the opening match, when she was cursed many times, to make a list of people who did it. Who knows if it´s true? It would be almost like having a dictatorship again. At the Final, did you notice that when she presented the trophy to Phillip Lahm she practically threw it away, as if it was a hot potato, before she could be booed? FIFA are no more popular – Blatter could not move from his five star hotel without a police escort!

I don’t regret coming one bit, even though there will be no lasting legacy for the benefit of the people, no trophy for Brasil, just a bill for £8 billion. I hope we will at least increase our income with tourism! thenatchwall would like to thank Augusto for his fantastic correspondence over the summer, even after the trauma of the semi-final. From that to seeing City U18s at Yate T a few weeks later is some juxtaposition! If you want to know more he can often be found in the Nova Scotia before home games, nursing a pint of British real ale which he is fond of. Top man, Augusto: obrigado!