MOSCOW — I met a young Chinese woman from Beijing, and as we crossed together by happenstance the bridge to the stadium in Rostov-on-Don in the serious Russian sun, I learned her job affords her five days off per year, so she took one to fly from Beijing, three to watch World Cup matches and one to return to Beijing.
I met a South African couple based in Cape Town and in Dublin, and they do love the football, and as they rode the trains 22 hours from Samara to Moscow, then 18 hours from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don, then 18 hours from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, then 22 hours from Moscow to Samara, they witnessed the brilliant Belgium-Japan match among others, and they reveled instead of reeled, as with umpteen nationalities they mingled.