World Cup 2014 Stadium Construction Already Underway.

Brazil will have waited 64 years to celebrate and party as only Brazil can.

The first ever World Cup to be staged in Africa is still 214 days off but work is already well under way in Brazil to make ready for that soccer power’s second hosting of the world’s premiere sport event. By game time in June or July 2014, it will have been 64 years since the tournament paid its first visit.



Rio’s Maracana stadium hosted the 1950 final match and it is being modernized – for the third time – to make ready for the return engagement. It will be a totally different venue than the over packed Maracana that allowed a crowd of 200,000 to witness Uruguay’s shocking 1 – 2 defeat of the home side.


Only one stadium has hosted two World Cup Final matches and in the annals of history, both are giants. The honor belongs to the timelessly beautiful Azteca shrine in Mexico City.


Azteca’s majesty also harbors another unheralded yet totally amazing record.


In a 2003 interview for 90 Minutes Magazine I talked with the man who was stadium announcer for those finals and for every other match ever played in the Collosus of Saint Ursula since the 1966 inaugural. Melquiades Sanchez Orosco, possessor of one of the most amazing feats in football, is a wonderful personality.

Click on the magazine page to enlarge for reading.

Can a Star Be Re-Born?

"Kikin" Fonseca

Struggling through three years of few ups and many downs has not been easy for Mexican fan favorite Francisco “Kikin” Fonseca.

With two goals coming in the dying moments in as many weeks to earn valuable points for Tigres playoff hopes, Fonseca is enjoying a taste of the glory once his.

For three years following a great championship season with Pumas in 2004 until a year after the World Cup with “el Tri” in Germany 2006, no one in all Mexico came close to the kind of hero status afforded the likeable player. A misguided transfer to Benfica cost him his confidence and being dropped by the seleccion immediately following the Gold Cup in 2007 brought the humbled star down to earth.

I wrote the following feature story for 90 Minutes Magazine while on assignment in Mexico with the popular British television production, FIFA Futbol Mundial. Fonseca was with Cruz Azul and at the height of his career.

Click on the magazine page to enlarge for reading.