Brazilian flags fluttered above the narrow streets of Lyari in Karachi long before kick-off. Men in yellow Neymar shirts streamed towards Kakri Ground, recently redeveloped and renamed the Lyari International Football Stadium, as chants of “Brazil! Neymar!” echoed through the crowd.

I was headed to the stadium to watch Brazil take on Japan in the round of 32 match. It was a warm Monday night, made only slightly less balmy by a light drizzle, as my fellow journalists and I undertook a ritual that takes place every four years, come the World Cup. The old city locality of Lyari has long been known as Karachi’s “mini Brazil” — a nickname residents wear proudly.

Throughout the mazy and congested streets, some visibly crumbling, there were small groups huddled around a screen showing the match. Chunks of the area were also in darkness, and several residents said they endure around 12 hours of power outages every day. Residents joked that the silver lining was that most outages occurred during the day, allowing them to watch the matches with their late-night kick-offs.

A World Cup screening offers a window into the football culture that earned Karachi’s oldest settlement Lyari its nickname — and the challenges preventing its next generation from reaching the national team…

A World Cup screening offers a window into the football culture that earned Karachi’s oldest settlement Lyari its nickname — and the challenges preventing its next generation from reaching the national team…

Bright advertising screens glowed from electricity poles outside the ground, standing in ironic contrast to the darkness that periodically engulfed the neighbourhood during power cuts.

As we jostled inside, we were swept forward in a slow-moving crush of supporters........

© Dawn (Magazines)