India, Oct. 2 -- Buses painted in lime green with bright canary yellow polka dots, colours synonymous with flair, fun and football. A media conference conducted in equal parts in Portuguese and English running the length of half a football match and then spilling into injury-time. Carlo Ancelotti beginning his interaction with a namaste; Khalid Jamil, hands in trainer pockets, listening to him speak on the importance of utmost happiness while playing being Brazil's defining quality.

It felt like a dream but it was happening in a hall overflowing with reporters and photographers like they do in the cavernous media room in the bowels of the Maracana. Present in the throng was a journalist from Guatemala. Late afternoon, the serpentine queu...